Stafford's Big Wheel store

[JimSawhill]

All:

     What happened to the old 'Big Wheel' store in Stafford which was on Rt 190? I still have a shirt and a pair of pants from there, when it was opened.

[TenPoundHammer]

The chain was Fisher's Big Wheel. They generally went for areas too small for Kmart or Walmart, and most of their stores were in the 50K square foot range. Basically they were like a smaller Kmart. In their time, they gobbled up Danner's, Heck's, Mr. Wiggs in Indiana and Ohio, and I know of at least one that used to be a Tempo. The chain went under in 1994 and a lot of their locations became Pamida.

[JimSawhill]

The chain was Fisher's Big Wheel. They generally went for areas too small for Kmart or Walmart, and most of their stores were in the 50K square foot range. Basically they were like a smaller Kmart. In their time, they gobbled up Danner's, Heck's, Mr. Wiggs in Indiana and Ohio, and I know of at least one that used to be a Tempo. The chain went under in 1994 and a lot of their locations became Pamida.

I'm trying to find out if the Stafford, CT Fisher's is still vacant... (I miss them)

[jason83080]

Wow, Big Wheel. There's one old one that's REALLY close to my house that is now an office building. I can't believe that department stores used to be that small. How times have changed...

(Up until the company purchased the building, you could see the labelscar from the individually-signed letters for "BIG WHEEL" on the side. It might have been from a carnival-motif era of the logo, because I remember other ones that simply said "BIG WHEEL" on the building.)

[JimSawhill]

Wow, Big Wheel. There's one old one that's REALLY close to my house that is now an office building. I can't believe that department stores used to be that small. How times have changed...

(Up until the company purchased the building, you could see the labelscar from the individually-signed letters for "BIG WHEEL" on the side. It might have been from a carnival-motif era of the logo, because I remember other ones that simply said "BIG WHEEL" on the building.)

An office Building?? Wow...I think the Big Wheel in Windham became IIRC a BigY.

[jason83080]

Yep, it's the HQ for a mail-order prescription company called CatalystMail now. At least they gave the building a nice makeover before they moved in!

[JimSawhill]

Yep, it's the HQ for a mail-order prescription company called CatalystMail now. At least they gave the building a nice makeover before they moved in!

At least it is being used.. and not sitting empty like Manchester's KMart... :(