W.T. Grant / Grants

[Rayco7030]

5

[beachgal26]

I remember them well during my childhood and teen years as a nice, clean variety store where you could find just about anything.  In addition, they had a lunch counter (which has become a non-entity in the days of fast food places) that had great food and fountain Cokes that were served by friendly motherly-type servers.

They began in 1906 with their first store in MA and started having problems in the early 70's as they were slow to adapt to the growing suburbs.  Their last store was closed in 1975.

:info:  ;)

[mikey7290]

Here is an article from the February 18, 1976 issue of the Gouverneur Tribune-Press newspaper in Gouverneur, NY.  The former Grants store shown here is on US Route 11 (East Main Street) and was built in 1970 to replace an older downtown store which opened in 1950 and burned down in 1968.  This store closed in 1976 and became an Ames that summer.  It is now a WiseBuys and will soon become a Hackett's.

[XISMZERO]

Found a yarn/spool from Grants at my grandmother's house on Thanksgiving. My mother used to tell me about shopping at Grants (W.T. Grant) all the time and really lamented when they disappeared.

[davidsky]

I remember a Grant's in Poughkeepsie NY. Early 70s when I was very young

[arnoldziffel]

my grandmother was a big grants shopper.  I dont think i was ever inside one.  If i was, i was a baby.  seeing that spool of yarn reminded me of my grandmother going there.  my grandmother had 2 bedrooms full of junk (mostly new, unopened) and i am sure some of it came from grants.  She was quite the shop-a-holic.

[JimSawhill]

There was a WT Grants in the TriCity Plaza (Vernon, Connecticut) that became a Caldor then an Ames and is now a Price Chopper Supermarket. The Bradford House restaurant area became a few small stores. In 1975, I told in my HS paper that I would predict that WT Grants will close in a year. That WT Grant in Bartow, Florida was nice, but the mall it was at was a dump.

[videogamer75]

Originally posted by MBZ321

"Grants in Clementon NJ
More recently this was a Jefferson Ward and then a Bradlees."

Here is that store as of August 2, 2008. That little place on the left was lastly an ACME. I have a picture of it on my Flickr page.

And also, I can't figure out what it was after Grants. You say it was a Jefferson Ward and then Bradlees, one person on Flickr said it was a Pathmark and then a flea market, and another person on Flickr said it became a Woolco and then the "Route 30 Market". :huh: :huh:

[Mobil]

Grants I know:

Dunmore, PA: became King's, then Jamesway, now subdivided into Big Lots and Family Dollar
Claymont, DE: (Tri-State Mall) now Kmart
Egg Harbor/Pleasantville, NJ: (Shore Mall) now Value City

[TheFugitive]

I remember my grandparents taking me to the Grant's in Crafton, PA when I was very young.  We would grab a bite at the Bradford House Restaurant which was attached.  The store later became a K-mart for many years, and is now a large Giant Eagle supermarket.

[nims57]

The Kmart in Berwick, PA looks sort of like a W.T. Grant. address: 1520 W Front St, Berwick, PA‎ 18603

[d_fife]

Originally posted by nims57
The Kmart in Berwick, PA looks sort of like a W.T. Grant. address: 1520 W Front St, Berwick, PA‎ 18603

it probably was one

[jmcnamara96]

I saw there store in the orignal gone in sixty seconds

[catsnap1972]

Originally posted by Mobil
Grants I know:

Dunmore, PA: became King's, then Jamesway, now subdivided into Big Lots and Family Dollar
Claymont, DE: (Tri-State Mall) now Kmart
Egg Harbor/Pleasantville, NJ: (Shore Mall) now Value City

East Lampeter (Lancaster) PA became a Kmart (opened in 1977)

There was another one in West York PA which also became a Kmart, but the chain closed the store due to poor sales and also no doubt due to the condition of the building (roof was in horrible shape...LEAKS!)...it and the entire shopping center (including a former Hills/Ames store) were demolished and replaced with a new shopping center several years ago.

[nims57]

Originally posted by catsnap1972

Originally posted by Mobil
Grants I know:

Dunmore, PA: became King's, then Jamesway, now subdivided into Big Lots and Family Dollar
Claymont, DE: (Tri-State Mall) now Kmart
Egg Harbor/Pleasantville, NJ: (Shore Mall) now Value City

East Lampeter (Lancaster) PA became a Kmart (opened in 1977)

There was another one in West York PA which also became a Kmart, but the chain closed the store due to poor sales and also no doubt due to the condition of the building (roof was in horrible shape...LEAKS!)...it and the entire shopping center (including a former Hills/Ames store) were demolished and replaced with a new shopping center several years ago.

Welcome, catsnap1972!

