Charles Sumner Woolworth (August 1, 1856 – January 7, 1947), was an American entrepreneur who went by the nickname of "Sum", opened and managed the world's first five-and-dime store in Utica, New York, and was founder of the "C. S. Woolworth & Co" chain of 5¢ & 10¢ stores. Sum's brother, Frank Winfield Woolworth, was first to venture into the retail business with his own store, and soon after, he asked Sum to join him. Frank founded "F. W. Woolworth & Co", which later merged with other Woolworth affiliate stores to be the F. W. Woolworth Company. After the death of his brother, Sum became the longest serving Chairman of the F. W. Woolworth Company. During the early years, Sum also partnered with a long-time friend, Fred Kirby, to open a "Woolworth and Kirby" store in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. When Fred bought out Sum's share, that store grew to become a "friendly rival" affiliate store, in close alliance with the two Woolworth brothers.
In 1904, Sum and Frank Woolworth were affiliated with six (6) chains. Frank developed the back office side of the business. Sum developed the front of the business, pioneering self-service methods, customer service, training new managers, brightly lit stores, and frequently-changed window displays to lure customers inside. In 1912 C. S. Woolworth & Co, with the other affiliated chains, merged 596 stores under the corporate name "F. W. Woolworth Company". After the death of his brother, Frank Winfield Woolworth, Charles Sumner Woolworth became the reluctant Chairman of the Board of F. W. Woolworth Company (now Foot Locker), for 25 years. As a philanthropist and business man, he was involved with several institutions and businesses in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and other areas.
Biography Charles Sumner Woolworth, known by everyone as Sum, was born on August 1, 1856, in Rodman, New York, to John Hubbell Woolworth and Fanny McBrier. Growing up, he worked on his family's farm. His paternal ancestors were English farmers who left England around 1665 settling in the Massachusetts Bay Colony area. Meanwhile, his mother's parents, the McBriers, were Scots-Irish from County Down, Ulster, who had come to the United States in 1827. When his brother Frank sought work and fortune as an apprentice in Augsbury and Moore dry goods store, in Watertown, New York, Sum became eager to follow. At 21, Sum joined Frank as an apprentice salesman in the same store, which had since become Moore and Smith. While Frank liked the back end of the business in accounting and purchasing, Sum liked the front end of the business, meeting customers and working on innovative ways to display merchandise.
With a loan from his former boss, William Moore, Frank opened a five-cent store in Utica, New York, on February 22, 1878. Though it initially appeared to be successful, business soon dropped off and the store failed in early May 1878, after Frank earned enough to pay back his debt to William Moore. Within days, Frank acted on a tip from a close friend and visited Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and quickly decided to re-locate there. He opened his first successful "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store" on June 21, 1879, on North Queen Street, using the same sign from Utica. The idea of an entire store devoted to such low-priced items was unprecedented, anywhere. The Lancaster store was the first successful store of this type. At the end of the first day in Lancaster, Frank counted his profit, and with renewed enthusiasm, he invited his brother, Sum, to join him. Together, they opened a second store in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, called "5¢ Woolworth Bros Store", on July 19, 1879, with Sum as manager. During this time, Frank decided to test the possibility of 10¢ items, by devoting a table to the higher-priced items, inside his Lancaster and Harrisburg stores. The ten-cent items were a hit. The success of the Harrisburg store prompted the landlord to seek a higher rent from the Woolworth brothers. Due to the rent dispute, Frank and Sum closed the Harrisburg store and relocated to York, Pennsylvania, in March 1880. The York store closed three months later, on June 30, 1880. This fourth location is often missed, or the city misidentified, in some accounts of the early history of the Woolworth brothers.
Not to be deterred, based on a tip, they both agreed that Sum would scout out Scranton, Pennsylvania, for the next location. Sum liked what he saw in Scranton, and found a good location with a low rental price. He decided to take a chance to rent a space which was larger than needed, and planned to block off the unused portion of the space. This became a Woolworth brothers' pattern going forward, so they could expand the merchandise sales area without the need to move their location. The Scranton store was the first to formally be called a 5 & 10¢ store, opening on November 6, 1880, with the banner over the door which read, "5¢ & 10¢ Woolworth Bro's Store". Scranton was a huge success. Thus began the era of the "five-and-dime" store. As sales grew at a steady pace, in 1881 Frank suggested that Sum buy out Frank's share in the Scranton store, to begin his own affiliated store under his own name. The first affiliate, a franchise of sorts, of the Woolworth brothers was named, "C. S. Woolworth". Frank and Sum were very close brothers. They fully trusted and respected one another. Frank pushed Sum into this idea, because Frank had the vision of what many stores, owned by close friends or relatives, could become. Frank's view of the big picture, the central office perspective, was right. Sum grew his business from the front end, the customer and sales perspective. Sum's Scranton store, at 125 Penn Avenue, soon proved to be too small. His next location was a block away, at 319 Lackawanna Avenue. Again, business was booming and the sales floor soon required more space. Sum expanded the store by adding the next-door property at 317 Lackawanna Avenue.
