Ames shopping cart sightings

[StuckeysFanatic]

There are three green Ames carts in West Bend, WI at the Amity Rolfs Liquidation Sale. They looked like they were in an all right condition. Also sighted was a blue Hobby Depot America cart and a metal Drug Emporium cart that was a little rusted.

[jason83080]

I found four or five green Ames carts (with the old safety belts still attached!) at Polansky's Market nearby in Amherst, OH today. They must have purchased them from the old Ames over on Cooper Foster Park Road (now Advance/Pierre Foods) when they were closing.

Also, not a cart sighting, but Best For Pets in Elyria, OH is using the register stands from the nearby former Ames down the street. The light covers are the same as they were over at Ames (with the A+ logo and everything).

[IGA/Kmart Is Forever!]

At the Forman Mills in Vineland, the store reuses green Ames carts but they put a Forman Mills logo sticker over the Ames logo, but some of the carts still says Ames.

That was the exact same thing that I experienced back in the 1980's/90's with my local Hills Department Stores after they purchased the going out of business Gold Circle Department Store Chain. My local Gold Circle Department Store back in the 1980's had brown plastic shopping carts. When Hills Department Stores purchased the Gold Circle Chain as Gold Circle was going out of business in 1988, Hills Department Stores kept the original brown Gold Circle plastic shopping carts. Hills put a sticker with their logo over the Gold Circle logo and every time my mother took me to shop at Hills, I would scan my eyes through the carts until I found one that did not have the Hills logo, but at the same time still said, "Gold Circle." Being a child as well as a teenager during this time era, I would push all of the carts out of the way that were blocking the particular cart that did not have the Hills logo to get to the cart that still had the Gold Circle logo. I was very disappointed with Hills in 1997 when they upgraded those original brown carts to new red plastic shopping carts that had the Hills logo on them. In 1998 when Ames bought the Hills Department Store Chain, Ames put their logo over the Hills logo just like in that post above that has an original Hills Department Store red plastic cart that is posted by, "zonemad96."

[TheFugitive]

Spotted an Ames cart over the weekend but did not have a camera with me.

It was behind a row of stores at the Crafton-Ingram Shopping Center in Crafton, PA
(suburban Pittsburgh).  It was one of approximately 20 broken and disabled carts lined up
in a grassy area behind one of the stores.  It was the green plastic Ames cart that they
were using at the time they shut the doors.

The Ames logos had been covered up with a sticker that said "Market Fresh".  This is a meat
market at the other end of the Crafton-Ingram Shopping Center.  Curiously there was never an
Ames store in this center or anyplace particularly close to it.  Just a Grants that later
became a Kmart.

I will have to go back with a camera and try to get a picture, or see if this meat market has
any more of them.

[TheFugitive]

Found another Ames cart over the July 4 weekend.

This was inside a Dollar Tree store in the Walmart Plaza on PA Route 88 in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
(the Walmart at one time was the District HQ store for Ames).   The staff at Dollar Tree appeared to be
using it to shuttle backstock to the floor, as it was substantially larger than any of the Dollar Tree carts.

I presume it was a leftover from when the store at the other end of the plaza switched over
from Ames to Walmart.

[AmesNewington]

Interestingly, when Stew Leonard's first opened up on the Berlin Turnpike (where the old Caldor used to be), for about the first three years I would see them using Ames carts (the green ones), how they acquired them is beyond me given there hadnt been an Ames in Newington since I think 2003 when Price Chopper moved in, sadly the last couple of times I've gone there I havent seen any sightings of the carts, I have a good relationship with the store managers there so perhaps if I can pull some strings, I can go in the back and see if I can find any and snap some shots. Worth a try.

Ocean State Job Lot was very notorious for acquiring entire fleets of Ames carts after the 2002 closing. I would have to imagine the Berlin Ocean State got the ones from Newington Ames during that time.

[jamesway_95]

I sighted two Ames carts at a toy store in the Berlin Farmers Market in Berlin, New Jersey.

[Whoser]

Spotted a ton of Ames carts at a place in Norwich, CT called "Surplus Unlimited".  It's like a BigLots for rednecks.  They were the newer green cats, made mostly of plastic and some black painted metal accents.  They were probably taken from one of 2 Ames stores which had closed in Norwich.

Yep! That store has a bunch of them! Grabbed a couple pictures of them!

[Chuck E. Cheese]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEjNx7HqeYe/
One of my friends on Instagram found a classic green one at a Dollar Tree.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEjg44Lqeaf/
She also owns this sign..I speculate it's from the early 2000s or late 1990s.(they didn't use the big red text)

[Ameskid]

A couple of finds from Florence, Kentucky.

