Grab It Here

Grab It Here was a chain of cash-and-carry stores that existed from 1903 to the end of the 20th century in Illinois and Indiana.

C. Sherman Paxton moved to Illinois from Kentucky as a coal miner around 1901. He began saving money to open his own grocery store. By 1903, he had saved $185 ( in modern terms) and opened a small store in Georgetown, Illinois. The store was originally called simply the "C. S. Paxton Store", and he ran it on credit and made deliveries; Paxton closed the store for a time during a coal strike but returned later and opened the store again.

In 1919, Paxton opened a cash-only store managed by his son Ernie and it was here that the "Grab-It-Here" name first appeared. By the 1930s, there were several cash-and-carry stores in operation. By 1941, that grew to a chain of 40 stores. In 1968, Grab-It-Here became affiliated with Dolly Madison Industries. By the 1980s, the chain was defunct.

C. S. Paxton died in 1950.

Locations
Here is a list of stores according to an anniversary brochure from the 1960s: