We need rural department/discount stores

[davidsky]

If you lived in a rural town like Amenia NY and wanted to buy things you would have bought at Ames you would have to go to
New Milford CT Wal-Mart 21 miles away
KMart in Poughkeepsie or Torrington CT 30 miles away
Target Torrington CT 30 miles away
Has something like this happened near you?

[Zayre88]

It's not a problem to me but i think that Wisebuys is some kind of rural discount store in NY.  In Maine, Reny's has stores in smaller towns without a Wal-Mart.  I think that Ocean State Job Lot replaced Ames in small northern towns in New Hampshire.  

It's not entirely like when Ames was there as a full-line discount department store.

[C. Fontaine]

I agree, OSJL has really expanded in the Northeast over the years.  It's one of the few stores that can actually fully occupy a vacant Ames or the like.

[davidsky]

Originally posted by Zayre88
It's not a problem to me but i think that Wisebuys is some kind of rural discount store in NY.  In Maine, Reny's has stores in smaller towns without a Wal-Mart.  I think that Ocean State Job Lot replaced Ames in small northern towns in New Hampshire.  

It's not entirely like when Ames was there as a full-line discount department store.

Wisebuys looks pretty cool. I'll have to wait and see if they get further south. I'm not a big fan of Job Lots because they never have a consistent selection of products.

[videogamer75]

I definitely think there should be some sort of new Ames - as in a store that serves rural markets. Because of the fact that Ames located in so many tiny, rural cities that most people don't even know exist, I bet that there are still over 100 vacant Ames in the nation today. Remember, they stretched as far west as Illinois and as far south as Florida. There has to be a lot of Ames left behind in states like those, due to them locating in rural communities. Now all these communties have these big vacant boxes in their towns and if they want to go to some sort of discount store they have to travel sometimes 40 miles away to somewhere with a Wal-Mart. So, I think somebody should step in and fill all these old stores and give these towns somewhere to shop. But in this economy, it may not be possible right now.

[XDeSuEhTX]

I think Walmart has already taken over the small town markets by now. A town doesn't have to be big at all to get a Walmart Supercenter. I don't see how any regional chain could compete anymore.

[jmcnamara96]

well isn't kmart like that sorta????

[TenPoundHammer]

In the Midwest there's Pamida for rural areas. Most towns with Pamida are too small for a Kmart, usually. (Except Clio, Michigan, which has gone up the lader in 15 years, from Pamida to Kmart to Wally World.)

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

It's just too bad. ShopKo could have bought the Ames locations, including stores and distribution centers, in 1999, and converted the rural Ames stores to Pamida, while converting the Ames stores in larger communities to ShopKo, thus creating a presence in the eastern region of the United States.

[jmcnamara96]

Dont forget BLDG 19

[mikey7290]

Originally posted by davidsky

Originally posted by Zayre88
It's not a problem to me but i think that Wisebuys is some kind of rural discount store in NY.  In Maine, Reny's has stores in smaller towns without a Wal-Mart.  I think that Ocean State Job Lot replaced Ames in small northern towns in New Hampshire.  

It's not entirely like when Ames was there as a full-line discount department store.

Wisebuys looks pretty cool. I'll have to wait and see if they get further south. I'm not a big fan of Job Lots because they never have a consistent selection of products.

WiseBuys no longer exists as a store in itself.  The company bought out Hacketts in 2008 and all WiseBuys stores became Hacketts.  Then because of their financial trouble, the stores that were WiseBuys in Canton, Gouverneur and Pulaski (plus Hacketts stores in Potsdam and Watertown) were permanently closed.  As of right now, only the former Canton store is occupied (though only half of it is) by Fashion Kraze.

[retailisking]

Isn't it funny how history repeats itself?  WiseBuys was founded by Joe Ettore, who ran Ames into the ground, and prior to that was CEO of Stuarts, which itself went out of business.  Another retail executioner, Roger Goddu, took out Lechmere on his way to burying Montgomery Ward.  How do these guys keep finding opportunities?

Anyway, what's the rural department/discount store of the future?  It might actually be Walmart itself, which is pursuing growth by building smaller stores in urban areas which cannot accommodate one of their general merchandise stores or supercenters.  I imagine this could work in a rural setting as well with the right merchandise mix.

And let's not forget the fast-growing Dollar General, which earlier this month announced plans to build 625 new stores...

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Shopko started a rural discount store chain known as "Shopko Hometown" that opened two test stores inside two stores they converted from Pamida, but I don't see Shopko opening Shopko Hometown out east anytime soon.

[Scrabbleship]

If you lived in a rural town like Amenia NY and wanted to buy things you would have bought at Ames you would have to go to
New Milford CT Wal-Mart 21 miles away
KMart in Poughkeepsie or Torrington CT 30 miles away
Target Torrington CT 30 miles away
Has something like this happened near you?

I grew up in Amenia and even when Ames was open, that location was always abysmal and coasted in its little rural/exurban cocoon, catering to either the very poor or those whom needed something fast. Everyone there usually ends up going weekly or twice monthly to Poughkeepsie or New Milford or elsewhere to shop as it is, has been since even before Ames came into town to begin with.

Besides, one town up in Millerton there's an electronics store and a family-owned department store that's been open for decades. That covers a lot of the stuff that Ames would've had to itself.