The Ames Fan Club

Defunct Retail => Defunct Department Stores => Topic started by: Jag67 on April 19, 2005, 02:41:57 PM

Title: Kaufmann's
Post by: Jag67 on April 19, 2005, 02:41:57 PM
They're a regional chain owned by May's. This is there boulevard location, which was a Kobacker's, then Hengerer's, then Sibley's, then Kaufmann's!! All the Hengerer's became Sibley's in 1983 and All the sibley's became Kaufmann's in the late 80's. I believe this store (Like the Eastern Hills Location which hopefully I can go get pics tonite of) was last renovated when Sibley's took over in 83. However, the store is very well-maintained and Kept up, so It doesn't show it's age as badly.
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: Jag67 on April 19, 2005, 02:43:07 PM
Make-up Dept.
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: Jag67 on April 19, 2005, 02:45:03 PM
This is cool. The center area. I love how the flash is reflected on all the mirrors. (I'm sorry the pic is so big, I just have to show the whole thing. I'll crop it some more if anybody wants me to.)
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: Jag67 on April 19, 2005, 09:22:58 PM
Eastern Hills Location Built in 1971. Formerly Hengerers, then Sibley's.
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: Jag67 on April 19, 2005, 09:23:32 PM
Mall enterance.
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: Jag67 on April 19, 2005, 09:25:04 PM
Second Floor. Pretty dark up here.
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: jmn3 on April 27, 2005, 11:34:27 AM
QuoteOriginally posted by Jag67
They're a regional chain owned by May's. This is there boulevard location, which was a Kobacker's, then Hengerer's, then Sibley's, then Kaufmann's!! All the Hengerer's became Sibley's in 1983 and All the sibley's became Kaufmann's in the late 80's. I believe this store (Like the Eastern Hills Location which hopefully I can go get pics tonite of) was last renovated when Sibley's took over in 83. However, the store is very well-maintained and Kept up, so It doesn't show it's age as badly.

Actually, that store I do not believe was ever a Wm. Hengerer Co. location or Kobacker's.  Hengerer's "Amherst" store was located on Main and Eggert in Eggertsville, just down the street from the UB South Campus.  I believe once the stores became Sibley's, this was when the Boulevard store opened.  Sattler's was the original occupant of the Kaufmann's store.  They closed in 1982 and Hengerer's had changed to Hengerer's / Sibley's in late 80 or 81.  When the Boulevard Sibley's opened, they closed the location on Sheridan Drive near Delaware Road (this is currently empty, it was for many years, a Bells supermarket and then a Quality Market).  The Main and Eggert location closed not long after as well, probably around the same time the Downtown store closed in 87.
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: jmn3 on April 27, 2005, 11:36:45 AM
QuoteOriginally posted by jmn3
Actually, that store I do not believe was ever a Wm. Hengerer Co. location or Kobacker's.

I'm not sure of Kobacker's exact location at Boulevard.  I believe they were an original anchor, along with Jenss and Sattler's.  It's possible they were located around where Penney's is today.  I know that JCP was not an original anchor store when the mall opened in 1961/62.  Also, that Penney's is VERY reminiscient of the late 60's/early 70's stores which would make sense because Kobacker's was long gone in the very early 70's.
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: jmn3 on April 27, 2005, 11:42:48 AM
QuoteOriginally posted by Jag67
Eastern Hills Location Built in 1971. Formerly Hengerers, then Sibley's.

This one always reminds me of the old Seneca Mall Hengerer's/Sibley's store.  It's pretty much the same, inside and out.  The Seneca store was built in 1969.  Unfortunately, that mall has been gone for over 10 years now.  When I was a kid in the 80's...the Seneca Mall was the place to go for the southtowns!  Sibley's closed up shop there in 1989 in response to new stores at the Walden Galleria (they actually opened up several months before the rest of the mall did in May 1989) and McKinley Malls.  

