cheap therapy

[susandennis]

When I was little (like 5ish), my paternal grandparents lived in Chaffee, MO.  We lived in Kansas City so it wasn't too far to go down there for a visit and so we did - fairly often.  My grandfather was amazing and magical.  My grandmother was mean as a snake.  So I always looked for ways to stay away from her.

Chaffee was a teensy town but lively. They had a 5 & dime store (I'm pretty sure it was Woolworth's) and it was a few blocks from my grandparents house.  The town was so tiny that even at 5 I was allowed to walk to town.  Let me tell you, this was BIG. And I could not do it enough. I felt so grown up prancing through town all on my own.

I had an allowance and I loved that 5 & dime more than you can possibly imagine. I would walk around it for hours just looking at all the stuff that I could actually buy with my own allowance!  It was just amazing.

To this day, given a choice of $1,000 to spend at Nordstrom and $100 to spend at Woolworths (I think there is one or two still alive), I'd take the $100 without even having to ponder.

Yesterday coming back from the pool, I saw a nice, new Dollar Tree Store (all items $1) and today, after the pool and brunch, I stopped in there.  I was an entranced 5 year old again. I don't know why but it's like crack to me.  I bought 16 things - a spice jar, toothpaste, a little solar powered dancing flower, little spatulas to dig cat food out of little cans, etc.  It took me a good 45 minutes to make all my selections.  Then when I got home, I opened each one - taking it out of its packaging and, once again enjoying the experience.

I cannot explain it, I just love it.  And it's a way cheaper addition than crack.

Comments

[angelamermaid.livejournal.com]

I get what you're saying. There is a dollar store near me that just has the cutest little things. I walk in for one item and leave with five.

[susandennis]

A couple of the things I got today were from Canada - wonder if it's a Canadian chain. It is a treat though, isn't it? 5 things for $5?!

(And thanks for the comment cause it showed me that I had a coding error! I hate when that happens so I was very glad to fix!)

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

I love dollar stores. Do you ever go to Daiso in Westlake Center?

[susandennis]

OMG yes... but that's the high priced spread - $1.50! hehehe They put up a pop up store over here by Uwajimaya a couple of Christmases ago and then decided to keep it. It's smaller than Westlake but still full of little shit goodness.

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

I've never been inside that one, but I need to! I always have my backpack on and I feel like there's no room for me in there. :(

I love their $1.50 bath salts that turn the water green and smell up the whole apartment.

[susandennis]

Their stores are designed for Asian sized people - I a not small but I feel HUGE when I try to get through their teeny weeny little aisles.... but their stuff is soooo fun!

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

I can't help buying their stationary and envelopes even though I don't write letters. And the little food containers. SO MUCH CUTE!

[zimzat.livejournal.com]

That's pretty neat, actually. Cheaper than and more useful than crack. I haven't been in one of those stores in ages, but if I run by one I may just have to stop in and check it out. :)

[kittymistress.livejournal.com]

I remember Woolworth's. Often ate at the lunch counter. Fond memories, for sure.

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

I like the Dollar Tree too, but I am not one to by much in the way of cheap trinkets as that kind of stuff just clutters up the place and I'd rather spend less often, but buy decent quality items that cost a bit more that are useful.

That said, I enjoy some of their more useful items as on occasion, you can find a nice little something that is just what you need, and is actually halfway decent.

I like Big Lots too as it's inexpensive and the stuff they sell can be pretty decent as well.

Love Daiso Japan, TJ Maxx, Marshal's, and Ross too, for much the same reasons as well.

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

I completely understand! My dad, and then my mentally challenged aunt, would take us to the local pharmacy for a lemon blend and pretzel sticks when I was a little boy. The town in Pennsylvania where my dad grew up only had a few stores. My aunt was well known. For her, it was a huge deal to go downtown with her charges.

I know there are Woolworth's in Europe. I shopped in one in Germany in 2002. If only $1000 could buy the kind of joy a dollar or two could buy at a Woolworth's when I was a kid:)

[susandennis]

Nice memories...

[rejectomorph]

Alas, the last Woolworth stores in the U.S. were shut down in 1997. Nothing is left of the corporation here but the Footlocker stores. There are still Woolworth stores (under separate ownership) in Mexico, Germany, Austria, and South Africa, but they've evolved into something more like department stores. The Woolworth supermarkets in Australia and New Zealand are an unrelated company that borrowed the name, which was never trademarked there.

A lot of people are nostalgic about Woolworth's, judging from all the comments I've gotten on this photo of their Alhambra, California store that I posted on Flickr a few years ago.

The thing I remember most about Woolworth's is the way it smelled: the hamburgers and coffee and grilled cheese of the luncheonette, the warm, cottony smell of the fabric department, the various mingled scents of the perfume counter, the musty smell of the back corner where they sold goldfish from a bubbling aquarium, the aroma of the fresh salted nuts in their heated display case, the chocolate that predominated at the candy counter, and wafting over it all the aroma of freshly popped popcorn. Woolworth's was always a feast for the nose.

[earthmother45.livejournal.com]

We had a Woolworth, McCrory's and Kress in the small town I grew up in. They were my Saturday afternoons for many years. Your description of Woolworth's is exactly as I remember mine, too. I bought many a 10-cent goldfish there. For some reason I just couldn't resist them.

[rejectomorph]

Alhambra had a Kress store, too. It was a very old store, with worn hardwood floors (Woolworth's had spiffy modern linoleum or vinyl floors) The thing that most impressed me about Kress was the array of paintings that were displayed above the merchandise on the side walls.

Samuel Kress was an avid art collector, and until he sold the stores (about 1964, I think) they featured collections of reproductions of works by the old masters he favored. At least I hope they were reproductions. I'd hate to think of real Rembrandts collecting layers of lunch counter grease year after year.

[earthmother45.livejournal.com]

In the small town I grew up in, Franklin, PA, we had a Woolworths, McCrorys and Kress, all on main street. My experiences of going to town with my allowance ($1 -- and more if I hadn't spent it all from the week before) every Saturday afternoon -- all by myself, too, are so similar to yours. Those three stores were mostly the only ones I ever went into and I spent hours walking up and down the aisles. One of them, I think it was Woolworths, had a downstairs, too, with a huge wide staircase that about 10 people could have fit across. My memories of the inside were much the same as flying-blind below. I remember coming home many times with the 10-cent goldfish and them all dying a week later.

I love the fact that you take the time to remember these memories and post them, so they can spark my childhood memories, too.

[susandennis]

:)

[laurainlimbo.livejournal.com]

I absolutely love the Dollar Tree! I go there once in awhile and buy all kinds of stuff. it's a great place!

[fyremaven.livejournal.com]

Totally agree with you on the Dollar Tree. Awesome place to buy cute little things you need and CHEAP! Don't even get me started on the great stocking stuffers.

Love that place!

[katbyte.livejournal.com]

I love your memories, they bring back so many of mine.

I had an uncle who was a manager of some Kress stores before he became an executive for them. He used to take us after the store closed and pick out something we liked. It was heaven.

[cienna2000.livejournal.com]

I love the Dollar Tree. I buy so much stuff there especially for kid birthday parties. Why pay multiple dollars for decorated paper plates when you can get them for $1? The Awesome brand cleaning supplies are very effective too.

Kidlet loves to spend her allowance there. To spend it in most stores she has to save her money and get one item, there she can get 3 items for her $3 (I pay the sales tax).