How the Lancaster Woolworth Sparked a Christmas Tradition

It’s the autumn of 1880 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A young businessman has recently opened a store and quickly found success by offering high-quality goods at low prices. The store has become a popular destination for traveling salesmen.

One morning, a young traveling salesman from Germany enters the store and shows his goods to the proprietor, who isn’t impressed. “What purpose do they serve?” he asks. “They’re literally useless.” Still, the businessman decides to take a chance. He tells the salesman, “I’ll take one box, but only if they can be sold on a sale-or-return basis.”

The box is put on display, and within an hour, every item sells out. What were these products, and who was the man behind this moment of retail history? The man was F. W. Woolworth, and the products were Christmas tree ornaments.

Although ornaments had been sold before, they were often expensive and inaccessible to most people. Woolworth changed that by making them affordable, transforming how Christmas trees were decorated. Without Frank W. Woolworth, our holiday trees might still be bare. Click the link to read more.