A 1937 photo of a Woolworth’s store where employees were on strike in Detroit, Michigan. This photograph is included here as an example of the interior of early stores. Goods were laid out on top of wooden counters that had glass dividers between the various items. In the centre of the store, the long counters formed a rectangle with a clerk in the centre. In the days before fluorescent lights incandescent lights covered with white globes hung on long poles from the ceiling. 

In summer large floor fans kept the air moving before the days of air conditioning. The cots are present because the archival photo is documenting a workers’ strike and the clerks were occupying the store in an early “sit-in” labor action.