Frank Winfield Woolworth

FRANK WINFIELD WOOLWORTH (April 13, 1852 in Rodman, New York; April 8, 1919 in Glen Cove, New York) was an American entrepreneur and founder of F. W. Woolworth Company (now Foot Locker). At the age of 21, F. W. Woolworth started working as a merchant. By 1879, Woolworth founded his first five-cent store in Utica, New York with US$ 300.- he had borrowed. The shop was no success and failed within weeks. But F. W. Woolworth did not give up and established his second store only two months later, which was a great success. During the next years F. W. Woolworth and his brother Charles Sumner Woolworth established hundreds of five-and-ten-cent stores all over the country. In 1911, 586 Woolworth stores were united in the F. W. Woolworth Company. When Frank W. Woolworth died 8 years later in 1919, the F. W. Woolworth Company owned more than 1,000 stores in the United States and other countries.