Re: Did You Ever Eat At Woolworths?

golding76 · ‎05-19-2012

A note for the younger posters: In the first half of the last century, soda fountains were extremely popular. They featured milk shakes, of course, but also root beer floats, ice cream sundaes and that sort of fare. In the NYC area, there was the egg cream, too.

Malt shops and sweet shops and confectioneries were aplenty at one time in America. The young people loved to gather there (especially high school age). In small towns like mine, People's Drug Store provided the soda fountain.

In the movie It's a Wonderful Life, Mary first gently flirts with George Bailey at the soda fountain in the pharmacy.

SoCal Bred · ‎05-04-2020

Yes! Woolworth's, J J Newberry's and W T Grant's all located downtown, we would have to take the bus, it was a thrill just to walk around even though we didn't buy anything then stop and get a soda and french fries at which ever one of these stores we were in or near. When you think about it, those were fun times!

PickyPicky3 · ‎10-22-2018

Of course actress Lana Turner was "discovered" at a soda fountain in Hollywood -- either Schwab's Drug Store or some malt shop. There are two versions of the story.

RetRN · ‎10-01-2013

Sure did, such wonderful times back then. It was a real treat to sit at the counter and eat there.

We rescue cats · ‎01-25-2023

YES!!! When I first moved back to my hometown we had 3 places that were known for inexpensive lunches, Woolworths was one of them! Also Grants and the hotdog shop up the street were the other 2. So yep, I was a regular!

Critter Lover! (especially cats!)

happilyretiredgirl · ‎06-17-2020

This is such a sweet memory...Yes, ate at Woolworths twice a month on Saturdays with my Mom and Aunt. They would go shopping every other Saturday...LOL!!! Also shopped at JJ Newberry's don't remember eating there except for getting a bag of popcorn they always had ready for you when you left the store....Oh how I love to reminisce of the good old days!!!! I will always remember getting that one scoop of ice cream in a dish at Woolworth if I ate all my lunch first!!!

DSD2 · ‎01-09-2016

Yes - decades ago in Jersey.

I remember they had a string of balloons across the lunch counter. If you ordered a banana split, you got to pop a balloon and see how much you had off!

It was 1 to 10 cents off generally from what I can remember seeing but that was long ago when a delicious sundae was just a smattering of nickles and dimes.

Vivian · ‎03-11-2010

Oh yes. We had a Woolworth's in my home town and we'd stop there for lunch occasionally. The food was simple and inexpensive but in those days eating out was a special treat.