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Woolworths Union Street Torquay

Saturday the 27th of December 2008 saw the end of an era as the Torquay branch of Woolworths closed for the last time.
Woolworths stores started their phased shutdown after no last-minute buyer could be found for the beleaguered group which had traded in the UK for 99 years.
The business finally winds down officially on January 4 2009.

Woolworths's position in late 2008 contrasted sharply with the success of its first British shop, which opened in 1909 were everything was priced at sixpence (2.5p) as the store took advantage of mass production to keep prices cheap.
The very first store in Liverpool was called FW Woolworths, a subsidiary of the US parent which was started in 1879 when Frank Woolworth, a sales assistant, opened a shop in Pennsylvania
By the mid-1920s Woolworths was inundated with letters from local authorities, asking them to open in their town and at one point a new store was opening every 17 days across Great Britain.
Following the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the company decided to float the British arm of Woolworths on the London Stock Exchange.
The flotation, in 1931, was so successful that a 15 per cent stake in the company enabled Woolworths to pay an exceptional dividend to all its shareholders of 90 cents for every dollar invested.

For the following 60 years the company would claim to have put itself at the heart of the high street, pioneering "great value on a range that is always changing".
The 1960s proved to be halcyon days for Woolworths, which could boast more than 1,000 stores across the UK.
A 1963 Daily Express share-tipping booklet described the company as "truly a giant" in shopping; it was at the time the most prominent retailer on the UK stock market. But the financial turbulence of the Seventies put the brakes on its growth, which was checked by a programme of rationalisation.

Since then, Woolworths' course has largely been one of managed decline as the British consumers' love affair with its stores – best known for their pick and mix sweet counter – gradually came to an end in late 2008.