An Interpretation

Edmonton's Five and Dime Stores
by Lawrence Herzog

Whenever I visit one of Edmonton's ubiquitous dollar stores, I can't help thinking that everything old is new again. Shopping for bargains never goes out of style, after all, and that's what the dollar stores are all about.

That's the way it was when I was a kid, growing up in Edmonton in the 1960s. Kresge's, Woolworth's, the Metropolitan, Zellers and the Army & Navy were downtown's popular bargain retailers. Some people called them five and dime stores.

Then - as now - shoppers took great satisfaction in finding bargains. It's a retail phenomenon that can be traced back to the late 19th century in a proud example of right idea at the right time.

In 1879, a man named Frank W. Woolworth opened in Lancaster, Pennsylvania what came to be known as the five-and-dime store, peddling sundries and canned goods, toys, records and whatever else the market needed. He included a soda fountain and a grill, where customers could pause for a burger and a big old chocolate ice cream soda.

In 1911, Woolworth's holdings were consolidated into one company, forming a $65 million corporation was making nearly 100 employees instant millionaires. A year later, Sebastian S. Kresge incorporated S.S. Kresge Co. in Detroit. Like Woolworth's venture, Kresge's found a ready market and expanded quickly, opening a Canadian division and an outlet on Edmonton's 101st Street, which was the retail heartland of the growing city.

A few years later, Walter P. Zeller opened his Edmonton store just up the street. "Retailers to Thrifty Canadians" proclaimed the slogan and the venture even survived a brush with insolvency in 1932 to post steady growth right through the war years. Like Woolworth and Kresge before him, Zeller had the right idea the right time.

When I came along 30 years later, Zellers was a downtown Edmonton institution, sprawling across the main floor of the historic Tegler Building on the corner of 101st Street and 102nd Avenue. It was a vast store, consuming two levels and with an enormous luncheonette that was always humming with business. That's where Mom and I used to go and where I'd sometimes meet grandma for a grilled cheese sandwich.