W T Grant

Moderator: Groceteria

Harvas

Post by Harvas »

We had a Grant's in Vienna, VA, in a strip mall on Maple Avenue (with a Giant supermarket at the other end.) The sign was orange letters on a white background. I remember it always being dimly lit inside, probably because of the energy crisis. After it closed in 1975, it became a Dart Drug, part of which later became Trak Auto. After the Dart chain bit the dust, it was turned into a Michael's craft store, which it still is today. The Trak Auto is now Advance Auto Parts.

Interestingly, that shopping center already had a Peoples, so for 15 years it had two drug stores!
User avatar
runchadrun
Veteran
Posts: 618
Joined: 27 Dec 2005 14:29
Location: Granada Hills (Los Angeles), CA
Contact:

Post by runchadrun »

runchadrun wrote:
Jeff wrote:Odd you should say that. I was at the Culver Center yesterday and was wondering what the Bally's was before it was that. Its a large two story building....i thought it could have been a JCPenney.
Sit n Sleep is where JCPenney used to be. JCPenney closed in the 80s, it's surprising that it didn't close when Fox Hills Mall opened. It was a 2.5-level store, with the the changing rooms in the upstairs balcony. It was a classic JCPenney setup for its era, and I remember other stores with the same architechture.

Originally Sit n Sleep was on the south end of the center right on Washington Blvd to the east of the little street that goes thru the center. I believe that was the first Sit n Sleep, before the annoying "freeeee!" commercials.
I just wanted to follow up on this post from a year ago, since I just drove by for the first time in a long time. Jeff is right about the Bally's being in the former JC Penney. When I lived on the Westside, about 10 years ago, Sit n Sleep was in the former JC Penney and Bally's was in part of the former WT Grant. Since then they have (sorta) swapped spaces. The JC Penney now houses Bally's (probably a better use of that space) and Sit n Sleep is in part of the space where WT Grant was. The space just to the south of Sit n Sleep (Tuesday Morning?) is where Bally's was.

The Ralphs has also been remodeled from its days as a Market Basket. If you look at the north, west and south views of the LL link you'll see the original Market Basket.
http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2& ... ne=6993068
ieguy441
Contributor
Posts: 67
Joined: 12 Feb 2006 01:26

Post by ieguy441 »

The pre-remodel Ralphs is identical to a former Albertsons in Hemet. 1/2 the building is Staples, the other half 99 cents only. It's been very crudely remodeled, with only the 99 cents only store remodeling the facade... it looks awful.
User avatar
runchadrun
Veteran
Posts: 618
Joined: 27 Dec 2005 14:29
Location: Granada Hills (Los Angeles), CA
Contact:

Post by runchadrun »

ieguy441 wrote:The pre-remodel Ralphs is identical to a former Albertsons in Hemet. 1/2 the building is Staples, the other half 99 cents only. It's been very crudely remodeled, with only the 99 cents only store remodeling the facade... it looks awful.
That style facade is a typical Market Basket facade from the late 70's/early 80's. There's a picture of my local former MB at http://www.groceteria.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=1004
wulfgar64
Contributor
Posts: 19
Joined: 17 Jun 2007 04:44
Location: Downey, CA

Sacramento Grants store

Post by wulfgar64 »

My mom used to shop in the Grants store located in the SouthGate Mall on Florin Rd in the late 60s. I remember that they had a pretty decent lunch counter. That was before the construction of Florin Mall down the street and the decline of the area.
mike t. whittier ca
Contributor
Posts: 23
Joined: 14 Oct 2007 05:22

Post by mike t. whittier ca »

When i was growing up in garden grove there was a grants store. it was located on harbor blvd & garden grove blvd. After it closed some other store came in, after it closed that bulding became a chucky cheese. there was also an alpha beta and a hi-low drug store, the last time i was in that area there was a staples and a 99 cents only store.
Toby Radloff
Contributor
Posts: 93
Joined: 04 Nov 2005 20:48

Post by Toby Radloff »

Grants had several NE OH locations as well...they had a huge store on Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland, which is currently known as "The W.T. Grant Lofts"...the former store was vacant for years before the loft conversion. An old painted sign saying "GRANTS-Known For Values" is still painted on the side of the building.

Suburban W. T. Grant/Grant City locations in NE OH I recall:

Midtown Plaza, Parma (later Uncle Bill's/Cooks/Hills/Ames, now Outlet Marketplace)

West Bagley Road, Berea (later Fazio's, currently remodeled into small strip center; stores include Hollywood Video, Dollar General, Sherwin Williams, and several smaller stores/restaurants.)

Rt. 59, Kent (later K mart, now Gabriel Brothers)

Solon Square (later Giant Eagle/Finast/Tops, now a Stein Mart)

I think Grants had a store in Euclid on Lakeshore Boulevard, but don't recall offhand.
Sdorulla
Contributor
Posts: 13
Joined: 06 Sep 2007 10:20
Location: Cleveland, OH

Post by Sdorulla »

Grants also had a store in Chardon and one in Medina for sure. I believe they also had a store in Biddulph Plaza in Brooklyn which subsequently became a Silverman's (small local discount store chain which actually had more of the feel of a hardware store -- lots of interesting household items you couldn't find anywhere else). Don't know what's in the Brooklyn store now. The Euclid store was on Lake Shore Blvd. in the area where the movie theaters (Lake and Shore theaters) were. When Grant's was closing, the downtown Cleveland store was closed in the first wave of closings and the Euclid store was in the second wave (I remember seeing it on the news.) The others hung on to the very end.

Lots of memories of the downtown Cleveland Grants store. I remember the main floor had poor lighting that made the store look dark. They had a great basement, walking down the stairs to the right was a large lunch counter (great burgers) and to the left was the record dept. Spent a lot of time there as a teenager.