Funny thing about Sibley's.  The Galleria store opened up with one logo (a script logo...very 'fancy' looking) in late '88 (I think just before Christmas).  The McKinley store opened up during the next year, with a totally different logo (picture a slimmer looking Times New Roman, all capital letters, with the right hand side of the "Y" replaced with an apostrophe.  Even more amusing is that within another year, May merged the stores into Kaufmann's, and all the signage had to be replaced!  I think this happened at the Irondequoit Mall in Rocheter as well.  The signage had to be changed on the Kaufmann's/Sibley's store before the store/mall even opened!  The change to Kaufmann's happened in 1990.
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: Jag67 on April 29, 2005, 02:17:21 PM
Thanks for the great info..Man that's weird..It's like the Sibley's that never was!!:dizzy:
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: jmn3 on April 29, 2005, 06:51:00 PM
Here's a picture of a compact I found on Google depicting the "Hengerer's Sibley's" moniker that Associated Dry Goods threw onto the Buffalo stores during the transition from Hengerer's to Sibley's in 1981.  The Hengerer's logo was the last used by the chain.  I've seen it this way and also in the same font reading "the wm. hengerer co."  The Sibley's logo was placed on all of the Buffalo stores at the time, Downtown, Amherst (Main and Eggert), Sheridan Drive, Eastern Hills, and Seneca Mall.  Only the Eastern Hills location survived the nine year span and was changed over to Kaufmann's.  

I know that my Grandma and Mother had charge cards that had this logo on it.  They were actually used until into the 90's (prob late 90/91) with the dual logo (even though Hengerer's was long since phased-out by the time my memory comes into play in the mid-80's) when May finally replaced the Sibley's cards with Kaufmann's cards.  They also pulled the dual logo at this time...first the ads read "Sibley's-Kaufmann's", then "Kaufmann's-Sibley's," and finally just "Kaufmann's."  Similar ploy was done by The Bon-Ton in 1995 when they began phasing out AM&A's.  Actually, the ads in the paper would have both names, but every week the AM&A's logo would be a lighter shade of gray until one week it was finally gone!
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: Jag67 on April 29, 2005, 10:47:54 PM
Hey!! I have one of those somewhere!! Got it for christmas..Hope I can still find it:huh:
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: Jag67 on May 01, 2005, 09:01:26 AM
BTW, here's some more pics of the Kaufmann's Eastern Hills store...sorry the quality is so bad, these were taken both on my old camera and a one-time.

The very dark furniture dept. upstairs..
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: Jag67 on May 01, 2005, 09:02:34 AM
Appliance dept. upstairs..
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: Jag67 on May 01, 2005, 09:03:15 AM
clothes
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: jmn3 on May 01, 2005, 05:47:04 PM
If you really want to check out Kaufmann's...check out the Downtown Pittsburgh store.  It's a landmark...twelve levels, restaurants, wooden escalators.  It's just too bad that May is being taken over by Federated and this store will either become another cookie cutter Macy's or more than likely will be shuttered altogether.  Federated has already closed stores in Pittsburgh twice (downtown), Horne's during the 1990's, and then Lazarus-Macy's last year.

This is department store shopping the way it was meant to be.  You can literally spend an entire day meandering through the multiple levels and expanded departments...you find things here you would never find at a mall location.
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: jmn3 on May 01, 2005, 05:49:07 PM
Found this on the net...
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: jmn3 on May 01, 2005, 05:50:01 PM
The famous Kaufmann's clock which hangs over the corner of Fifth and Smithfield Streets in downtown Pittsburgh.
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: Jag67 on May 02, 2005, 08:32:40 PM
Here's the Walden Galleria location.
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: jmn3 on May 02, 2005, 09:55:49 PM
Here's a very old shot (mid '60's, found at buffalohistoryworks.com) of the Boulevard Mall location when it was Sattler's.  This it taken from Niagara Falls Blvd. and if you look, the mall pretty much resembles the current look.  Sattler's is now Kaufmann's, the mall roof is raised with skylights.  You can barely see the Jenss building off to front left, but this is before Jenss added the second floor to the current Kaufmann's Mens Store.  You can also see Kleinhans in the back.  This store was last part of the Jenss decor store until 2000 and has been used as the Flag store for a few years now right next to JCPenney.  Also, note that Penney's has not been constructed yet.
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: Caldor1999 on May 02, 2005, 10:44:44 PM
QuoteOriginally posted by Jag67
Here's the Walden Galleria location.

