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Frank Winfield Woolworth (April 13, 1852 – April 8, 1919) also known as Frank W. Woolworth or F.W. Woolworth was 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 direct 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 salesclerk. ==Biography== Frank Woolworth was born in Rodman, New York, to John Hubbell Woolworth and Fanny Woolworth (nee McBrier), and had a brother, entrepreneur Charles Sumner Woolworth.〔 His parents, John and Fanny Woolworth, were devout Methodists and sympathetic to the Northern Cause during the Civil War - they raised their two sons, Frank Winfield and Charles Sumner, accordingly.〔Plunkett-Powell, Karen. Remembering Woolworth's: a nostalgic history of the world's most famous five-and-dime. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. , 23.〕 At the age of four, he told his parents that one day he would become one of the peddlers that sometimes came calling; he and Charles would play “store” where Frank would set up merchandise to be sold to his brother.〔Plunkett-Powell, Karen. Remembering Woolworth's: a nostalgic history of the world's most famous five-and-dime. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. , 25.〕 As was common at the time, F.W. finished his schooling at the age of sixteen, yet with only basic knowledge and no experience he was unfit to begin working in any legitimate store. Undeterred, F.W. applied to many shops in the area, every time receiving a resounding “No."〔Plunkett-Powell, Karen. Remembering Woolworth's: a nostalgic history of the world's most famous five-and-dime. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. , 28.〕 Woolworth attended a business college for two terms in Watertown, New York after having received a loan from his mother. In 1873 he worked as a stock boy in a general store called Augsbury & Moore's Drygoods in Watertown.〔Plunkett-Powell, Karen. Remembering Woolworth's: a nostalgic history of the world's most famous five-and-dime. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. , 29.〕 His first experiences at Augsbury & Moore’s would serve as the starting point to his own business venture and innovations. F.W. Woolworth was by all accounts an inept salesman.〔Fenske, Gail. The skyscraper and the city: the Woolworth Building and the making of modern New York. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. , 13.〕 He was instead given jobs such as washing the windows where he found a creative niche in arranging the store’s front display. His work was so impressive that his boss, after his first attempt, assigned Woolworth that role from thereafter.〔 In another scenario, Frank learned the difficulty with the typical business practice in which few items were labeled with price tickets and a clerk was responsible for obtaining an item for the customer and making the transaction.〔Plunkett-Powell, Karen. Remembering Woolworth's: a nostalgic history of the world's most famous five-and-dime. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. , 32.〕 It was from these early experiences that Woolworth developed the notion that goods should sell themselves, something which became increasingly prominent in Woolworth’s retail career. Under the employ of Moore & Smith, Woolworth jumped at the opportunity to sell a large surplus of goods and organized a store in Great Bend that opened on February 10, 1878; sales were disappointing. To make matters worse, five days later F.W.’s mother, Fanny, died. Either to repress his grief or now inspired, Frank threw himself into his work but to no avail, as the Great Bend store failed in May. Frank would always remember his mother’s words, “Don’t worry son, I just know one day you’ll be a rich man." It was after his mother’s death that Woolworth’s trademark concept of the 5-and-10 Cent store, or the “Five-and-Dime,” was developed.〔Plunkett-Powell, Karen. Remembering Woolworth's: a nostalgic history of the world's most famous five-and-dime. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. , 35.〕 Accounts on the conception of the five-and-dime differ. Scholar Gail Fenske suggests that Woolworth had heard of a “five-cent counter craze” while questioning his own sales ability at his first job.〔 Jean Maddern Pitrone suggests the idea was conceived after a travelling salesman told Woolworth of stores with the five-cent counter concept in Michigan.〔Pitrone, Jean Maddern. F.W. Woolworth and the American five and dime: a social history. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2003. , 12.〕 Plunkett-Powell suggests the concept was overheard by Woolworth during a discussion between William Moore and a young man who had opened his own cut-rate goods store.〔Plunkett-Powell, Karen. Remembering Woolworth's: a nostalgic history of the world's most famous five-and-dime. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. , 36.〕 Regardless of how it was brought about, it is clear that this concept would become the most profound key to Woolworth’s success and would change not only his life, but retailing as well. On June 11, 1876, he married Jennie Creighton (1853–1924); eventually they had three daughters. One, Edna Woolworth (1883–1917), the mother of Barbara Hutton, later committed suicide. He borrowed $300 and opened a five-cent store in Utica, New York, on February 22, 1878. It failed within weeks. Woolworth opened his second store in April 1879, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he expanded the concept to include merchandise priced at ten cents. In 1911, the F.W. Woolworth Company was incorporated with 586 stores. In 1913, Woolworth built the Woolworth Building in New York City at a cost of $13.5 million in cash. At the time, it was the tallest building in the world, measuring 792 feet, or 241.4 meters. Woolworth often made unannounced visits to his stores, where he would shoplift items to test the staff's attentiveness. Managers or clerks who caught him doing so were sometimes rewarded with promotions.〔Van Doren, Charles & McHenry, Robert, Webster's Guide to American History, Merriam-Webster, 1971, pg. 1340〕 He built Winfield Hall in Glen Cove, New York, on Long Island, in 1916. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Frank Winfield Woolworth」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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