By 1924, there were six chains of affiliated stores operating in the United States and Canada. That year, Frank and Charles incorporated the F. W. Woolworth Company and through a merger brought all 596 stores together under one corporate entity. One of the "friendly rival" predecessor chains included several stores initially opened as Woolworth & Knox stores starting as early as September 20, 1884 as well as S. H. Knox & Co. 5 & 10 Cent Stores opened after an 1889 buyout by his cousin, Seymour H. Knox I. Knox's chain grew to 98 U.S. and 13 Canada stores by the time of the corporate consolidation in 1924. Fred M. Kirby added 96 stores, Earle Charlton added 35, Charles Sumner Woolworth added 15, and William Moore added two.[2] The stores eventually incorporated lunch counters after the success of the counters in the first store in the UK in Liverpool and served as general gathering places, a precursor to the modern shopping mall food court. A Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina became the setting for a significant event during the civil rights movement (see below). The Woolworth's concept was widely copied, and five-and-ten-cent stores (also known as five-and-dime stores or dimestores) became a 20th century fixture in American downtowns. They would serve as anchors for suburban strip centers and shopping malls in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Criticisms that five-and-dime stores drove local merchants out of business would repeat themselves in the early 21st century, when big box discount stores became popular. However, many five-and-dime stores were locally owned or franchised, as are many dollar stores today.

Back in the day, Carvel ice cream stores were a common sight in almost every neighborhood in NYC. One of my first memories as a child growing up on the hard streets of the city was being able to buy a soft-serve vanilla cone for 25 cents (imagine my shock when the price jumped to 35 cents around my 11th birthday). Around the late 1980's, the Carvel franchise started to shrink as store after store closed down forever. Although Carvel enjoyed a brief resurgence around the mid-1990's, even that collapsed as well, and now we're only left with a few holdouts, like the one pictured above, and the factory-made ice cream cakes one can buy at most supermarkets. It's a shame that all good things inevitably come to pass. But just as with people, the old generation must make way for the new generation. Let's see if the Cold Stone Creamery, which aspires to be the Starbucks of the ice cream world, will be the next generation to supplant Carvel. With the Starbucks-like prices CSC charges, I tend to doubt it, but then again, who would ever have imagined that anyone would pay premium prices -- daily, mind you -- for a few cents worth of coffee beans? As the French would say: on verra! Corner of Church Avenue and E. 2nd St., Kensington, Brooklyn, NY.