Celebrate American Retailers

Today we celebrate the birth of Frank Winfield Woolworth who became the founder of the F.W. Woolworth Company. Woolworth, an operator of discount stores with merchandise priced at five and ten cents, pioneered today's common practice of buying direct from manufacturers and fixing prices on items, rather than negotiating.

Today we also celebrate, just 23 years after Woolworth opened his store, the opening in 1902 of James Cash Penney's first department store. Those stores are known today as the J.C. Penny chain of department stores.

Fortunately Penny's venture has fared better than F.W.'s. Woolworth's in the United States ended its business existence in July of 1997. The company continues operating overseas in the United Kingdom as Woolworth's.