Somewhat surprisingly, there was a Newberry’s in Beverly Hills for decades, which I think closed around 1975 or 1980. It was a remnant of a slightly different era there. Beverly Hills always had the reputation of being a rich area, and deservedly so, but at the same time it was a small-town community. So along with the expensive boutiques there were stores catering to the mundane day-to-day needs of people who lived in the area. There was even a Clifton’s Cafeteria as well.
I’ve still gotten this vibe when visiting North Side Chicago suburbs. It tends to be a prosperous, upper-middle-class area, but the communities are definitely not all about the glitz.
We called them either Icees or Slurpees. And my kids, at the baseball diamond in summer(about 10 years ago now), used to get a mix of all the sodas from the fountain–and they called it a suicide as well. It must have skipped a generation–I’ve never heard of that!
I can’t recall offhand, but a company still sells this guy. Yo-yos, clackers, that paddle ball thingy that no one could ever do, jacks, jumpropes, sidewalk chalk, “Chinese” jump-ropes,Old Maid playing cards,novelty candles, caps for cap guns…all available at the dime store.
My mother likes to tell us that she was often sent to the store with a nickel to get a loaf of bread–in 1939.
I don’t know the name of it, but there’s a place in Bradford, VT, that reminds me of an old Woolworth’s. It has a little bit of everything from clothing to housewares and toys packed into two floors. We vacation across the river in Piermont, NH. We always go to Chapman’s in Fairlee and often go to Bradford.
The ones we had when I was growing up (around the Dallas, TX. area), were M.E. Moses. Pretty much exactly what everyone here has already mentioned, but the thing that stuck out for me was that they carried tiaras! Now I was, and still am, a tomboy, but I just couldn’t believe that less than a mile from my house, you could buy the same thing the queen wore!! And you knew it was special because it was one of just a very few special things that was kept in the clear glass LOCKED case.
I never got one and I missed that rhinestoned metal something terrible, but in hindsight I still think that one highlight was better than being able to gank any old plastic type off the wall of your local Dollar Tree. Perhaps I’ll go in search of one now on eBay…
I remember Woolworth’s and Kresge’s, and I’ve gotta say that I never would have thought I’d ever miss those stores, but I do. They had everything, and you could walk in there with a buck and come out with a whole shopping bag full. But the best thing was the lunch counter. They had wholesome food and great desserts (pies and banana splits to die for), and everything was dirt cheap. And real cherry Coke, nothing like what you get in cans today.
And pets! You could get a bag of goldfish, or small turtles with roses painted on their shells.
Interestingly, according to that website, it looks like it was a dime store that broke the toy into the marketplace-- a GC Murphy in Indianapolis. I’m so proud to live here.
I remember spending many allowances at W.R. Thomas 5&10 when I was a kid. We would go to the county seat town on Friday evening and while Mom shopped for groceries and Dad loafed at the cigar store, us kids were turned loose at the dime store. We did have to behave once in there, though, or we would have to stay with Mom the next week.
I bought a lot of candy at the counter, paint by numbers, Liddle Kiddles, play jewelry and the like in the basement (toy section), and birthday / Mother’s Day / Father’s Day gifts with the help of Miss Nancy upstairs over the years.
One of my aunts worked for a long time at one of the Kresge’s in Fort Wayne. She eventually retired from K-Mart. When my grandparents would take me to see her at work, she would always treat me to a sundae or banana split at the lunch counter. Another aunt worked at a Harvey Mart in the next town over from us. Her kids always had the latest toys from there :: insert envious smiley::
In addition to those dime stores, there was also a Murphy Mart in the county seat and a G.L. Perry Variety Store in a town that I lived in as an adult. These were all in northern Indiana.
I kind of wish that there was a good dime store where I live now. I miss them.
[nitpick]Are you sure you don’t mean the Hamburger Hamlet? The Hamburger Habit started here in Santa Barbara and I’ve noticed one in Culver City[/nitpick]. It is, however, a poor imitation of Tommy’s.
