Hi,
I visited this site a while back, before it apparently got wiped out. I enjoyed the site and hope that it gets restored.
When I visited before, I was surprised not to see any mention of the Ames television commercials. There was a series of commercials in that was hilarious. These would have been post-Zayre because there were no Ames stores in my area until after they converted the Zayre stores to Ames. I have some of these on VHS somewhere. I'd love to have a chance to dig them out and see them again.
I also have old VHS tapes with Zayre commercials on them, too -- oh, and even Bradlees commercials, as well. Remember Mrs. B? When Bradlees came to the DC area, they had an ad campaign in which Mrs. B. was portrayed as a new dignitary arriving on the DC scene. Fun stuff!
Steven