Sum partnered with one of his long-time friends, Fred Kirby, in 1884, to open a store in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, near Scranton. Fred had experience at Augsbury and Moore of Watertown, New York, as head of wholesale operations. They each put up $600 for a store called "Woolworth and Kirby". The store did very well, and in 1887 Fred bought out Sum's share, in a mutual agreement, and began to expand to more stores.
Frank had incorporated his fast growing chain of stores as "F. W. Woolworth & Co" in 1905. The partner affiliates started to individually incorporate their businesses starting in 1905, following Frank's advice. Sum did not feel the need to do so, because he had a smaller number of stores. Clearly in photographs and on Woolworth postcards, he had incorporated at some point before 1911, as "C. S. Woolworth & Co". Both Frank and Sum invited close friends and relatives into the business over the years. They also sold stock only to relatives, friends and employees. The stock was not sold publicly during this period of growth. This was very much like an early version of a franchise.
Sum continued to develop the front end part of the business and expanded to more stores at a modest pace, while Frank developed his concepts for the back end for the business and aggressively expand to more stores. Sum expanded slower than the other affiliates, but his stores were very high profit stores. Sum liked working with customers and often personally served customers on the sales floor. He would solicit customers' thoughts and ideas, and often incorporated those ideas in the stores. Sum developed his stores with clean high-lustre wood floors, bright interiors, self-service display cases, mahogany counters, glass dividers and show cases, enticing window displays which changed regularly, and low prices for commonly sought-after merchandise. Sum's hands-on approach, carefully selecting managers, resulted in a higher net profit per square foot, for all of his stores versus those of the other affiliates. Frank, who trusted and relied on his brother, managed with a hands-off approach, leaning on his department and store managers. Seeing Sum's high store profits, Frank incorporated Sum's layout and methods in all of his stores, which also became a standard for all of their affiliated stores.
Sum had "C. S. Woolworth" stores in downtown Scranton, westside of Scranton, Pittston, Bradford, Carbondale, and Sunbury, Pennsylvania; Auburn, Elmira, Binghamton, Gloversville, and Glens Falls, New York; Haverhill, Massachusetts, and Portland, Bangor, and Augusta, Maine. Frank expanded his chain of stores rapidly to 337 stores, plus others in partnership with his cousin, Seymour H. Knox. Frank was aggressive. Some of his partners developed additional partners of their own. Seymour Knox, for instance, partnered with Earle Perry Charlton, who began their joint venture with a store in Fall River, Massachusetts. Charlton eventually went on his own. Frank continued to perfect his purchasing concepts for all of the affiliates, and convinced the affiliate partners to "club" together to maximize the lower cost of centralized inventory purchasing. Frank started to buy some factories for certain merchandise, so he could control product costs. He also encouraged the partner rivals to expand, as he aggressively expanded, as well. Woolworth's was so popular and successful, other stores in various cities complained. Some cities attempted to pass laws which would limit or shut out Woolworth stores. The Woolworth brothers' formula is still used by nearly all retail stores, large and small, today.
The Woolworth syndicate of affiliates grew at unprecedented speed for its time. Success did not come without competition. Several very competitive chains sprang up, in direct competition to Woolworth affiliates. Some of those were started by former Woolworth store managers. With competition and success there was a need for more innovation. Sum and Frank differentiated Woolworth's product range from competitors by buying directly from European factories. They developed personal contacts with European factory owners on buying trips to Great Britain and Germany, starting in 1890. Frank also purchased surplus items and sold them at cost, as well as selling teaser items below cost.
Earle Perry Charlton realized, if he continued his operation in New England, he would be in direct competition with Sum and Frank Woolworth, Seymour Knox, and Fred Kirby. He decided to look to Canada. To get capital, he sold nine of his twelve stores to Frank. Charlton's first Canadian stores were in Montreal on Catherine West & Lawrence Street, and St Joseph's Street, and in Ottawa on Sparks Street. He followed those with eight stores in Canada, west of the Rocky Mountains, followed by a return to the US with several store California, including one in South Broadway, Los Angeles, California. He opened stores in Tacoma, Washington, and Sherbrooke, Quebec, and then a very large store in Market Street, San Francisco, California, mere weeks before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
In 1912, each of the owners in the syndicate of Woolworth affiliated stores agreed to incorporate all 596 of their stores, as one entity, as "F. W. Woolworth Company". The merger generated more than $30 million in the stock flotation. Frank was elected President of the new combined corporation. The others, Sum Woolworth, Fred Kirby, Seymour Knox, Earle Charlton, and William Moore, became directors.