My local 5 & dime was the Sprouse Ritz. Here, the 5 & dime has been replaced by the ethnic Chinese or Mexican mini-store. The Chinese one is fantastic. They’ve got everything for dirt cheap and are just up the street. It’s amazing how much crap they pack into that storefront.
Our local store was called the D & C. I suppose it stood for dollars and cents?
There was a Woolworth’s in the next town as well.
Seems to me that drug stores (chains like Walgreen’s and CVS) are the closest thing to them that still exists today. If you take away the pharmacy and expand some of the departments a little bit, you’d pretty much have our D & C. I think the D & C closed in the 70s. I remember they had a big close-out sale and we bought all kinds of stuff. I think my mom bought enough letter-sized tablets to last her for several years.
Most Five and Tens had some clothing, fabric, yarn, etc., too.
I was asking my brother about the Five and Ten a couple of months ago because we used to buy Matchbox cars and trucks there when they still came is little cardboard boxes. The thing is, forty years ago it seems we had to save up close to a dollar to buy a Matchbox toy. Today at Wal-Mart they still sell for about the same price.
This brings back memories. We had a Woolworths half a block from us that we called the “5 and 10”. You could get parakeets, sewing supplies, model car kits, penny candy, hardware, comic books, and all manners of useful things. It was more up-scale than K-Mart in that it was more of a place that people of all stripes would go for convenience, rather than a place to find bargains. Ours was old and had wooden floors and wood and glass display cases. There was a distinct smell to it that said enjoy this while you can, we are on our way out.
My neighborhood also had the original Howard Johnsons, but it was long gone by the time I was born
In the UK I cannot ever recall having a similar type store, the only ones we have at the moment are the £ stores altho’ certain shops are opening selling stuff at 69p, 79, and so on
I remember buying my sister one of the original (I think) Barbie Dolls at a Woolworth’s 5-&-10 around 1959-1960. The doll and one dress (sold separately) cost all of $4.00.
GC Murphy was a big player - my great uncle worked at their headquarters in McKeesport, PA and my great-grandma worked in one of their retail stores.
They had a department store division too - Murphy’s Mart. These typically did well whereever they were.
This chain might still be around had corporate raiders not taken over the thing (it was quite profitable) and rolled it into the Ames empire, which was a rotting mess.
We had Ben Franklin. Greeting cards, toys, plastic flowers (my grandmother loved plastic flowers), perfume, magazines, candy - it had almost everything.
I remember every year when it was back to school time, we’d take our lists and go to Ben Franklin - pick out our notebooks (I remember when Trappers first became popular) and pens and pencils - and of COURSE our new lunch box. My brother and I would ride our bikes there a few times a week before we’d actually go shopping for our new lunch boxes to see if they had the kind we wanted. I hid the only Emergency 51 lunch box they had one year because it was the only one and I didn’t want anyone else to buy it before my mom took us there.
We had Kresge’s (never called it the “5 and 10”, though), Woolworth (ditto), Woolco, and K-Mart.
But the “5 and 10” to me was Ben Franklin’s, as Missy2U has noted. I’ve only ever seen two – both in New Jersey. The one downtown in my home town only closed a couple of years ago (there was a flea market there briefly afterwards. Now it’s a supermarket)
It was the quintessential 5 and 10. It had four aisles with somewhat benchlike setup. About at waist height the products were set out on a 2-3 foot wide shelf divided up into sections by glass dividers. There were shelves set farther back, rising above this. It was very unlike shelving in modern megastores, because most of the goods would be on that big shelf (which had storage cabinets underneath).
The leftmost aisle held stationary and household supplies. (We got our cartridges of washable blue ink for cartrisdge fountain pens there, although they also had bottles of ink for refullable fountain pens. “Peacock blue” was the prettiest.) The next aisle had candy, in progusion, and more housewares, and further down toys. The next aisle had seasonal, fabrics, and kids’ books. the last aisle held more fabrics and the like. There were some large appliances in the back.
From time to time they tried to boost things by putting a book dump in the front. These were erratic and quirky I can still recall some of the titles – Dune Messiah, Myra Breckenridge, Eaters of the Dead. At one point they tried to sell Playboy at the front counter, but that didn’t last long.