Woolworths: a store of memories

People stand outside the original Woolworth's store, founded in 1879, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania Photograph: AP

Frank Winfield Woolworth (1852-1919), the US financier and founder of the Woolworth chain of stores Photograph: Hulton/Getty

The first British Woolworths opened in Church Street, Liverpool on Friday November 5 1909. 'The handsome premises were thronged the whole time they were open,' the Liverpool Courier reported Photograph: Courtesy Woolworths Group/PR

A Woolworth store in Holborn, London during the 1920s, when a new branch was opening every 17 days Photograph: Hulton/Getty

The toiletries department in a 1920s Woolworths store Photograph: Hulton/Getty

Charles Delaney and Alice White are among the stars of the 1929 Warner Brothers film, The Girl from Woolworths Photograph: Getty

December 14 1937: Christmas shoppers crowd in to buy novelties and decorations at the Woolworth store on Oxford Street, London Photograph: Hulton/Getty

Woolworths' store in Chertsey High Street, Surrey, during the second world war Photograph: Popperfoto/Getty

1951: Woolworth's department store in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, as a horsedrawn cart containing supplies pulls up outside Photograph: Popperfoto/Getty

June 15 1967: FW Woolworth joins the retailers in the shopping precinct of Kirkby new town, Lancashire Photograph: George W. Hales/Hulton/Getty

February 15 1971: Lord Fiske, the chairman of the decimal currency board, launches decimal shopping at the Woolworth branch on the Strand, London Photograph: Dennis Oulds/Hulton/Getty

September 1982: The Woolworth store in Holborn, London. The company still had 1,000 shops throughout the UK Photograph: Popperfoto/Getty

The famous pick'n'mix confectionery counter Photograph: Alex Segre/Rex features

Woolworths Big W store at the Jewel in Edinburgh, Scotland Photograph: Murdo MacLeod

April 25 2008: The WiiFit Nintendo arrives at Woolworths in the Lakeside shopping centre, Essex. Photograph: Andy Butterton/PR

Woolworth rolled out in-store ordering in 2008 Photograph: PR