This initiative to extend credit to all customers was made in 1969, during a prosperous period in US history, when Grant was expanding into new areas of the US. W. T. Grant hoped to attract customers from rival Kresge and other department stores. The low number of defaults on small loans at this time meant that the credit arrangements seemed a good idea, but the absence of any credit check, and the low minimum repayment terms were extreme, even for the times. When the economic expansion slowed in 1970/1971 the balance shifted and the credit arrangement became more of a liability than an asset. No decision was made to change or halt this before 1974, by which time the company's collapse was a certainty.