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 (4931 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. Then, 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 and by the 1960s there were 24 stores in Illinois and 11 in Indiana. 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: