F.W. Woolworth

Woolworth's 1997 closure ended the original five-and-dime store concept after 118 years, demonstrating how format pioneers become format victims. The company that invented modern retail—fixed prices, open displays, self-service—couldn't adapt when discount stores and dollar stores evolved its own innovations beyond recognition. Like the ancestor species rendered obsolete by its descendants, Woolworth watched Walmart and Target dominate using retail science Woolworth invented.