In the 1950s and 60s the five-and-dime market was invented and then dominated by two entrepreneurial giants Woolworth's and Newberry's. Like the giants Wal-mart and K-mart today, both these marketing geniuses broke ground for the megastores that have now asphalted forests and farmlands.

The idea both Woolworth's and Newberry's sold was that you could get virtually anything and get it cheap at their stores. It did seem that they stocked everything from dishes to dresses to tools and toys; from a hundred colors of thread and a hundred types of candy to cosmetics and . . . crocodiles!

Yes, crocodiles. Small crocodiles. Okay, they were probably South American caimans. But along with a seemingly endless supply of those remarkably short-lived baby turtles (and at Easter baby chickens), crocodi…