Dime-Store Dirge : Closure of 75-Year-Old Santa Ana Woolworth Saddens Customers

When Ted Aguilar learned that the Woolworth store here was closing, he felt compelled to drive from his home in Orange for a last look.

“We heard through word of mouth that it was closing,” he said Wednesday as he browsed through a cluttered clothing section of the downtown Santa Ana store. “I had to see it one more time.”

The 75-year-old store is a landmark of sorts on a quaint brick street lined with shops that cater mainly to the city’s large Latino population. It is scheduled to shut its doors later this month, although Woolworth Corp. officials wouldn’t say if the closure is tied to the company’s announcement Wednesday that it is closing, selling or revamping 900 outlets nationwide.

Before World War II, the Woolworth outlet--hailed as the discount chain’s 1,000th store--was a bustling center of activity for Orange County residents. “It was the place to shop,” said Jim Sleeper, 64, a county historian and Santa Ana native.

The store’s lively location, on West Fourth Street near Main Street, “was the crossroads of the world to us,” Sleeper said. “All the movie theaters, shops and restaurants were there.”

During the ‘50s, as shopping centers sprouted in surrounding cities, the Santa Ana store lost customers if not its charm. “With the creation of big malls, it fell upon hard times,” Sleeper said. It enjoyed a resurgence during the 1970s when Fourth Street was revitalized as a shopping district attracting mostly Latinos, Sleeper said.

Aguilar, a 36-year-old maintenance worker, grew up a few blocks from the store in a family of 13 children. He recalled how his parents used to take him and his siblings to the snack counter for hamburgers.

“We’d come here every Saturday after Dad got paid,” said Aguilar. “We’d head straight for the toys.” Years later, he would take his five children to the store to treat them to milkshakes and fries.

The store didn’t look like much of a landmark on Wednesday--its aisles littered with candy wrappers and merchandise flung haphazardly among the shelves. The dime store’s windows were plastered with signs that in bright pink letters read: “Store Closing Sale, 50% Off Entire Stock.”

Longtime customers Doug Carter roved the aisles Wednesday looking for last-minute deals.

“I’ve been shopping here all my life, ever since I was a little kid,” said Carter, 67, a retired labor worker. “I’m depressed. I’ll miss the people who work here.”

Carter has lived within walking distance of the store all his life. “I don’t drive anymore, and this place has everything I need,” he said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do now. This has been home base for a lot of people, especially older people.”

Lucia Silva, 46, was loading her shopping basket with items from the store’s rapidly vanishing racks of buttons and sewing needles.

“I’m sure going to miss it,” said the Santa Ana housekeeper and mother of four. “The prices are so good here.”

But one customer was unimpressed by the store’s demise. “It’s immaterial to me,” said Ben Boers, a retired toolmaker who lives nearby. “I’m 80 years old. There’s not much that fazes me anymore.”