Ames Woodbridge, VA

[Retail_247]

I found this photo on Google images a while back, but it seems to have disappeared from the internet entirely

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[108CAM]

I love the mixture of red and green carts at this location. I'm guessing that it would've had red signs at some point as well.

[Retail Regents]

I love the mixture of red and green carts at this location. I'm guessing that it would've had red signs at some point as well.

While this store was a former Zayre according to the numbering key and would have originally had the red logo, I'm pretty sure those red carts are late-model Hills US&W units, most likely transferred from another location.

[TheFugitive]

Having worked for both Hills and Ames I can confirm that Hills did have red carts at the time they were acquired.  Ames had red carts during my time with them in the late 80's/early 90's but had switched to green by the time of the Hills acquisition.  So it seems likely that a converted Hills could have some carts of either color on-hand.

[108CAM]

There's plenty of reasons for a store to have a mixture of red and green carts. I've listed a few below.


Stores that survived the 1990 bankruptcy would have likely had their fleets topped up at some point, likely using the secondhand carts from stores that closed throughout the 90's then once the supply of secondhand carts ran out, Ames would've started purchasing new carts and then distributed them to stores in need of new or replacement carts.

Former Hills/Zayre carts could've had Ames logos placed over the old logos, creating the illusion of red Ames carts. When these stores needed new or replacement carts, Ames would've supplied them with green carts which would often be mixed with the existing fleet of red carts.

When the older red & white stores were refurbished and converted to the new teal/green colour scheme, they would often receive a fleet of green carts to compliment the store's new colours. The red carts were likely transferred to other stores however some stores kept their red carts and ended up using them alongside the green carts.

If a store had its entire fleet of red carts replaced with green ones, there would often be some reds that would go rogue and eventually be returned to the store and put with the new fleet.