Some clarification:
The F.W. Woolworth Company — better known as Woolworth or Woolworth’s — was established in the United States in 1878 and later expanded abroad. In 1962, it founded the Woolco chain of discount department stores. Kinney Shoes was purchased in 1963 and that led to the founding of several chains of more specialized footwear stores, notably Foot Locker in 1974.
During the 1980’s, the company’s traditional operations started to suffer from competition from the likes of Wal-Mart and Kmart and the company began shifting its focus to sports and specialized footwear. The Woolco stores in the USA were closed in 1983. About a decade later, the Woolco stores in Canada were variously sold to Wal-Mart or Zellers or were closed. In 1997, the company changed its name to Venator and closed the last of its traditional Woolworth’s and Kinney stores in the USA and Canada. It vacated the landmark Woolworth Building in New York City the next year. The corporate name was changed to the Foot Locker, Inc., in 2001. It remains in business as the operator of specialized stores such as the Foot Locker and Sports Champ.
As for its operations elsewhere, the UK branch was sold in 1982 and the subsidiary in Germany and Austria was sold in 1998. The Mexican subsidiary was sold at some point as well. These continue to operate under the Woolworth name or a variation of it.
The Woolworth companies in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa took their name from the American company, but never had any corporate ties to it.
Thanx for that info, I knew very little of Woolworths history apart from the U.S connection. I’m still positive that we saw a Woolworths store in Majorca Spain in the 70s, do you anything of a Spanish offshoot?
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