Do You Know What’s Inside This Store?

Finally!

I’m going to tell you what this picture is all about.

Last weekend, I visited an old mining town in Pennsylvania and was surprised to see this store.

Why was I surprised?

Because they no longer exist.

Walking through the town was like walking back in time.

What kind of store was it?

Only one reader guessed correctly.

It was a discount store.

They were called “five and dime stores.”

The idea was, you could buy anything for five cents or ten cents (a ten-cent coin in the US is called “a dime.”)

The man who invented the discount store was Frank Woolworth.

I remember his stores when I was a kid.

It was also the first store where customers could handle the merchandise.

Before Woolworth’s, you had to tell the shop assistant what you wanted to buy and he would go get it for you.

Today, they’re all gone.

Now, Americans go to WalMart if they want to buy something cheap.

What else exists today that will disappear in the future?

What will our grandkids and great-grandkids never know?

Amazon?

Smart phones?

The internet?

English teachers?