General store planned for historic downtown

A small collection of general stores based in Santa Fe, New Mexico who opened their 10th store Tuesday, has announced plans for a new store in the downtown historic district in St Augustine.

Five & Dime General Store was started 15 years ago with the simple idea of historic preservation of the F. W. Woolworth, Co. store on the plaza in Sante Fe, according to company co-founder and co-owner Earl Potter.

“The whole project was about historic preservation,” Potter said. “My wife opened the paper on a Saturday and saw Woolworth’s was closing, and she said, we have to do something about this.”

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. Potter said the original store was a labor of love that was designed to maintain the small-town flavor of the plaza; from there, the company has been able to slowly expand.

“We’re trying to be very careful about where we go,” Potter said. “We’re excited about St Augustine, and we hope we can keep on going.”