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.
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).
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.
For that matter, the Murphy company opened small department stores that they called Murphy’s Marts. They were quite successful for their era.
Lamston’s
Purely coincidence, I’m sure. Benny didn’t have the wherewithall to run two places. This one was here in Anchorage.