For whatever reason, Grants did not locate in the "A" shopping centers of the time (like Southgate, Shoregate, Westgate, Parmatown, Southland, etc.) Those were left to Woolworth's and Kresge's. Don't know if it was due to higher rents in those shopping centers, slowness on the part of Grants to open suburban stores, having a little different merchandise mix or what.

Stan D.
scanman2
Contributor
Posts: 87
Joined: 20 Sep 2007 18:43
Location: Inland Empire

Grants

Post by scanman2 »

I seem to remember a Grants in Buena Park possibly on Beach Blvd near the old BPC (Buena Park Center) now BPM (Mall).
Last edited by scanman2 on 29 Oct 2007 13:28, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Daniel
Veteran
Posts: 283
Joined: 11 Nov 2005 04:09

Post by Daniel »

I wonder if the Brooklyn store is where the Salvation Army store is now. I was in there and they had a great terrazzo floor in there, and I thought it looked like it was a five and dime at one point.
Toby Radloff
Contributor
Posts: 93
Joined: 04 Nov 2005 20:48

Post by Toby Radloff »

I seem to recall Silverman's (a locally owned discounter that once had 8 stores and is currently down to 2) having a store at Biddulph Plaza, possibly at the former Grants location. Spartan Atlantic also had a Biddulph Plaza store, which I think later became a Pick-N-Pay and a Finast...that store closed when Finast opened at nearby Ridge Park Square.
rich
Veteran
Posts: 673
Joined: 15 Nov 2005 20:51
Location: Washington, DC

Post by rich »

Pick-n-Pay was at Biddulph when Spartan-Atlantic was still there.

Uncle Bill's co-existed with Grant's at Midtown, perhaps they took over the space after Grant's closed. That was not a high volume Uncle Bill's.

I think the Bagley Road store had a brief life as a Kroger superstore.

The one place where Grant's did compete with Woolworth & Kresge was in Euclid on Lake Shore Blvd. That whole area was/is a mix of strips of varying size, freestanding stores and a wall of "main street" shopfronts on Lake Shore Blvd. Most of that development took place at the end of the 40s or sometime during the 50s, with a few additions in the 60s. In some ways, it was an extension of an older street car strip further West, just past the end of Babbit Road & E 222nd and some busineses like Cleveland Trust Bank and A&P simply moved Eastward into bigger quarters. That area also was the only place I know where all of Cleveland's major grocery chains competed. There have been a succession of competing centers since the 50s (Shoregate, Richmond Mall, and later Euclid Square) and that area was declining as a hub by the early 60s. Kresge left as part of a wave of closings and Jupiter conversions that took place when they rolled out K-Mart. That store was a long running Furniture Land and then the East Side Irish-American Club. Grants closed briefly, a few years later but re-orpened with less retail space--they closed the basement and focused mostly on soft lines. That store previously had stocked exotic pets such as an oceleot, snakes and (briefly) a koala bear along with the usual sickly gerbils and turtles.

Grant's competed with Woolworth at Solon Square and at the Painesville Shopping Center. They opened very few stores after the early 60s until the Grant City era.
Toby Radloff
Contributor
Posts: 93
Joined: 04 Nov 2005 20:48

Post by Toby Radloff »

Pick-N-Pay moved into the Spartan Atlantic space after the chain closed their Biddulph Plaza location (I believe that closed when the entire chain folded in early 1975...the Brookpark Road (now Value City) and Bedford (later Barney's/Carl's/Rini Rego; now demolished) stores closed around the same time. This was one of Pick-N-Pay's "Food Palace" locations, and was similar to the Southgate location, which was in a former Topps discount store. Pick-N-Pay most likely had a smaller store in that same plaza while Spartan Atlantic was still in business. The store later became a Finast, which later moved to Ridge Park Square in a building that was originally constructed for Giant Eagle, during their first short-lived attempt to open stores in the Cleveland area in the mid-1980's. The former Finast space was since cut up into smaller stores, and Giant Eagle built a free standing store opposite Biddulph Plaza in the late 1990's.
umtrr-author
Contributor
Posts: 61
Joined: 18 Sep 2007 18:19

Post by umtrr-author »

Haven't checked this board lately so I'm chiming in a bit late.

There was a W.T. Grant store in Carteret, New Jersey (what exit? #12 off the Turnpike, actually) where I lived for 20 years. It was the "anchor" store of the strip mall that was the Carteret Shopping Center for a number of years; at the other end was a Finast.

The store burned down along with several of the adjacent stores sometime before the chain gave up. It was never rebuilt and the area stood vacant for some time before the local Shop-Rite built a new store on the site.

The Finast burned down too, a bit earlier if I recall correctly. It was years before anything was put there.

If I grew up with any department store, it would have been the Two Guys first in Jersey City and then in Woodbridge, so I don't have any particular memories of Grants except perhaps looking around a time or two when my dad's commuter bus was late and my mother didn't want to keep us in the car waiting for him.
OldBlueValiant
Contributor
Posts: 13
Joined: 02 Dec 2007 02:53
Location: Southern California

Post by OldBlueValiant »

Are Grant City stores included in this thread? Grant City stores were large discount department stores operated by WT Grants. There was a Grant City store in Freedom, CA just outside the Watsonville city limit at that time. The shopping center was built in the early 70s, and the Grant City store closed in '76 and became a Kmart. In '93 the Kmart store relocated to a larger building a couple blocks away on the same street in Watsonville. The Albertsons store in the same Freedom shopping center remodeled the old Grant City store and moved in by '94. In '99 it was sold to Ralphs but it closed in '05. I heard Safeway moved in.
Post Reply