I know that center, Delco Plaza. Torn down for a Giant/Lowe's a long time ago. I never knew there was a Grants there.

article on Delco Plaza: http://www.deadmalls.com/malls/delco_plaza_mall_pa.html

[catsnap1972]

Originally posted by nims57

I know that center, Delco Plaza. Torn down for a Giant/Lowe's a long time ago. I never knew there was a Grants there.

article on Delco Plaza: http://www.deadmalls.com/malls/delco_plaza_mall_pa.html

If you enable the "birds eye" view of the property on Microsoft Bing/Live Maps (make sure it's zoomed out as far as possible), one view will show Delco Plaza as it was before it was demolished while if you drag the view, it'll then change to the new center under construction.  One of those strange anomolies of satellite imagery no doubt.

[TRJ22487]

(1993?, Jan 09, Aug 09)

Keene, NH was originally a Grants

When it became Bradlees in the 70's it used the original Grants signage (bottom right/reverse side) through the 80's, which has a different shape than the Bradlees sign did in the 90's (above)



This was most likely the same sign used by Grants when they closed as well, though it is just a guess.
This signage no longer exists and the current one is in a different spot

[shore72]

I am a little too young to remember them, but there are baby pictures of me that were taken there. It is obvious that JCPenney took over a lot of them because that is what became of our local store. That was in Easton, MD at the Talbottown shopping center. I was never 100% sure about the exact location in the plaza but that was the largest store there. JCP moved across town. The upstairs and downstairs have now been seperated, with the upper level becoming a Talbots, I think several small things moved in downstairs.

My Dad still has a Bradford chest freezer from Grants.

[TRJ_22487]

Found this one from December 1966, unknown location, unlisted disaster.

[TRJ_22487]

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in October 1975 as the chain was shutting for good

[katnapped]

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in October 1975 as the chain was shutting for good

Grant's went under the following spring (one of the largest retail going out of business sales at the time)

[MikeRa]

Found out that Philadelphia, PA did have a W.T. Grant store.  It was located at the SE corner of 11th and Market Streets.  It opened in 1954, on the site of the Stanley Warner's Earle Theatre.  After it closed, a Woolworth opened there in 1976.  Then in 1997/98, the building was split into a Staples and a CVS/pharmacy.  Sadly, the staples closed earlier this year.

[retailisking]

Pine Tree Shopping Center, Portland, ME. Former WT Grant on the left which became (obviously) Child World. Currently the space is occupied by a Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft store. The newer Child World on the right with the Castle exterior theme later became Marden's, which retained the theme until 2007. Marden's closed in 2010 and the left half of it became a Dollar Tree (the other half is still vacant.)

[retailisking]

Grant's went under the following spring (one of the largest retail going out of business sales at the time)

It was, in fact, the largest retail bankruptcy in US history up to that time. The series of bad decisions leading to the chain's demise is both sad and infuriating. If that sort of thing interests you the following linked book chapter is well worth reading:
http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft4x0nb2jj&chunk.id=d0e1075

Here's the downtown Portland, ME store exterior in its prime:


The store, which opened in 1942, expanded to four floors in 1948 and boasted the first escalator in Maine:



And what it looks like today, with CVS taking up roughly half of the first floor frontage:

[jamesway_95]

The long-abandoned former Grant City shopping center in Clementon, New Jersey has FINALLY been torn down. I was in that area last week.

[retailisking]

Here's the former Grant City in downtown Brunswick, ME which was rechristened "Grand City" and lingered for more than three decades before finally calling it quits in late 2008:




The store was something of a time capsule right to the bitter end, retaining, for example, the lunch counter of old. Here's a news story from October of 2008 regarding its demise:
http://orient.bowdoin.edu/orient/article.php?date=2008-10-31&section=3&id=1

The store was renovated and reopened in 2011 as a Cool as a Moose novelty store. I'm surprised that Renys didn't end up with it, but perhaps it was just too close to its Bath location (and it should be noted that Renys ended up taking over a vacant storefront in the nearby Topsham Fair Mall.)

[JimSawhill]

Anyone rember GRANTS talk about it here:)

The Grants in Ybor City (Tampa) is a nightclub.  ;D  The Grants in downtown Tampa is abandoned!! :(

[TRJ_22487]

Found an image in the paper of the Grants in Keene, New Hampshire. First image I've ever seen of this store as its original tennant

1970s


1990s


2000s


2010s


There was also a brief period in late 2009 where this Walmart had a brown exterior w/ new logo. It was painted blue in the 2010s

[JimSawhill]

Found an image in the paper of the Grants in Keene, New Hampshire. First image I've ever seen of this store as its original tennant

1970s


1990s


2000s


2010s


There was also a brief period in late 2009 where this Walmart had a brown exterior w/ new logo. It was painted blue in the 2010s

So is Shaw's still there?  What else is in the plaza?

[Brammy]

Shaw's is gone. Home Goods, Harbor Freight, and Sierra are in the the old Shaw's Sierra is an outdoor gear store owned by TJX which also owns Home Goods.

https://dlc.propertycapsule.com/properties/riversideplaza/