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The idea of the novelty chain, or dime, store originated with Frank Winfield Woolworth who in 1878 started a 5 cent counter at Moore and Smith’s Emporium in Watertown, New York.
| The Detroit Kresge & Wilson 5 & 10 cent Store 1900 |
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Sebastian Spering Kresge was a farmer, teacher, and tin salesman before he turned entrepreneur and worked a half interest in a store on Woodward Ave. with 18 employees into the second largest variety store chain – an empire comprising 1,346 stores in the United States, Canada, and Australia with over 100,000 employees and a foundation worth over $500,000,000.
The idea of the novelty chain, or dime, store originated with Frank Winfield Woolworth who in 1878 started a 5 cent counter at Moore and Smith’s Emporium in Watertown, New York. |
| Woolworth, realizing the success of his counter, had the ingenuity to start a whole store of 5 cent items in Utica, New York (which closed). At his second store in Lancaster, Pa. Woolworth presented the revolutionary idea of putting the merchandise out where people could see and touch it. Woolworth’s stores got their foothold in Pennsylvania and started their growth into the largest variety store in the country.
In 1881 John G. McCrory, the man for whom S. S. Kresge would eventually work, started his first bazaar in Scottdale, Pa. H. Kress and Co. opened in Memphis in 1896, and Kresge and McCrory opened their first store in Detroit in 1897. James Cash Penny opened a dry goods store in Kremer, Wyoming in 1902. The country was being covered with "novelty" chain stores! The Museum’s store is a model of the first Kresge store – the only store on the Streets modeled after a specific store. It stood on Woodward across from where Hudson’s is today. If one stands in front of Hudson’s and looks across to the Kresge store, one can see the rounded windows of the second story as in the picture on the Museum’s store’s counter. Store #1 was founded in 1897, so the Museum’s artifacts date from 1895 to 1905 approximately. Of course, not all items are from that time period, there are shelf fillers. The carnival and yellow "depression" glass on the right hand wall date from the 1920’s. When the display was opened in 1968 the S. S. Kresge Co. donated much glassware which was manufactured in the 1960’s but had the same look and style as the 1900’s glassware (a good example are the salt and pepper shakers:old and new side by side, and only the shiny tops give away the new). |
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Enameled metal cookware |
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Miscellaneous items including (from left) pink paper fan, celuloid hair combs, gloves & stockings, wooden darning eggs, thread, ribbon, lace, and cards of buttons, plus recently invented snap fasteners. |
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Detroit was quite a booming town in 1900. From 1880 to 1920, the population of the city doubled every decade. Part of this was due to factory recruits after the automobile made its Detroit debut in March 1896 when Charles Brady King drove his horseless buggy down Woodward Ave. To this rising city came S. S. Kresge and his brother-in-law, Charles J. Wilson.
Kresge started in business with J. G. McCrory in Memphis (Tenn). Together the two men owned a half interest each in two stores, one in Memphis the other in Detroit. In 1899 Kresge traded his interest in the Memphis store and $3,000 for the Detroit store and became sole owner. The Kresge and Wilson association was started in 1900 to operate the Detroit store and Store #2 in Port Huron, which Wilson managed. By 1907, several stores later, Wilson wanted to quit the partnership, so Kresge bought him out and founded the S. S. Kresge Co. which was incorporated in 1912. Through imaginative merchandising, the quick response of the public to the stores, and a "time is money so work" philosophy, Kresge’s fortune grew, and in 1924, the Kresge Foundation was formed with $1.6 million in Kresge Co. stock donated by Kresge himself. The Museum’s store gives a very good impression of what the first Kresge Store looked like. Though reduced in scale to fit the Museum’s area, the hardware, awning, metal ceiling, and gas-converted-to-electrical fixtures are from Detroit stores of the time. The shelves and glass cases are also originals of the time period. |
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The other front window of the Kresge store, including washing and cooking items. |
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Kresge experimented with a mail order business about 1913, but it was not profitable, so the business was dropped. The Museum has used one of the remaining catalogues to help identify artifacts. After World War I, dime items were hard to find, so Kresge was forced to raise some prices to 15 cents. In 1920 some prices rose to 25 cents, and by 1921, there were even some $1.00 items. To try ’to cope with these rises, Kresge introduced his "colored fronts" idea. "Red Fronts" were dime stores which sold 5 cent to 10 cent merchandise; "Green Fronts" were the stores which had the more expensive items (25 cent to $1.00). In 1961 the Kresge Company started a discount chain (K-Mart) to try to fight the discounters, and today, K-Marts number almost twice what Kresge stores number. |
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China department, with writing equipment and pens in center case, and china shoes (decorative) in the case on the right. |
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Kiosk in front of Kresge store, with toys and holiday goods. |
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Enamelware came in many colors and forms. |
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Inexpensive Japanese porcelain. |
Bibliography and NotesBIBLIOGRAPHY:Groner, Alex. The History of American Business and Industry. New York: American Heritage Publishing Co., 1972. S. S. Kresge Foundation Annual Reports, 1954-1971.
Lewis, David L. "The Silver and Gold Miner: S. S. Kresge" in Detroit NOTE I: S. S. Kresge stores breakdown, March 20, 1975:
United States / Canada / Australia / TOTAL NOTE II: A brief Kresge History: 1904 by this point, stores in: Detroit, Port Huron, Toledo, Pittsburgh 1905 stores in: Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Chicago 1907 stores in: West Cleveland Youngstown 1929 First Canadian store in Kitchener, Ontario |
