Woolco 1962 Crewneck Sweatshirt

Founded in 1962 by the F. W. Woolworth Company, Woolco was an American retail chain. Unlike Woolworth's five-and-dime stores, Woolco was a full-line discount department store, and the creation of the new format coincided with the expansion of suburbia. At its peak, Woolco had hundreds of stores in the US, as well as in Canada and the UK. Woolworth's flagship stores were still doing well, but the company wanted to tap into the growing discount department store market without diluting its dominant position in the variety store business. The first Woolco was located in Columbus, Ohio, and by 1966, there were 18 in the US, and nine in Canada with plans for 30 stores to be added per year.