Back in the day, when I was really "into" Ames, I visited extended family in Randallstown, MD and was taken to see what remained of one of the former Ames locations there. In 2006 or 2007, it was still mostly vacant, but about a fifth of the store was used seasonally by a Halloween retailer. I decided to take a stroll through the other four-fifths of the store that hadn't been sullied by plasticky Halloween crap. On some shelving units, I found a Real Genuine Ames Post-Bankruptcy Souvenirâ,,¢: a few Planogram sheets left behind on a shelving unit! I was eventually caught by the store employees (obviously, being eleven at the time, charges were not pressed) but I got to keep my little memento from that store.
Though that store has been taken over by a Big Lots in recent years, I seem to have held onto those Planogram sheets. I have more lying around somewhere, but here are two pages for now:
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7507/16083064866_8ef96dd831_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/qvcURQ)Ames Planogram 1820-115 (https://flic.kr/p/qvcURQ) by harvestmanman (https://www.flickr.com/people/124303530@N08/), on Flickr
(https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8643/15923098187_fa236088ac_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/qg53kD)Ames Planogram 1820-115 (https://flic.kr/p/qg53kD) by harvestmanman (https://www.flickr.com/people/124303530@N08/), on Flickr
Note that the date on these is in April 2002. My question is: when were the final Planograms issued in relation to the beginning of the GOOB sales?
In a thread from 2011 about the 9th Anniversary of AME's demise there is an article dated August 14, 2002 when they announced AMES was going out of business.
These things were the bane of your existence as a retail manager. At least in hardlines.
Your DM would walk the floor and if the tiniest little thing were to be out of position in the
planogram you'd hear about it every time.
Did not matter the reason (this store is not laid out like all the others and this run is 7 feet shorter than standard.....it comes in a really stupid bubble pak that just WILL NOT STAY on the hooks......that product was all pulled from distribution by the Consumer Product Safety Commission...... etc.) You were simply NOT IN COMPLIANCE!
I always sort of wondered who the people in Home Office were who were doing all of these planograms. And how they had managed to con senior management into thinking that they were so essential.
And if you managed to stumble upon a minimum-wage part-time employee who was actually any good at setting them you hung onto them like gold!