Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources to help them determine the value of their items. Today, though, I have a question of my own.
I was clearing out some wooden boxes that I had bought at auction some time ago, and inside one of them were two supplements for a “Mighty Million Dollar May Sale” at a store called Wilmington Dry Goods in Wilmington, DE. The supplements were identical, and had been delivered inside two local newspapers in April and May 1973. The sale was scheduled for May 2.
Browsing these, I found bargain prices on some items and prices on others that were comparable to what we pay now in repeated store markdowns or at a very good sale.
My question:
What was Wilmington Dry Goods? I didn’t grow up in this area, so the name was unfamiliar to me. Based on the supplement, the store looked to be similar to other more familiar discount stores from the past, such as Woolworth’s, S.S. Kresge and J.J. Newberry.
My answer:
Wilmington Dry Goods was a very popular and beloved store that in its heyday drew shoppers not only from Delaware, but also from South Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. People came for its low prices and great selection. On the front of its flagship store on Market Street in downtown Wilmington, it heralded itself as none other than “A Great Store.”
“Busloads of shoppers came from the surrounding countryside to shop at ‘The Dry,'” according to the Delaware Historical Society.
Everyone seemed to have shopped at the store; I came across several bloggers and writers who had fond memories of going there with their parents. One writer mentioned that as many as 200 people sometimes waited in a line that wrapped around the block. These folks may have come for the annual “Lazarus Days” sale, named after the store’s founder J. M. Lazarus. It was a major two-day sales event, so much so that newspapers wrote articles about it.
“Attracted by thousands of bargains offered, vast throngs jammed the Wilmington Drygoods store all day yesterday, to ‘cash in’ during the third anniversary sale of this department store,” began a story in the Oct. 16, 1927, Delmarvia Star newspaper in Wilmington. “Over $200,000 worth of absolutely new and wanted merchandise is being offered at cost, below cost and slightly above cost.”
Eleven years later, the sale was still big news. The Sunday Morning Star newspaper in October 1938 noted that it printed 66,000 copies of a 16-page supplement promoting the Friday and Saturday sale, which ran from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. The supplement was to be distributed to households in cities and rural areas in four states.
This was the 14th annual sale, and some prizes were to be given out to shoppers: the first 25 red-headed boys and girls entering the store on Saturday would receive $1 in merchandise; the oldest couple would get prizes; parents whose babies were born in Delaware on the two sale days would get free layettes, and gifts would be presented to couples who got married on those two days.
The article also noted that retailers from other states would be there to observe “Lazarus Days” to figure out why it was so successful.
On hand for the big sales events was Lazarus, a Russian immigrant who opened the store in 1924 on Market Street. His store had wooden sales tables, hardwood floors and friendly female clerks who called you “hon,” as one writer recalled. Each morning, the store played the National Anthem to start the day. It was said to be among the first local stores to offer layaway and a good return policy.
Wilmington Dry Goods was the first retailer to sell nylon hosiery, which in 1940 was among the most sought-after merchandise on the market. The store began selling stockings on May 15, 1940, not long after the Delaware-based Dupont Company invented nylon. A DuPont official announced the invention in 1938 and unveiled it before 3,000 women at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. According to the company website, nylon was first commercially made in late 1939.
Stockings were the first of Dupont’s nylon products and they were tremendously success. Early sales almost caused riots, according to the Hagley Museum in Wilmington, which has mounted an exhibit titled “Fashion Meets Science: Introducing Nylon” that runs until Jan. 25, 2015. Women lined up to purchase the durable nylon hosiery, which replaced the more fragile silk.
Wilmington Dry Goods seemed to have sold a little bit of everything. Based on the 1973 supplement, you could buy clothes, bed linens, draperies, cameras, toiletries, carpeting, cookware, paint, lawn chairs, lawnmowers and baseball gloves. One writer likened it to a Walmart.
In 1960, the store – identified in news stories as the Dry Goods Company – was sold. In 1973, according to the supplement, it had two other locations in Delaware. It seems to have closed in the 1970s, and the company itself was sold again in 1986. The Market Street site is now occupied by an office and retail complex.
Though long gone, the landmark store still evokes memories of the smell of hotdogs and popcorn, and the trek with mom to buy new shoes or a new coat. It was, as one writer noted, the “retail heart and soul” of Wilmington.
