Main Street looking east.

Main Street looking east.

Traffic -- Watertown (Mass.).; Business enterprises -- Massachusetts -- Watertown.; Commerce.; Commercial buildings -- Watertown (Mass.).; Streets -- Watertown -- Massachusetts.; Neighborhood -- Massachusetts -- Watertown.; Watertown (Mass.) -- Social life and customs.; City and town life -- Massachusetts -- Watertown.;

Main Street looking east, taken from the corner of Church Street. Toyland and Woolworth can be seen on the left while on the right in back is the Delta. Traffic has always been busy in this area. The F.W. Woolworth Co. had the first five-and-dime stores, which sold discounted general merchandise at fixed prices, usually five or ten cents, undercutting the prices of other local merchants. Woolworth, as the stores popularly became known, was one of the first American retailers to put merchandise out for the shopping public to handle and select without the assistance of a sales clerk. Earlier retailers had kept all merchandise behind a counter and customers presented the clerk with a list of items they wished to buy. The stores eventually incorporated lunch counters a precursor to the modern shopping mall food court.

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