Woolco
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Woolco was a discount retail department store chain, founded in 1962, as a subsidiary of The F.W. Woolworth Company. Woolco stores were Woolworth's response to Kresge's Kmart stores. Kmart, Target, Meijer and Wal-Mart all opened their first stores in 1962.
In 1983 Woolco was closed in the United States. However, the Canadian division of approximately 140 stores remained open until 1994, when it was acquired by Wal-Mart. That company quickly converted most of the stores (closing 15% of the stores where workers belonged to the United Food and Commercial Workers union, now known as UFCW Canada) and became an immediate force on the Canadian retailing scene. To appeal to the sensitivities of the Canadian market, Wal-Mart stores in Canada left the hyphen in its logo when American stores replaced it with a star, which is also a tribute to the memory of founder Sam Walton, in the mid-1990s. The star has since been introduced to some Canadian stores.
Many locations contained Red Grille restaurants, and the food areas sold popcorn, real milkshakes, and other food.