Retailer, born in Stevensville, Pennsylvania, USA. The family moved to Massachusetts, where he had several jobs including a brief spell as a prize fight promoter. In 1906, while working as a clerk in a store, he noticed how quickly the 25-cent items sold. He went on to open his own large store in Lynn, MA with 21 departments, all selling items for 25 cents or less. W T Grant's, with Grant controlling all the buying, was an immediate success, and he expanded to Connecticut (1908) and New York City (1913). By 1917 he had 30 stores and topped prices at $1. The company went public in 1928, and by 1940 he had stores in 44 states and no limit on prices. He resigned as chairman of the board in 1966, and three years after his death, his company made retail history by filing for bankruptcy. He established the Grant Foundation for children in 1936.
William Thomas Grant was the founder of a chain of U.S. mass-merchandise stores bearing his name, W. Grant.
Grant was a born salesman with a will to succeed. He was born in Stevensville, Bradford County, Pennsylvania and his family moved to Massachusetts when he was approximately 5 years of age.
At age 7, he began his sales career by selling flower seeds. Grant Co.
His initial capital was $1,000 he had saved from his work as a salesman. This modest profit, coupled with a fast turnover of inventory, caused Grant's business to grow to almost $100 million a year in sales by 1936, the same year that he started the () W.T. Grant Foundation. In his later years, William Thomas Grant was Chairman of the Board of the W.T. Grant Company, and President of the W.T. Grant Foundation, and later Chairman of the Board. Grant Company and the Grant Foundation at age 90, yet still served in an honorary capacity until his death in 1972 at age 96. Grant Stores had grown to almost 1,200, though it failed in 1975.
User Comments Add a comment…