Today's column is about Ed Wraight, who started a discount store in Spokane around 1930 and survived the difficult years of the Great Depression. He worked for Culbertson's department store, also called Culbertson-Grote-Rankin Co., but they went bankrupt, so Wraight struck out on his own.  The Depression had just started and he knew a full-line department store wasn't going to fly. So he went with a plan for a nickel-to-a-dollar price range. Click here for Wraight's story.  The era of the dime store was in transition, however. Frontier general stores had given way to department stores, drug stores and grocers. Stores like Woolworth's were becoming popular because of expanded clothing lines, lunch counters and pet supplies. The roots of today's Walgreens and RiteAid stores were forming in the rapidly changing retail market. So Wraight added a pharmacy, a cafe and other amenities. Wraight's brother, Harry, was manager of the Davenport Hotel for more than 30 years so the two were well-known in Spokane society circles. And, on this Labor Day, it should be told that both business managers battled early unions who tried to organize low-paid service workers, including clerks and waiters, though it's not clear how angry those confrontations got. Do you remember a "dime store"? Woolworths, Dewberries, Kresge's? What was the last dime store you shopped in? Does that dime store still exist in some form today?

 

 

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