Talk:W. T. Grant

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My sister worked at the Oceanside store as a cashier in 1974-5. We remember the store, but even then my sister knew it was being terribly mismanaged. It was only a matter of time until it closed. Thanks for jogging my memory about the store - I think about it from time to time and used to remember the radio jingle for it - but it's kinda gone from my memory now. --avnative 19:18, Sep 2, 2004 (UTC)

We had one too

There was a store in the San Francisco area simply called Grant's. I think it closed in the late 1970s.

I agree with breaking this up into a disambiguation page. Interactii 01:57, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

I worked for W.T. Grant Company during the dark days. The closure of the stores was announced during January 1976 (I forget the exact date) after 1975 Christmas sales fell below expectations. The stores were padlocked and a final inventory was taken during February 1976. During March 1976 Grant's had it's going out of business sale. The radio ad, which we had to hear during working hours over the building's sound system, ended with "because Grant's is going out of business (pause) FOREVER". Very sad for we employees.

I also worked for a W. T. Grant store, in Indianapolis, in the late sixties and early seventies. This was my first job out of school, and I worked in the credit department. In my store, I performed a credit check on all applications for credit, and refused many. In all the stores in my area, this was the case. Where did the author of this information get the idea that credit checks were not performed? I would really be interested in knowing more about this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bowietrek (talk • contribs) 03:56, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

Grants

Was it spelled Grants or Grant's? 76.241.87.44 (talk) 19:18, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

There was no apostrophe. You can see their logo by Googling "grants store christmas" without the quotes, go to Image Results, and click to enlarge one of the Christmas album covers. 24.34.190.157 (talk) 12:42, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

There May Have Been Other Causes

From discussions with a former W T Grant store general manager, part of the cause for the downfall of the W T Grant Company was due to poor implementation of computerized systems. It can be noted under ERP Implementation that early efforts were occurring during the time that Grants was failing. W T Grant executives may have been looking for a rapid competitive advantage that the ERP would have provided, but failed in its implementation, which hastened the company's demise. It was discussed in the stores that typists were hired to punch computer cards for data entry, but typists skills were not the ones that were required. Lack of proper training is stated as a common reason for failure under ERP Implementation. The individuals that made the final corporate business decisions are likely no longer available for interview. (Child of Grants (talk) 22:22, 1 August 2010 (UTC))

It was Disorganized

I worked at the Grants in Leesburg, Florida, for a few weeks in 1970. I was working in their office. My supervisor was a woman named Libby Boyette and she bullied and harassed me from the first day I went to work there. This was my first job, and I feel she took unfair advantage of the fact that I was so green. I was let go after a few weeks but it took me a long time to realize that I wasn't incompetent like Libby led me to believe. I learned later that my predecessor had left that job because she wasn't getting along with Libby. I also learned that Libby had at one time been the floor manager and that she harassed the sales clerks when she was in this position (which was probably why they moved her into the office). A friend of mine also had the experience at this store of wanting to buy something that didn't have the price on it so she asked a sales clerk what the price was and then quoted this price the sales clerk had given her to the cashier. The cashier called this same sales clerk to verify this and at this point the sales clerk quoted a higher price which led the cashier to think my friend was trying to cheat them.

The following year I worked at the Grants in Mt. Dora, Florida. I had nicer supervisors there but the store was not organized and I was constantly being frustrated with being asked questions by customers that I did not know the answer to and there was no one around to ask. Also, since I was part-time that meant I worked all the holidays and weekends in addition to the evenings (although I would get one night a week off). I was supposed to get every third Sunday off but they would always find a reason to make me work when my Sunday off came up.

When I learned about the stores closing their doors, I was not surprised considering how disorganized they were. They probably had no idea how much money they were losing as a result. — Preceding unsigned comment added by DebbiePLS (talk • contribs) 21:49, 3 January 2013 (UTC)

District Credit Mgr.

March 1964 at age 24, I was hired as a Credit Mgr. trainee I had just came from a national loan co, Grants had just hired Tony De Larenzo away from either HFC or Benifical Loan where he he was the head of the co.. Tony's job was to have 20% of store sales be thru credit dept, I was one of the first credit mgrs. to be hired, within one year I was promoted to District Credit Mgr. based out out of Camp Hill Pa, I covered 25 stores, after one year I resigned as one could see the hand writing on the wall..........their systems were all out of date and embarked on a costly credit dept adventure, real estate dept picked crappy locations, there was talk of someone was "on the take" I truly enjoyed my time with "GRANTS", gained alot that helped in the future.----Life's a Hoot (talk) 13:29, 26 July 2021 (UTC)

Grant’s Restaurant

My mom was a waitress @ The Bradford House Restaurant located inside Grant's Department Store ❤️ Angelia Gasparovich (talk) 01:48, 31 May 2024 (UTC)