Brand Names

[MikeinBuffalo]

Anyone remember Brand Names? I never shopped here, but I believe it used to be a little deal where you bought your stuff, took a slip of paper, and waited by a big conveyor belt for the stuff to come by.

This store was wickedly popular up in my area, Buffalo and WNY.



Batavia - looks like it was subdivided into a few stores like Subway and Dollar General. Front of the plaza looks remodeled, but the back looks much older.

Buffalo - Now home to People Inc, a disability aid group.

Cheektowaga - Demolished for a new Guitar Center.

Kenmore - Remodeled into offices

Tonawanda - now home to a few small businesses.

West Seneca - the Southgate Plaza has been remodeled about 10,000 times. I know that Brand Names was across from the old Ames in this plaza, which is now Dollar Tree. It might be the Applebees now, or it might have been subdivided.

[Pikapower]

I kind of remember the Brand Names catalog and also the "Bring Brand Names home for the holidays" jingle from the commercials.

[MikeinBuffalo]

Also I think the Clarence location is where Tuesday Morning is now. Either that or Aldi, or even that new gym that's stuck in there. Transitown is kind of a weird plaza, being half stuck behind the monster TJ Maxx/former Carolina Furniture building.

[TheFugitive]

I don't remember them.  Strange as I had some family in Dunkirk and spent time there.

Seems a lot like David Weis, the Pittsburgh-based catalog showroom where I worked
while I was in college.  "Brand Names" was likely a reference to the fact that they were
bringing in merchandise from known manufacturers like Minolta and Panasonic from the
"grey market" (manufactured for sale outside the US, but imported through third-countries
at prices lower than you could find the items for at department stores).  When I worked for
David Weis that industry was engaged in a fierce legal battle with manufacturers over
grey market imports.