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
Charles Sumner Woolworth of the Harrisburg store prompted the landlord to seek a higher rent from the Woolworth brothers. Due the rent dispute, Frank and Sum closed the Harrisburg store and relocated to York, Pennsylvania, in March 1880. The York store closed three months later, on June 30, 1880. This fourth location is often missed, or the city misidentified, in some accounts of the early history of the Woolworth brothers. Not to be deterred, based on a tip, they both agreed that Sum would scout out Scranton, Pennsylvania, for the next location. Sum liked what he saw in Scranton, and found a good