W.T. Grant Co. and Grant City Stores

Here's another long-gone retailer that was very big in Portland. By the early 70s, they had three stores in Portland; the large Grant's flagship store on Congress Street, a smaller variety style store in the Pine Tree Shopping Center on Brighton Ave, and a huge new Grant City store, complete with a Sears style "Auto Center," anchoring the doomed Northport Plaza on Washington Avenue.

Downtown, Grant's had four full floors, plus a mezzanine, and occupied about 90,000 sq feet. The store hosted a Bradford House Restaurant, a small snack bar (which had very good grilled hotdogs) and sold everything from sewing notions to big appliances. As noted in the grand re-opening ads from 1948, the store also boasted Maine's first escalator:

After years of expansion, Grant's suddenly entered Ch 11 Bankruptcy in the Fall of 1975. They closed most of their stores, retaining the downtown and Northport stores in Portland. After a tough Christmas season, re-branded as the "New Grants," the company was forced into liquidation by their creditors in early 1976. It was the largest retail failure up to that time.

The W.T. Grant failure is now a textbook study for business students about the importance of cashflow versus profit. Though profitable, on paper, almost to the end, Grant's had become over-extended by opening too many locations and extending credit to unworthy applicants. They didn't have enough cash on hand to satisfy their monthly obligations.

In fact, even after liquidation, Grant's realized more than $1 for every dollar owed.

The Grant City in Northport Plaza was ultimately subdivided into a new home for WGAN AM/FM/TV and and Ames Discount Store. The other stores in the plaza were LaVerdiere's Super Drug, a FINAST/Big Buy Supermarket and a Hallmark Shop. Ames closed in 1979 (before their huge expansion and failure,) and the plaza was re-developed as a business park, after forcing LaVerdiere's into a free-standing pod on the property. (Now Rite-Aid.)

The Congress Street location was re-developed into an urban mall, but never grew beyond the first floor, and ultimately failed, along with the rest of Congress Street. (A CVS store remains in a small portion of the space.)

Below are pictures of 510 Congress Street in the 40s, and from the tax assessor's database today...Not very different...The late Porteous, Mitchell & Braun Co. is next door...More about them, later:

Wellwood Stores

There's lots of talk about old retail on the internet, but not much about Maine stores. This is the logo for the Wellwood Co, which was in business for about 45 years, selling out to CVS, and other pharmacy chains, in 1985. I managed their stores at Northgate Shopping Center in Portland and Towers Plaza in Melrose, MA (now Brooks/Rite-Aid), from 1980-1985.

Wellwood's was basically like a Woolworth store and often located in the early suburban strip centers built by Shaw's Supermarkets. Shaw's would anchor one end of the center with Wellwood anchoring the other end. Between the two stores, there were typically a bank, barber shop, hardware store, drug store and an Owen Moore store. Wellwood Stores ranged in size from about 6,000-15,000 sq feet.

Founded by C.K. Wood and G.F. Wells, the original stores were small downtown locations in Somersworth, NH and Saco, ME. Upon their retirement in the late 70s, the chain was sold to hardware wholesaler Emery-Waterhouse. In the early 80s, Wellwood purchased several of the independant pharmacies in their shopping centers, moving them inside their stores. During this time, they also purchased the Lovell's chain of 6 drug stores, running them as a seperate unit.

Attracted by the pharmacy business and prime locations, CVS bought most of the chain in 1985, with Norwood and Melrose being sold to Brook's Drug.

Wellwood Store locations when I was there, and their app. opening dates:

Maine:
Northgate Shopping Center, Portland, ME (1957)
Saco Valley Shopping Center, Saco, ME (1960)
Millcreek Shopping Center, So. Portland, ME (1962)*
Falmouth Shopping Center, Falmouth, ME (1964)
Westgate Shopping Center, Portland, ME (1967)*
Bath Shopping Center, Bath, ME (1978)*
Main Street, Fort Fairfield, ME (1983)*

Lovell's Super Drug Chain, 6 locations (Acquired 1983)

NH:

Durham Shaw's Plaza, Durham, NH (1979)
Massachusetts:

Sunrise Shopping Center, Lowell, MA (1959)

Towers Plaza, Melrose, MA (1965 & 1966)

Nahatan Shopping Center, Norwood, MA (1968)

* Added pharmacy in the early 80's

Cap Juluca

Just testing video upload on Blogger...From a visit to Cap Juluca on Anguilla a couple of years ago.