Cart Assortment, Florence, KY by Harvestman Man, on Flickr
These were found in 2006 outside of a 99center.  These are gone now and the space is a Harbor Freight Tools.

Cart Graveyard: Ames by Harvestman Man, on Flickr
This cart turned up in a loading dock at Florence Mall in January of last year.  The scribbling over the Ames logo is for "Kitchen Collection" - presumably a store somewhere in the mall.  This cart had a huge hole in the bottom of it.  Don't know what happened to it.

[Ameskid]

Saw these at Kings Island...

Former Ames shopping carts by Harvestman Man, on Flickr

[JJBers]

Found these inside the loading dock for a Advanced Auto Parts in Willimantic.

Willimantic, Connecticut by JJBers, on Flickr

Willimantic, Connecticut by JJBers, on Flickr
Here's this old Wal-Mart cart too

Willimantic, Connecticut by JJBers, on Flickr

Spotted a ton of Ames carts at a place in Norwich, CT called "Surplus Unlimited".  It's like a BigLots for rednecks.  They were the newer green cats, made mostly of plastic and some black painted metal accents.  They were probably taken from one of 2 Ames stores which had closed in Norwich.

Yep! That store has a bunch of them! Grabbed a couple pictures of them!

Oh nice, I've been there, even though I don't remember the carts...Sadly I almost got banned there that time due to me messing around with the store's radio displays.

[Retail Regents]

When I went to cover the Tops in Stamford, there was a fully uncensored Ames cart in front of the Tops road sign. Found out it was the Core Values Thrift Store across the street that used them. It seems a lot of these green ones with the "Ames Ames Ames" handles are from 1999.

[1240east]

Here is an ames cart that quite far from where it came from this is for sale on facebook in northern wisconsin

[1240east]

Here is an ames cart that quite far from where it came from this is for sale on facebook in northern wisconsin

I should correct that to i now own it so i am now the owner of a 1998 ames shopping cart

[Retail Regents]

OSJL in Ballston Spa got a bunch of green Rehrig units from one of the now-closed Ann & Hope Outlet stores. One of the key differences between these and the ones OSJL got directly is Ann & Hope did not file off the Ames logos.

[Retail Regents]

Some United Steel & Wire units from 2000 are in use at Valley Housewares in Fort Plain. Pretty sure the rack on the second one is from a Price Chopper Rehrig.

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[YDK]

Oh man I'd pay a decent penny for one of those carts

[Retail Regents]

Also this Rehrig in Harvey's Home+Garden+Pet store in Johnstown, NY which could qualify as a wreck:

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[108CAM]

There's still some Ames carts inside the abandoned corporate office building in Rocky Hill
One of them is a really old metal cart with yellow plastics. It can be seen in WallieB26's urbex video of the building.
Below is a screenshot from the video showing the cart in question. Someone needs to save it before it's too late!

[Retail Regents]

There's still some Ames carts inside the abandoned corporate office building in Rocky Hill
One of them is a really old metal cart with yellow plastics. It can be seen in WallieB26's urbex video of the building.
Below is a screenshot from the video showing the cart in question. Someone needs to save it before it's too late!

That United is from Dollar General, not Ames.

[Retail Regents]

Ocean State Job Lot was very notorious for acquiring entire fleets of Ames carts after the 2002 closing. I would have to imagine the Berlin Ocean State got the ones from Newington Ames during that time.
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They still have them, though they tend to move them from store to store. As of this writing, we have a bunch of Uniteds and a couple green Rehrig Regulars from them at the Albany store.

[Retail Regents]

Hewitt's Garden Center in Halfmoon has four green Rehrig models. Also included is the lot number on one of them.

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[Retail_247]

I found this one at a Job Lot store in June of 2022, I'm pretty sure its gone nowYou cannot see attachments on this board.You cannot see attachments on this board. 

[BillyGr]

Hewitt's Garden Center in Halfmoon has four green Rehrig models. Also included is the lot number on one of them.

I've heard of container gardening, maybe they will offer cart-tainer gardening? ;)

[TheFugitive]

I've heard of container gardening, maybe they will offer cart-tainer gardening? ;)

LOL! I wonder what the average lifespan of a shopping cart is?  Obviously these Ames carts are around 25 years old at this point.  I wonder if any of the red ones from my time with the company are still in use?

[Retail Regents]

LOL! I wonder what the average lifespan of a shopping cart is?  Obviously these Ames carts are around 25 years old at this point.  I wonder if any of the red ones from my time with the company are still in use?

In a standard retail setting, about five to seven years give or take.

As for those red ones, you just have to look hard for them. The two that I've seen were not in traditional use, and were random strays.