It was the place of dreams, at least children’s dreams. A quick sprint down the stairs brought you face to face with things you most likely had only seen in the Sears Christmas Wish Book. Dolls, plastic airplane models, hamsters, Hula Hoops, toy guns that shot plastic darts, and every variety of board game you could imagine.
It was Woolworth’s on Main Street in Riverton.
Older kids, teenagers, met for dates at the lunch counter. Farmers treated their kids to banana splits or milkshakes on trips to town and many business deals were sealed over a lunchtime meeting in one of the booths dotting the southeast corner of the store.
The Woolworth’s opened in Utica, New York in February 1879. It became the first, and for almost a century, the most successful franchise in the world.
Woolworth’s Great Five Cent Store found a niche in time, a niche that lasted until nearly the 21st century before the franchise closed for good in 1997.
Riverton rode the tail end of the trend, with the Woolworth’s Corporation opening a store on Main and Broadway in Riverton in 1964.
The store was the wonder of the age for an entire generation of children, and a handy place to buy fabric, purchase appliances, and even grab a hamburger.
In 1906, Roy Hays opened the first store in Riverton, 58 years later, directly across Broadway to the west, the last major construction in downtown Riverton began with the construction of Woolworth’s s.
Riverton was changing rapidly in the early 1960s. The uranium boom in the Gas Hills was in full force, along with oil and gas exploration towards Lysite and a thriving agricultural economy.
Woolworth’s looked for growing communities such as Riverton to expand their storefronts.
For the kids of the 60s and 70s, there was no better place than Woolworth’s.
The stairs on the Main Street entrance led to a legendary collection of dolls, plastic airplane, and car model kits, balsa wood gliders, plastic bugs, snakes, and spiders, and a pet store stocked with goldfish, hamsters, gerbils, and guinea pigs. A child with a few quarters could get lost in the expanse of the Woolworth’s basement.
Many angry mothers broke the toy bow and arrow sets after aggressive brothers shot their little sisters one too many times. The number of coonskin caps, or Star Trek disc firing Phasers that were sold is a secret that will never be fully revealed.
Local contractors did all the construction of the Woolworth’s Store in 1964
There were huge department stores in major cities. Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia all boasted multi-story department stores whose arrival coincided with the invention of the electric elevator in 1880. By 1887, the elevator was ubiquitous, leading to the rise of skyscrapers in major cities across the United States.
Woolworth’s didn’t want to compete with Macy’s and other huge department stores, their target was replacing the general store in smaller cities and towns across the nation.
Frank and Charles Woolworth’s priced their merchandise at five to ten cents, undercutting local merchants by buying in volume and filling orders for their expanding franchises from central locations.
It was a concept well ahead of its time. By the stock market crash in 1929, there were 2,250 Woolworth’s stores dotting the American landscape.
In 1932, they raised their top price to 20 cents, and in 1935, they removed price limits entirely.
The boom years following World War II were good for Woolworth’s s. Eventually, they had over 8,000 locations nationwide. Riverton was one of them, arriving on the final surge of the post-war boom.
Woolworth’s in Riverton was a company store, operated without local ownership, but relying on a skilled staff of local workers to keep the business flourishing.
Jody Ray worked the lunch counter at Woolworth’s as a teenager.
“My mom worked there from when I was a youngster,” Jody said. “She did all the material in the back.”
The fabric section of Woolworth’s was perhaps the most popular feature of the store, along with the toys in the basement and the legendary Woolworth’s lunch counter.
“One of my first jobs was working the lunch counter at Woolworth’s,” Jody said. “I was a sophomore.”
Woolworth’s was a central location on Main Street and the heart of many activities carried out by the downtown businesses. Crazy Days brought customers to the dozens of stores lining Main Street, and trick or treating at the businesses was a key component of every Halloween.
“At Christmas, he had later hours,” Ray said. “Andy, (she and her husband Ted’s son) went with me when he was a baby and we had lunch with grandma at the lunch counters. Andy loved banana splits.”
Tim Payne was the last manager of the store before corporate began to downsize nationwide in the early 80s with the rise of K-Mart, Wal Mart and Target.
“It was just a glimpse that went by fast. It was a nice crew, Betty Shanahan, Marilyn was our secretary from day one,” Payne said. “Woolworth’s operation took supplies from Woolco. I went to Denver with a U-Haul to pick up shelves and scaffolding.”
Payne felt the competition that threatened the chain nationally.
“K-Mart was getting stronger, and Wal Mart was beginning their retail run, the competition was growing,” Payne said.
Most of the merchandise arrived by Salt Creek or UPS.
“I spent a lot of time downstairs setting up the seasonal merchandise, toys, and seasonal merchandise,” Payne said.
Payne had a staff of six or seven women working the store.
“We had five in general merchandise, Ruth was the cook,” Payne said. “It was a good, profitable operation, grossing about $800,000.”
“I didn’t know anything about Riverton when I came, but I’m obviously still here,” Payne said. “I met a lot of nice people there.
His connection with the building remained a little while longer.
“I worked with Hank Kusel for about 6 months with Gambles Hardware,” Payne said. “In 1990, Bob Foster and I were good friends, he asked me to come help him start a construction company in a one room office across the street from Wells Fargo.”
Jody recalled the staff fondly as well.
