Typical Main Street emporia, offering cheap notions, cosmetics and gifts—the name referred to the initial prices. F.W. Woolworth (founded in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1879) later constructed a skyscraper in New York and claimed to be the largest retailer in the world, while Kresge, McCrory’s and others were immortalized in songs and movies.

In the 1950s, Southern “five-and-tens” became sites of civil-rights battles when blacks fought to integrate their lunch-counters. In the 1960s, these spun off discount retailers Woolco and K-Mart, which by the 1980s effectively overwhelmed their parents and eventually even replaced them on downtown avenues.