Woolworth's (US stores)

Also known as F. W. Woolworth Company, the five-and-dime

Cause of death

Killed by a successor

Discount chains did the same job at greater scale in bigger buildings with parking.

Woolworth's invented the fixed-price variety store, put a lunch counter in it, and became so central to American main streets that its Greensboro counter is a civil rights landmark. The format was then beaten by its own descendants: Walmart and the big-box discounters offered more of everything, cheaper, outside town. The remaining US stores closed in July 1997 after 118 years. The parent company survived by renaming itself after its own sporting goods chain, Foot Locker.