Don Canney

Okay, admittedly this is not a review of a Broadway play and I cannot confirm that ol’ Jimmy Dean ever set foot in a five and dime.

But I will say that there is something that I miss about the old five and dimes that spotted Nashua’s Main Street back in their heyday.

J.J. Newberry’s, F.W Woolworth’s and to a point, W.T Grant were the Gate City’s entries in the five and dime competition. They were known as five and dimes for obvious reasons. Because back in the day most of the merchandise sold there cost between five and ten cents.

I recall that they all had quite a unique aroma upon entry. It may have been a combination of the foods and merchandise sold, sort of a popcorny, roasted peanuty, plasticky, and whatever was cooking at the lunch counter-like scent. A delight to some, but to others, not so much. Nonetheless, something that triggers memories, if not olfactory nerves

I often took the rarely used rear entrance at F.W Woolworth’s, exiting to Water Street near the ramp that’s there today. It was a bit of a hike up that flight of stairs, but as a kid, stairs were less of an issue. Unfortunately, no retailer back then had handicapped accessibility, as the Americans With Disabilities Act was decades away.

Most of the merchandise sold at these retailers was small, and was displayed such that there was no need for the stack them high, price them low, watch them go strategy employed by the eventual larger stores like Wal Mart or K-Mart. There was an unobstructed view to the rear wall. Many of the smaller goods were in waist-high counters, using self-contained compartments to separate each item, with a small price banner on each. It was rather simple, as there was not much price fluctuation between items at five or ten cents.

Today we see many goods of that genre with a “Made in China label.” But most items then touted a “Made in Japan” label, as post war Japan was still in its economic rebuilding stage.

Woolworth’s, J.J Newbury’s, which was a part of the larger McCrory chain, and W.T Grant (most often referred to simply as, Grant’s) were located across from each other on Main Street. I remember going to Grant’s to get their delicious vanilla-chocolate-strawberry wafer cookies, sold by the pound. They also had fresh hot roasted nuts sold the same way. I couldn’t wait to get home and open that bag of cookies.

All of them had lunch counters, complete with soda jerks, those fountain drink experts who made milk shakes, floats or simply poured sodas into those bizarre cone shaped paper cups that rested in hourglass-like pewter holders.

The food was not exactly fit for anyone who was health conscious. But back then, who was? Burgers, fries, hot dogs, and basic sandwiches were typical fare, but if you were a vegan, you were out of luck unless you were there for a drink only.

Such stores once hosted throngs of shoppers, particularly during the holiday season. But with the onslaught of malls and shopping plazas during the late 60’s, particularly when Bradlees opened their first store in the old Simoneau Plaza, offering free parking for hundreds of cars, the writing was on the wall for the less competitive smaller stores.

Parking became an issue for downtown stores and free and easy parking was now a selling point for attracting shoppers.

Grant’s eventually moved to Simoneau Plaza, but completely changed the format of the store, becoming a much bigger multiline retailer, also offering big ticket items like appliances and furniture, F.W. Woolworth’s morphed into Woolco, with an anchor store at the then new Nashua Mall on Broad Street and J.J. Newbury’s eventually disappeared from the Nashua scene altogether.

Maybe there’s and online business opportunity here? The Online Five and Dime! All one would need to do is figure out how produce items for five and ten cents that could be shipped for less than the price of the item. But how would we recreate that in-store aroma?

I know, it’s all just a pipe dream.

Don Canney is a freelance writer and professional voice artist. He was born and raised in downtown Nashua with great interest in Nashua history circa 1950-1970. He now resides in Litchfield.

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