A short disclaimer here: Dime stores had been long obsolete by the time I was even born, so I am not speaking from firsthand personal experience, but rather drawing from cultural knowledge absorbed through reading, immersion, and the media. I guess since the dime store is part of everybody's hidden away Norman Rockwell/Leave it to Beaver/Soda Fountains and Drive In Movies media generated plastic fantasy of post-war America, take it as you will.
That being said.
A dime store is a breed of extinct shop where you could get all sorts of odds and ends at inexpensive prices. Often also called a five and dime (implying that you could actually buy stuff for a nickel or a dime).
A dime store is the sort of place you would go if you needed:
- A needle and thread.
- Pulpy paperbacks (dime novels).
- Candy
- Random household tools
- Glue, Tape, Scissors, etc...
- Paper, Envelopes, Pens, etc...
- Small Toys
Essentially, any item too
inexpensive or small to order from the
Sears catalog, you could buy at the dime store.
Due to inflation there is not terribly much you can actually buy for a dime these days, and the niche has been to some extent filled by the proliferation of convenience stores and the expansion of many pharmacies to include that sort of item. There are also dollar stores cropping up, but there seems to be some social stigma attatched to them as trashy or tacky, so they haven't become the universal source for all small items that the dime store once was.