W.T. Grant

W.T. Grant was a chain of variety stores in the United States, founded in 1906 in Lynn, Massachusetts. Initially located primarily in downtown shopping districts, Grants opened its first suburban shopping center locations in 1949, and by the early 1960s, these made up a majority of the company's stores. The chain's footprint peaked in 1972 with 1,208 stores in all states except Alaska, Hawaii, South Dakota, and Wyoming. In 1975, W.T. Grant experienced the largest retail bankruptcy that had occurred in American history up to that point, and the chain was completely liquidated by the end of 1976.