Here we grow again - a store opening every seventeen days
       
Every day from the mid 1920s onwards the company received letters from local authorities and Chambers of Commerce, asking us to open in their town.  Woolies were keen to oblige and the Construction Department rose to the challenge, opening stores right across the British Isles quickly and to a high specification. 
       
Eastbourne (No. 172) on England's South Coast Edinburgh, Scotland (No. 213) in Princes Street - the Scottish flagship store for many years

Cardiff, Wales (No. 25) as the team prepare for their annual outing on a wet Wednesday afternoon

 Dublin, Eire (No. 31) - F.W. Woolworth's flagship store in Grafton Street
       
       
Opening announcement for the new store at Redhill Surrey (No 164) in 1924 The arrival of a new red front in town was always a spectacular affair. Orchestra or marching band, fireworks, circus performers, flags and bunting - Woolworths knew how to open a store. Customers responded by the thousand, adding FWW to their regular shopping list. Opening advertisement for the High Street, Uxbridge, Woolworth store (No. 370) in 1929
       
Besides the usual bargains there were special cut-rate "comers" for the opening week - simply unbeatable prices on luxury items. Loss-leading was, it seems, alive and well in the 1920s.

The favourite opening day bargains were:

  • enamel or stainless steel large baby bath tubs for sixpence
  • preserving pans for jam-making (again for sixpence)
  • genuine 9 carat gold rings for sixpence
  • a quarter of weigh-out (pic'n'mix) sweets for one penny
  • free postcard-sized miniature sheets of music
       
Manager and colleagues pose for a team photo on the doorstep of the Montague Street, Worthing Store (No. 89) in 1928 Meet the team from Woolworths' south western seaside town of Weymouth (No. 139) in the late 1920s
       

1920s Gallery Home

20s overview: stepping up the pace   Visit a 1920s store  
Rapid expansion -  an opening every 17 days   Supplier partnerships and product development
The first gramophone records   Play the Little Marvel record "What'll you do"  
Woolies in the community    Alice White in "The Girl from Woolworths"
Sixpenny pops "We'll have a Woolworth Wedding"
50th birthday of the American Woolworth
Price quiz - dateline 1929