Woolworths has been part of British life for one year short of a century. There cannot be a home in the land that does not have something from Woolies in one of its cupboards.

It is a fair bet that many of the Christmas decorations shortly to be hauled out of attics and cellars will have been snapped up at Woolies in the dim and distant past – some even bearing the old “Winfield” brand name from the 1970s.

It was where generations of Britons first bought a vinyl single, and where their first school uniform was bought. And, of course, it is home to the Pick’n’Mix counter.

Woolworths was founded in Pennsylvania in 1879 by Frank Winfield Woolworth, who had hit on the idea of selling goods for a fixed price of either five or ten cents – the original “nickel and dime” concept.

Known as “The Chief” by his staff, Woolworth was something of a perfectionist, famously once making a long journey across the German countryside to track down a particular craftsman for his Christmas tree decorations.

Having swept the United States, Woolworth decided to head across the Atlantic, opening his first store in Liverpool in 1909. The concept was the same – with all goods priced at threepence or sixpence.

Woolworth wrote in his diary: “I believe that a good penny and sixpence store, run by a live Yankee, would be a sensation here.”

He was right. On its first day, there were queues round the block to get into the “3d and 6d” store, with every item on the shelves being bought.

Britons had never before been able to browse in a store and actually handle the goods – they were used to queueing at a counter to be served. Equally popular were the refreshment rooms that provided free cups of tea to shoppers, helping them to get used to the idea of wandering into a shop simply to browse.

More stores quickly followed across the North of England, in Manchester, Leeds and Hull, with the pace of expansion stepped up during the Great War – when few other retailers were active in the property market.

Between the wars, more than 350 stores opened across Britain, and in 1931 Woolies was floated on the London Stock Exchange as a company in its own right. The 6d price limit was lifted in 1942 and Woolworths carried on expanding into the 1970s – when the number of shops in Britain peaked at 1,144. At that point, every high street in every major town or city had a branch of Woolies, its nickname sealed for posterity in the store’s famous “That’s the Wonder of Woolies” advertising jingle.

But then high street competitors raised their game. Shops such as W H Smith and Boots stocked many of the lines sold in Woolies, while retaining their own unique selling points, as did hardware and household goods shops – and even supermarkets.

By 1982, when there were still 980 branches of Woolies across Britain, the US parent company was persuaded to sell its 52 per cent stake and the business was taken over for £320 million by Paternoster – a consortium led by Sir Geoff Mulcahy and backed by Sir Victor Blank’s Charterhouse Bank. The name of the business was changed first to Woolworth Holdings and then, in 1989, to Kingfisher. By then, the company also owned the DIY chain B&Q, Superdrug and Comet.

In 1997, meanwhile, the very last Woolworth store in the US closed – but Woolies staggered on here.

Four years later, Kingfisher broke itself up, demerging Comet and its other electrical retailing operations and selling Superdrug.

Woolies too was floated in its own right, under the chairmanship of the former Railtrack boss Gerald Corbett, but was on a loser from the start. Saddled with too much debt by Kingfisher and too much stock, from the previous management’s poor buying, it suffered a dreadful first Christmas as an independent company.

The supermarkets was gnawing away at its market share, as were online retailers, while attempts to refocus on confectionery, “celebrations”, toys and children’s clothing failed to pay off.

The company still enjoys big market shares in children’s clothes, toys and sweets but, for most analysts, the jewels in the crown are now not the high-street stores but 2entertain – a DVD publishing joint venture with BBC Worldwide – and EUK, a book, music and DVD distributor.

The failure of Woolies, with more than 800 stores, is the very last thing anyone in retail wanted before Christmas. Boarded-up stores are unlikely to entice shoppers to the high street.

And at this time of year, when Woolies has traditionally reigned supreme, its administration seems especially poignant.

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