Ever Eaten Lunch at FW Woolworth's Counter?

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thirdeye

Master of the Pit
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Dec 1, 2019
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The Cowboy State - Wyoming
In the '70's and '80's our Woolworth's store, which was right smack downtown, had a lunch counter with some pretty good deals. But, let's take a ride on the wayback machine to 1948. Notice there are no hamburgers on this menu.
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It was a treat when we did , but we hit them all at some point . Usually when it was back to school time and had to shop for clothes and school stuff . Took all day .
Woolworth's
Kresge's Dime store ( pre K-mart )
Katz Drug store
Famous Barr
Walgreens
Always smelled so good in those places .
 
Yep, as a kid I've eaten at lunch counters in Woolworth's, Kmart and Sears.

I spent a lot of time at the HUGE three floor Sears store next to our neighborhood.
It was a hangout for us kids, they had an arcade and cafeteria which kept us busy.
Our Sears was two floors, a basement and the main floor. But the interesting thing was it was one of only 3 buildings with an escalator. The other two were a bank and the airport.
 
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My mom used to take me to the Newberry's lunch counter after buying shoes. (No burgers there either, or maybe we just couldn't afford one, but they had grilled cheese sandwiches as I recall.) That was the 1950's. By the 70's, the middle-class lunch counters were all gone. By the 80's the upscale department stores (e.g. Nordstroms) opened in-store restaurants, with table service of course. By the 90's the fast-food Food Courts took over.

It's hard to find the old-style slide-your-tray cafeterias even in corporate settings now. Covid seemed to make everything "grab and go". Even military base grills give you your food in a box, not on a plate, unless it's a paper plate. Sigh.
One more thing gone. Guess the memories are what I miss. The food at Newberry's actually wasn't very good. Dessert was jello or pudding. I hated both. Still do.
 
For us it was "Woolworth's and "Sines 5 & 10", in Quakertown, and I was pre-teen & with my Mommy.LOL. Man that was in the early 50s!!!

Mrs Bear says the Sines 5 & 10 in Quakertown is still there & operating.

Bear
 
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I'll have the bacon and tomato with a malted milk please.

Great topic.
When I was a young buck in Arizona, Smitty's (now Smiths or Kroger I think) had grocery / department stores with an attached restaurant that had a counter as well. I'm not kidding when I say my dad bought me a S&W 686 .357, my Nintendo, and I had countless breakfasts there with my older brother. You could get breakfast, bait, beer, food and gas to get where you were going that day.
Anyone from Az been to Bill Johnsons Big Apple? The servers wore pewter pistols on their hips, sawdust floor.. Long gone now..
In the '70's and '80's our Woolworth's store, which was right smack downtown, had a lunch counter with some pretty good deals. But, let's take a ride on the wayback machine to 1948. Notice there are no hamburgers on this menu.
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I remember trips to Woolworth as a small child, but I don't recall if we ate there or not.
 
I ate many a ham sandwich from Kmart growing up, 10 for a $1.00 was a common price lol
 
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I ate many a ham sandwich from Kmart growing up, 10 for a $1.00 was a common price lol
Yup. Kmart was our nearest place to go to goof off. The cafeteria was in the back and they had the best icees! We rode our bikes through a 55+ trailer park to get there, outrunning the security guy on his golf cart . The store was always air conditioned, cool toys to play with, and moving the blue light special cart was like a special ops mission...
 
Down where I live in Tennessee we have a few old school pharmacies that still have counter service. All the good things from childhood memories. When I was a kid in rural Mississippi my great grandparents took me to the "trading post". It still exists
 
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I had a paper route as a kid, '64-'67. Once I collected the subscription money and paid my bill, I had three stops to spend my own money.

First was Woolworth's. Sitting at the counter, ordering a sandwich and coke, then being served made me feel like a grownup. I remember the ham salad and egg salad sandwiches because my mom never made those.

Second was Ben Franklin's 5 & Dime to buy a new plane or car model, including Testor's paint if I needed some.

Third was Thrifty drug stores to get a cylindrical scoop of ice cream on a sugar cone. If I didn't find a model at Ben Franklin's, Thrifty's had a good selection.

Four years. Same thing every month. I had shelves of model cars, a few Navy ships, and a bedroom ceiling full of military model planes hanging from either sewing thread or fishing line.

Old memories still feel like they didn't happen that long ago.
 
I had a paper route as a kid, '64-'67. Once I collected the subscription money and paid my bill, I had three stops to spend my own money.

First was Woolworth's. Sitting at the counter, ordering a sandwich and coke, then being served made me feel like a grownup. I remember the ham salad and egg salad sandwiches because my mom never made those.

Second was Ben Franklin's 5 & Dime to buy a new plane or car model, including Testor's paint if I needed some.

Third was Thrifty drug stores to get a cylindrical scoop of ice cream on a sugar cone. If I didn't find a model at Ben Franklin's, Thrifty's had a good selection.

Four years. Same thing every month. I had shelves of model cars, a few Navy ships, and a bedroom ceiling full of military model planes hanging from either sewing thread or fishing line.

Old memories still feel like they didn't happen that long ago.
Sounds fun. I wish it was still like that. I loved models big-time like you. I have 4 teenagers and I'm sure they've never experienced that.......
 
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