that store looks like a former Filene's cause the Danburey Mall in CT wich has Filenes has that same look to it
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: Jag67 on May 03, 2005, 05:30:22 AM
Jeez..talk about inviduality. No, it was never a Filene's, but it was originally a Sibley's,  which was another regional dept. store. This location opened in late 1988 and became Kaufmann's in 1989/90, so it was only Sibley's for a few months.
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: amesman on May 03, 2005, 04:12:05 PM
The reason why it looks similar to a Filenes is because Filenes and Kaufmanns are both owned by May(Federated).
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: Caldor1999 on May 03, 2005, 04:29:25 PM
hears the Filenes that has Kaufmann's look this filene's opend sometime in 1987 or 1988:huh: but it was the late 80's
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: Jag67 on May 03, 2005, 05:24:55 PM
Woah that looks exactly like it!!! I bet it was designed by the same architect.
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: Caldor1999 on May 03, 2005, 05:58:49 PM
QuoteOriginally posted by Jag67
Woah that looks exactly like it!!! I bet it was designed by the same architect.
i have a day time pic but its to big to post on hear lol but yea this store im guessing opened in 1988 but its a verey coo looking store
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: Caldor1999 on May 09, 2005, 04:18:07 PM
hears that filene's at day time aug 2004
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: Caldor1999 on May 09, 2005, 04:18:30 PM
close up of the logo:bouncing:
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: Jag67 on May 10, 2005, 02:31:01 PM
sweet here's another veiw of the Walden Kaufmann's
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: amesman on August 05, 2005, 11:40:45 AM
Here's the Carousel Center store in Syracuse.
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: amesman on August 05, 2005, 11:54:20 AM
And, talk about similarity. Here's the Filenes store at the Poughkeepsie Galleria, in Poughkeepsie, NY.
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: Caldor1999 on August 07, 2005, 11:51:52 AM
=ahs the same look as the filenes in dancbury CT as seen in the pics poosed before
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: amesman on August 07, 2005, 02:20:54 PM
Also, notice each picture of mine, has one of the mall parking lot lights reflected in the Filenes/Kaufmanns facade...haha
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: powersbt on August 25, 2006, 10:18:36 PM
Drove past the Kaufmann's location in Sangertown Square in New Hartford, NY earlier today, and see that the exterior signs now say Macys with a Kaufmann's Banner covering it. When is the official change date from Kaufmann's to Macy's?? Will there be a short shutdown between the close of Kaufmanns and the reopening of Macys?? I haven't heard much about it lately, wondering if anyone else had.
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: KyleRF on August 25, 2006, 11:01:28 PM
The official date of changeover will be on September 9, 2006. No, the Kaufmann's logo will come off and the Macy's logo will go on, without a shutdown.
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: powersbt on August 25, 2006, 11:07:57 PM
Coolbeans. Thanks for the Heads Up!!

QuoteOriginally posted by KyleRF
The official date of changeover will be on September 9, 2006. No, the Kaufmann's logo will come off and the Macy's logo will go on, without a shutdown.
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: Pikapower on April 27, 2016, 07:54:38 PM
Quote from: amesman on August 05, 2005, 11:40:45 AM
Here's the Carousel Center store in Syracuse.
(http://amesfanclub.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1164.0;attach=33699;image)

That looks like the same design that was used the Kaufmann's (now Macy's) store at Walden Galleria in Buffalo since Walden Galleria and Carousel Center/Destiny USA were I think were built by the same company.
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: TheFugitive on April 28, 2016, 09:11:29 AM
Worked for them briefly in a part-time seasonal gig as I was changing careers.
Worked at the Century III Mall location.  It became a Macy's, which closed recently.
Title: Re: Kaufmann's
Post by: TheFugitive on May 22, 2019, 02:00:39 PM
One of the things Kaufmann's was most famous for was Kaufmann's Clock.
This hung on the side of their Downtown Pittsburgh store, at the corner of Fifth and Smithfield.
(the clock is still there although the building has been converted mainly to loft apartments).

(https://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/kaufman-clock-bw_4CK.jpg)

A big bronze clock weighing over 2500 lbs., it became a favorite meeting spot for Pittsburghers.
People would often arrange with a blind date to "Meet me under Kaufmann's Clock".  Guys would
also add something like "wear a red dress", so that they could just casually cruise by and,
depending on whether or not they liked what was in the red dress, stop and introduce themselves
or just keep on walking.

It was like an early version of Tinder, eighty years ago.