Frank Winfield Woolworth Frank Winfield Woolworth Frank Winfield Woolworth (April 13, 1852 – April 8, 1919) was an American entrepreneur and the founder of F. W. Woolworth Company and the operator of variety stores known as "Five-and-Dimes" (5- and 10-cent stores) or dimestores, which featured a low-priced selection of merchandise. He pioneered the now-common practices of buying merchandise directly from manufacturers and fixing the selling prices on items, rather than haggling. He was also the first to use self-service display cases, so customers could examine what they wanted to buy without the help of a sales clerk. Frank Woolworth was born in Rodman,
Charles Sumner Woolworth do more of their shopping in newly built shopping centers, with large parking lots, Woolworth's added new stores in the shopping centers. On March 1, 1933, during the movement to boycott Jewish businesses in Germany, Nazi troops sang in front of the Berlin Woolworth Company store. The Hitlerites believed that the Woolworth brothers were Jewish. Yet, they were in fact, Methodist. There is some evidence that Hitler was very fond of Woolworth's stores, as it was one of the few businesses which Hitler did not nationalize. In 1932, the Woolworth Board of Directors was very concerned about their very successful