Whatever Happened To … Grants?

The W.T. Grant Co. was a nationwide chain of stores with a huge presence in the Rochester area for decades. Grants started as a “25-cent variety store,” a step above the five-and-dimes of the time, and grew into a full-service retailer. The stores had in-house restaurants and lunch counters known as “Bradford Houses,” with a pilgrim mascot named Bucky Bradford. At its peak, Grants was the fifth-largest retailer in the United States. But the fall was harsh, as Grants went through the second-biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history to that point and tens of thousands of workers lost their jobs… read more >