Frank Winfield Woolworth was born at Rodman, NY in 1852. He started life as a farm worker until at the age of 21 landing a job as a shop assistant. In 1879 he opened a store in Utica for five-cent goods only; this failed, but a second store, in Lancaster, PA, selling everything for either a nickel or a dime was successful. He used the success of this store to build a chain of similar ones, setting up the F W Woolworth Company in 1905. At the time of his death in 1919 the company controlled over 1000 stores from their headquarters in the Woolworth building, New York City. Not purely an American phenomenon, Woolworth's stores came to Britain in 1910 where they were equally successful.