For Washingtonians: Do you Remember Woodies?

In the good old days ( and by that I mean pre Kohls, Target etc) different cities had their own collection of department stores.  For example in my home town of Oceanside , NY we had Chwatskys.  It was no Woodies or Hechts but it was all ours.

Believe it or not someone has actually written a book about Woodward and Lothrop a department store that was sort of the mama bear of the department stores in the DC area.  What I mean was that Garfinkel's was the papa bear with the most expensive merchandise.  I worked there for a year when I was at the University of Maryland.  My student budget allowed me to buy very few of the clothes there but I loved to look.  Hecht's was like the baby bear.  Not exactly Target prices but more comfortable to shop at because the prices were moderate and they had great sales, it was just right.

I lived in the district for awhile so if I had nothing to do on a weekend and I did not feel like going to a museum, I would hope on the metro and go to Woodies (which is what everyone called Woodward and Lothrop) at metro center.  It was a beautiful store especially around the Holidays.  But it went out of business in the mid 1990's and Garfinkels and Hechts pretty much became casualties as well.  Believe me I do my share of shopping at Kohls but it just aint like one of the good old stores of DC.  I have added this on my must read list.  If anyone has read it or reads it before me, let me know how you like it.  Hope it's good.  Here is the book write up.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/new-book-details-the-history-of-woodward-and-lothrop-a-vanished-dc-department-store/2014/04/16/cae0ed12-c577-11e3-8b9a-8e0977a24aeb_story.html


Chwatskys