F. W. Woolworth Company Co. had the first five-and-dime stores, which sold discounted general merchandise at fixed prices, usually five or ten cents, undercutting the prices of other local merchants. Woolworth, as the stores popularly became known, was one of the first American retailers to put merchandise out for the shopping public to handle and select without the assistance of a sales clerk. Earlier retailers had kept all merchandise behind a counter and customers presented the clerk with a list of items they wished to buy. After working in Augsbury and Moore dry goods store in Watertown, New York, Frank Winfield Woolworth obtained credit
Woolworth Building to lease them as office space. The project will cost approximately $150 million including its $68 million purchase price. In August 2014, the New York Attorney General's office approved Alchemy's offering plan for condos at the newly branded Woolworth Tower Residences. The $110 million price tag for the building's penthouse unit is the highest asking price ever for an apartment in downtown Manhattan. At the building's completion, the F. W. Woolworth Company occupied only one and a half floors of the building, but, as the owner, profited from renting space out to others, including the Irving National Exchange Bank and