I found this photo on Facebook (it's a public post, you don't need an fb account to view it) of an Ames store with a sign advertising the "Snack Express"
https://
facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1936059743264640&id=697074120496548&set=a.744779902392636&refid=13&__tn__=%2B%3E
The store was a former Caldor, which did have "the cafe court"
I heard a few things about an Ames restaurant (similar to the Kmart cafe) and I even saw a clip from a training video of what seems to be an Ames employee giving a hotdog to a customer over some type of food counter, but I was always skeptical on the idea of Ames' restaurants
Did any other Ames have the "Snack Express"?
Quote from: Retail_247 on November 25, 2022, 05:43:04 PMDid any other Ames have the "Snack Express"?
I seem to remember the one Hills that was local having some type of snack counter by the exterior entry (as opposed to the entry from the mall it was attached to).
Not sure if Ames kept that after they took over (since there was not really a reason to go there, as we had other Ames closer by, unlike Hills which was a different store), but that might be another place they would have had something similar.
When I was in management with Ames in the late 80's/early 90's we quite literally had no stores with snack bars. It was just not part of the Ames floorplan at that time. I was assigned to Hillsdale, Michigan for a time where the store had previously been a Murphy Mart with a restaurant. That restaurant space was closed off and used as a spare stockroom.
Now, after Ames acquired Hills in the late 90's every Hills store did have a snack bar and it appears Ames opted to keep many if not all of them. The snack bar was sort of a signature thing with Hills and is one of the things former customers wax nostalgic about. I was in an Ames/former Hills store in Penn Hills, PA shortly before they shut down where that space had been subleased to a third-party fish and chips vendor.
I worked at the Ames store in Parma, OH and worked in the Snack Express. It was very popular and was always busy.