“Betty Shanefelt, Violet Fleak (her mom) went by Vi, Grandma Vi,” Ray said. “A lot of the local quilters came in and bought the bulk of their material there. Vi was good at running sales and those types of things.”
A couple of memories stand out to Jody from her years working the lunch counter.
“They used to have WrestleMania at the Fair Building, and get country western talent to perform,” Ray said. “One time these gentlemen came in, rather big gentlemen, I waited on them, and they left me a big tip and tickets to WrestleMania, one was Hulk Hogan. They sat in a two-seater booth, and almost didn’t fit.”
Free tickets to WrestleMania were a kid’s dream in the late 1970s, but it didn’t happen.
“I came home and asked Dad if I could go, he said no, that was no place for a little girl,” Jody said.
The Hagar brothers of Hee Haw fame ate at Woolworth’s too.
The dining area had a big corner booth, two short booths, and a total of five four person booths.
“There were a dozen stools along the long wall, along the Main Street entrance into Kusels, on the right,” Jody said. “It was the place to go, the big sellers were the banana splits. If you popped a balloon, they had prizes inside and the best was a banana split.”
When not working, Jody and many other teenagers from Riverton and around Fremont County dropped in at Woolworth’s for lunch or a late dinner before the movies started.
“After Saturday matinee movies we’d order French fries to share, a Cherry Coke, or a banana split,” Jody said. “It was a great place to spend time with my friends. They had little bike racks on Broadway, then we went inside and had a treat. A plate of French fries for a quarter.”
Hotdogs, on fresh buns, with fries, onion rings, or a toasted cheese sandwich appealed to diners of all ages.
“Even in high school when you weren’t old enough to drive, people would drag Main. We’d sit in Woolworth’s and watch the cute boys or girls go by and wave at them. “Jody said. “Baseball teams came in for Saturday tournaments.”
Jewelry, appliances, fabric, and toys had a wide appeal.
“They sold self-piercing earrings, that’s how I pierced my ears, I didn’t have a piercing gun, I had Vi,” Jody said.
During Christmas, Santa Claus would roll up in a fire engine and park across the street in front of First Interstate Bank, then walk down to the basement of Woolworth’s in the toy section.
That all came to an end in 1982 when Woolworth’s closed the store. Ron Hanson purchased the store directly from the Woolworth’s Corporation for $100,000.
“It was a heck of a buy for Ron, “Hank Kusel said.
Kusel, a Riverton business icon, arrived in Rivercity in 1978.
“I started in Burlington, Nebraska working for my cousin at another Gambels Store,” Hank said.
After stints in Norfolk, Grand Island, and West Point, Nebraska Hank was transferred to Riverton.
“I became a company man in Norfolk, “Hank said. “Gambels called me and wanted to come back to Gambels in Grand Island, or Beatrice, I picked Grand Island.”
Hank served in the US Navy, qualifying for the GI Bill.
“Since I was a veteran, they paid me to go to school to become a manager on the GI Bill,” Hank said.
In December 1982, Hank purchased the Gambels store. The original store was in the building owned by Outsportin’.
Hanson renovated the Woolworth’s Store beginning in 1982. It took him a long time, but in 1992, Hank began leasing the store from him.
“I tried to buy it, but nobody would loan me the money,” Hank said. “Harmon Watt at First Interstate financed the loan to buy the business. I asked him how I qualified, and he said my track record.”
During the renovation, construction workers discovered a secret lair for generations of rodents that had escaped from cages in the pet section of Woolworth’s s.
“We called them the escapees,” Larry Kusel said. “They found skeletons, tunnels, and huge gerbils, hamsters, and guinea pigs living in the walls.”
People speculated that the feral rodents lived in the walls after escaping, surfacing at night to feed outside the store, probably on a heavy diet of discarded popcorn behind the Acme Theatre.
Hank and Larry added a feature that never came at Woolworth’s s.
The city decided to build a downtown parking lot behind the businesses on the north side of Main Street.
“All the businesses were assessed $5000 to build the parking lot,” Hank said. “I figured if you’re going to pay $5000, why not get some use out of it.”
“The alley entrance is much busier than the one on Main Street,” Larry said. “I don’t know why other businesses didn’t do it.”
The old Woolworth’s lunch counter remained on Hank’s mind.
“I planned to run the restaurant, but couldn’t get a loan,” Hank said. “It didn’t work so I went the other way.”
Hank purchased the store for $400,000.
“It had a water system worth $100,000,” Hank said. “It was take it or leave it.”
Older, former Riverton residents often walk into Kusels from the Main Street entrance when they return to visit.
“You’ll see them walk in, turn to the right, and try to find the lunch counter,” Larry said. “They stay there a while then a few of them ask what happened to Woolworth’s.”
It was a short-lived iconic business on Main Street, but an icon just the same.
The memories of Woolworth’s remain in Fremont County people from 50 to 90 years old. It was a business that fit a growing young town like Riverton.
Woolworth’s continues to do business in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia, with a few stores still bearing the Woolworth’s name.
In the United States, Kinney Shoes and Footlocker are the remnants of what was the largest retail outlet on earth as late as 1979.
Target, Wal Mart, and K-Mart took their toll. Woolworth’s is just a fond memory.
If you’re old enough to remember the banana splits, chocolate malts, French fries, and hamburgers on those red, revolving stools and the balsa wood gliders, dolls, and plastic snakes in the basement, you had an epic childhood.