Ames stores in the upper Michigan peninsula?

[1240east]

Did ames have any stores in the upper Michigan peninsula

[TheFugitive]

No.  The furthest north where we actually had a store was Houghton Lake
(I worked the Grand Opening there and the temperature did not top 13 F all week).
That is about dead-center of the lower peninsula a couple hours south of the Mackinac Bridge.

One was in the works for Oscoda, which is the northern lower peninsula on the
eastern side.  But after the Zayre debacle Ames decided to pull out of the state, and
that store never actually got built.  I had a colleague there who grew up in Oscoda who
was highly disappointed, as he would have been first on the spot to request a transfer there.

Ames may or may not have been interested in going up to the U.P.
The economy on the U.P. has long been challenging.  The iron mines out at the western
end have largely played out, and those towns have long struggled with low incomes.
And then several large military bases closed after the Berlin Wall came down, removing
customers and sources of income.   Maybe Marquette or Sault Ste. Marie would have made sense.

Pamida and ShopKo had a foothold in the U.P., and would actually merge sometime later.
The U.P. has its own sort of quirky, offbeat culture, which you no doubt know if you've
been there.  They always liked ShopKo, which was from Green Bay which sort of shared their
outlook on life.  Not sure how they would have reacted to an East Coast arrival like Ames.
They used to refer to all of us from the lower peninsula as "trolls", because we lived "under
the (Mackinac) bridge."

My in-laws were from the town of Ironwood, one of those hardscrabble mining communities
I had mentioned.

[1240east]

Thanks for that reply im trying to figure out how 10 ames carts made it to the middle of Wisconsin with the closest ames being in illinois

[Planet Retail]

Thanks for that reply im trying to figure out how 10 ames carts made it to the middle of Wisconsin with the closest ames being in illinois

It's possible whoever had the carts bought them from a liquidator when Ames went bankrupt. I once saw a post somewhere of a Zellers cart somebody found in Florida, that would have originally been from Canada.

[1240east]

Thanks for that reply im trying to figure out how 10 ames carts made it to the middle of Wisconsin with the closest ames being in illinois

It's possible whoever had the carts bought them from a liquidator when Ames went bankrupt. I once saw a post somewhere of a Zellers cart somebody found in Florida, that would have originally been from Canada.

The person i got them from bought them from "A guy up north" that was about 5 years ago so sometime from the times ames closed to about 5 years ago they made it even farther up the state and someone had them from the time ames closed to 5 years ago and i wonder what happened to the rest of the fleet since they only ever had 10 carts

[TheFugitive]

Thanks for that reply im trying to figure out how 10 ames carts made it to the middle of Wisconsin with the closest ames being in illinois

Ames briefly (and, I mean VERY briefly) had a group of stores in Chicago which were converted
Zayre locations after the merger.  If you are finding Ames carts in Wisconsin they most likely
came up from Chi Town.

[1240east]

Thanks for that reply im trying to figure out how 10 ames carts made it to the middle of Wisconsin with the closest ames being in illinois

Ames briefly (and, I mean VERY briefly) had a group of stores in Chicago which were converted
Zayre locations after the merger.  If you are finding Ames carts in Wisconsin they most likely
came up from Chi Town.

How briefly are you talking as these are from late 1998 

[TheFugitive]

Thanks for that reply im trying to figure out how 10 ames carts made it to the middle of Wisconsin with the closest ames being in illinois

Ames briefly (and, I mean VERY briefly) had a group of stores in Chicago which were converted
Zayre locations after the merger.  If you are finding Ames carts in Wisconsin they most likely
came up from Chi Town.

How briefly are you talking as these are from late 1998 

I'm talking less than a year in 1990-91.   Are the carts red or green?   
When those Ames stores were in Chicago we were still under the red color scheme.

If they are green carts from the latter era then you do indeed have a mystery on your hands.

[SiggyOasis]

Best color scheme in the discount retail game

And it isn't close