New owner "reopens" Scrantoms

Chris Roberts//December 5, 1996//

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Scrantoms at Midtown Plaza officially “reopened” today, although it had never closed its doors.
Mayor William Johnson Jr. held a news conference at the store this morning to introduce the store’s new owner, Gladys Rivera, and its new name, Scrantoms Greeting Cards and Gifts.
Rivera is very familiar with the former Scrantoms Book & Stationery Co. Inc. She has worked there for 14 years under the former owners, Evan and Bonnie Brauer.
“I was very interested, and I went for the challenge,” she said, when the Brauers approached her about the sale.
The Midtown store is the last in a line of Scrantoms stores. Scrantoms had once been an 11-store chain with a wholesale division. But with the advent of national office-supply stores and the added competition they brought, the locations closed one by one until two remained when the store filed bankruptcy papers in August 1992.
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court converted the bankruptcy from Chapter 11 reorganization to Chapter 7 liquidation in summer 1993, bringing an end to the chain.
Inventory was liquidated at both stores. But Rivera said the Brauers were able to rebuild the Scrantoms at Midtown as a gift shop until she bought the name and remaining inventory from them.
The Brauers could not be reached for comment.
Originally Scrantom, Wetmor & Co., the company was acquired by Herbert Brauer–Evan Brauer’s father, who started working at the store as a pen salesman–in 1971. Evan Brauer became president in 1982 and with his wife bought it four years later.
The Midtown store now features one of the largest greeting-card collections in the city, all at 40 percent off the suggested retail price, Rivera said. It also specializes in maps and globes.
Although the former Scrantoms chain ran into competitive trouble in the office-supply business, Rivera said she plans to expand into that realm again. She believes downtown workers need a place they can pick up such items.