 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Discount department store |
| Founded | 1962 (Columbus, Ohio, United States) |
| Defunct | 1983 (United States) 1986 (United Kingdom|UK) 1994 (Canada) |
| Fate | United States Liquidation United Kingdom Sold to Gateway Canada Most stores sold to Walmart Canada and Zellers |
| Successor | Woolworth/Asda (UK only) Walmart Canada (Canada only) |
| Headquarters | Columbus, Ohio, United States |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, toys, housewares |
| Parent | F. W. Woolworth Company |
Woolco was an American-based discount retail chain. It was founded in 1962 in Columbus, Ohio, by the F. W. Woolworth Company. It was a full-line discount department store unlike the five-and-dime Woolworth stores which operated at the time. At its peak, Woolco had hundreds of stores in the US, as well as in Canada and the United Kingdom. While the American stores were closed in 1983, the chain remained active in Canada until it was sold in 1994 to rival Walmart, which was looking to enter the Canadian market. All of the former UK Woolco stores were sold by Kingfisher, which had bought the UK Woolworth business, to Gateway which subsequently sold them to Asda.