# Dime Stores **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 10, 2007, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dime-stores/391623 "2007-02-10T16:39:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2007, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dime-stores/391623/61 "2007-02-12T18:39:01Z")
[QUOTE=elmwood] A related question: are there any catalog stores still around? You remember: Best, Service Merchandise, Dahlkemper’s, Century House, Brand Names, and the like, where you buy something by submitting a form to a clerk, who sends it into a back room - five to ten minutes pater, your items roll off a conveyor belt and your name is called on a loudspeaker. The catalog store concept always seemed kind of Soviet to me, and I never understood the appeal. [/QUOTE] I think the main point with them was keeping costs low-ish by not staffing a lot of useful salespeople, and being able to have wide variety of merchandise by having the stock elsewhere. That too, was a cost savings - the pallets of stuff could be just stacked up in back, rather than paying people to bring it to the sales floor and keep it shelved neatly. ---
**Author:** ![35340](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/8baadc/32.png) [@35340](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/35340)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2007, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dime-stores/391623/62 "2007-02-12T19:20:24Z")
Winn’s sold candy, school supplies, small toys, board games small pets (fish, turtles) and goods for the care of said pets, craft supplies, fabric and notions, some clothes, moderately-priced gift items such as jewlery or men’s valet items, small household goods and appliances - very nearly like the Dollar General-Family Dollar stores mentioned earlier in the thread. Had lay-away for larger goods and things (comforter sets, small electrics like radios and televisions) or for groups of things (do your holiday shopping in October, pay off by mid-December). ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dime-stores/391623/63 "2007-02-13T15:48:54Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] Kresge morphed into K-Mart, I believe. [/QUOTE] I remember a time when Kresge and Kmart co-existed. There was a Kresge in the neighborhood where I grew up, and a Kmart in a plaza a few miles away. I recall strange price tags at Kresge; they showed the Kmart “K”, and included text reading “Key (some one digit number)”. Kresge stores felt like classic five-and-dimes, with creaking wood floors and large notions departments, while the Kmart stores of the era looked like any other 1970s-ish discount department store. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dime-stores/391623/64 "2007-02-13T16:13:25Z")
For that matter, the Murphy company opened small department stores that they called Murphy’s Marts. They were quite successful for their era. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dime-stores/391623/65 "2007-02-14T02:11:46Z")
[QUOTE=Voyager] I swear that besides Woolworths there was a five and dime in Queens called Lampsons - but Googling comes up with nothing. [/QUOTE] Lamston’s ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dime-stores/391623/66 "2007-02-14T02:34:15Z")
[QUOTE=Lynn Bodoni] Was this in Fort Worth, Texas? We had a Leonard’s store here, with cheap merchandise. It was a huge store, and a shopping trip there was an occasion. The parking lot was so big that it had trolleys going from various sections of the lot into the underground entrance of the store. [/QUOTE] Purely coincidence, I’m sure. Benny didn’t have the wherewithall to run two places. This one was here in Anchorage. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dime-stores/391623.md?page=3)