Grossman's

In the early 1990s the company operated four chains of stores that provided a wide variety of home improvement supplies to customers throughout New England and surrounding states, as well as selected locations in the Midwest and West. Founded in Massachusetts before the turn of the century, Grossman's remained a family-owned firm through the 1960s.... It then joined a larger conglomerate, which was subsequently taken over and driven into bankruptcy in the 1980s. Grossman's emerged from the bankruptcy with a semblance of its original business, a chain of lumber and construction supply stores, intact. Grossman's was founded by Louis Grossman, who emigrated to the United States from Podeski, Russia, paying $17 to travel in steerage to Ellis Island. From New York, Grossman made his way to the Boston metropolitan area, where he first made a living as a peddler, subsisting on $1.50 per week for room and board. After saving enough to purchase a horse and wagon, Grossman became a traveling junk dealer, collecting and selling items on a route that ran between the Boston satellites of Quincy, to the south, and Walpole, to the north. He eventually added the imperfect products of a roofing firm to his line of items. In 1900 Grossman brought his two oldest sons, Reuben and Jacob, aged 14 and 12, respectively, into his business. In recognition of their involvement, he renamed his business L. Grossman and Sons. He expanded his business, branching out into used furniture. In 1907 the Grossmans bought their first piece of property, acquiring an old monument manufacturing plant in Quincy. The sale of the materials left in the plant at auction netted the Grossmans their first significant profit. Throughout the end of that decade, and into the first half of the next, the Grossmans gradually expanded their trade in building materials, which had begun with roofing seconds and been boosted by their purchase of the monument site. In 1915, as a result of this expansion, the company purchased a new supply yard. The Grossmans distributed ...Read More