I lived in Wilmington from 1957-1960 as a child. I loved Wilmington Dry Goods, fond memories of looking for treasures. You never knew what you would find but you could usually afford it even as a kid. It was not known as “Dry Rot” in those days! I guess it was still part of their golden years!
I used to shop at “The Dry Goods” when I was in nurse’s training at Wilmington General Hospital 1963-1966. I got my first pair of panty hose there (a very helpful saleslady suggested the new item out called panty hose).
My mother (Thelma Lockwood) worked at the Tri-State Mall Wilmington Dry Goods Store until she retired in the 1980’s.
They had good items at good prices.
I worked there (off & on) from 71 to 77. Dry Rots referred to the old & wooden structure of the building. Sunday mornings we would have to saturate the wooden floor with water to keep it from splintering. I do recall the name Mr. Kuhn, just not sure how. Adler, Zimmerman, Lynch, Goldberg were other names I remember.
When I was a child we lived in Bethlehem, PA, but my grandparents and most of my aunts and uncles lived in Wilmington. My grandparents moved there from the coal regions of Pennsylvania so my grandfather could work for Bancroft Mills (anyone remember that) and my one uncle went to the Wharton School of Business after the war and upon graduation worked and retired from DuPont. Each summer my sister and I would visit my grandparents in Wilmington for a couple weeks. They lived on Harrison Street at the time. We loved our trips with Nanna to downtown Wilmington and Wilmington Dry Goods and then on to Reynolds for lunch. Another favorite trip was on the bus out to the Merchandise Mart. In 1964, before my senior year in high school, we moved to Wilmington to be near my mother’s family. After graduation I worked for DuPont and spent a lot of my lunch hours perusing the wonderful items in Wilmington Dry Goods. It was one of the few places I could afford to shop. I would rather do that than eat lunch. When I’ve had the chance to return to Wilmington in the past few years, so much has changed I don’t recognize the place. Thankfully I still have the wonderful memories of Wilmington in the “good ole days”.
My great uncle, Erdman Kuhn was associated with this company. He had a brother Martin, aka uncle Marty lived in Chester Pa and their sister Margaurite Kuhn Arnold my grandmother who lived in New Cumberland Pa. I heard the talk of and still have old newspaper clipping of the store and Erdman my mother Nancy had kept. Retail operations seems to be in the family bloodline…….just sharing and thanks
Does anybody remember the “the 4 cent” counter at Dry goods ?
Yes… I remember the 4 cent table… I recall as a child browsing the treasures that I could gather for 4 cents each… and as a teenager I had my first sales job at the store… great memories…
A Wilmington Dry Goods (also just known as “Dry Goods” was located in the Cumberland Mall, Vineland, NJ from 1973 to 1989 when the store converted over to a “Value City”. Wilmington Dry Goods sold good quality name brand clothes and goods (unlike Walmart and Woolworths). More like what TJ Maxx and Marshall’s are like today. Reasonable prices.
I had family that lived in Newark, DE until just a few years ago. My uncle relocated there in 1965 to work for the Chrysler plant. I remember going to visit them, and a destination for us was ALWAYS, to go to the store that they also called “Wilmington Dry Rot” store. I would think, it must be some real trash, but I always found great buys, great merchandise. I remember buying my 45 record of “United We Stand” by Brotherhood of Man, at one of the locations. I still have the record and the great memories. Randy McDaniels, TLC.
I would have to agree with Patti, though I hadn’t heard that name in many years. I remember people calling it “Dry Rots” but I don’t know where that originated. I didn’t shop there that often so I only heard it casually in passing, but people did refer to the store by that name at times.
I lived in Newark, DE from 1973 to 1982. I went to high school there, graduated in 77′. You might be interested to know that not only was this place beloved. EVERYONE I KNEW called it “Dry Rots”. Why I do not know but that’s what we all called it. They had these old, very sturdy wooden tables with 5″ sides and the “goods” would be DUMPED on them and the mad scramble would begin!
I grew up in Wilmington in the 40’s through this date, and I never heard of the name “Dry Rots”; the store was always referred to as Dry Goods. A well-respected store with great prices. Everybody loved Dry Goods, and response to their sales was overwhelming.