MY AMES

[d_fife]

Originally posted by 76BraldorZayKamesfanBBTB
My Ames in Torrington was one of the most updated stores

also I believe Ames moved the store enterance when they leased the store, when it was Caldor, also when it was a Caldor it had the "hovering columns" look to it at the enterance I believe, and it was colored white.

Ames repainted the store to the brick color it is now

BTW thank you whoever it was for finally taking pics of my local Ames
what does everybody think of my local Ames?
only vacant Ames left in my vicinity
BTW I hope someone takes the recieving sign before someone throws it out!

YAHOO!

SOMEONE SAVED THE AMES RECIEVING SIGN FROM MY STORE YEEPEE!!

UPDATE: There is a plan to demolish my Ames for a Lowes GRR
I DON'T WANT ANOTHER HOME IMPROVEMENT STORE!!!!

Why doesn't Dollar Tree just move in to the Ames store sheesh Dollar Tree's front looks terrible after the fire destroyed its sign!

It'll be perfect for them then Lowes would have NO chance at all at demolition.

and then everyone will be happy

and the Ames store and the rest of the plaza would be saved from monotony!

yay!
lol

A dollar tree can be put anywhere and having a lowe's there is better than a store sitting vacant for years. I looked up the Home depot store locator and it says no Home depot is in Torrington and torrington has no home improvement chain and every major town or city has either lowes or home depot.

But what was that Ames like. Did the caldor not get remodeled. An Ames in Winstead was nearby I hear. what was that like?

I wonder if any ames will stay vacant till 2010.

[Caldor1999]

i doubt that ames will stay vacant till 2010 but im sure teh middletown caldor will still be there that year lol

[Crawford]

Originally posted by dayville81

Originally posted by Crawford
My Ames was a former Zayre. The one on Route 44 in East Providence. As Zayre it originally had the individual red letters spelling out the name and then later the white lettering with the asterix. This one also had the Auto Center in the parking lot. This was a very good size store and I always made out no matter what I needed. Ames took it over, cleaned it up but took out the snack bar. I miss the Zayre hamburgers and hot dogs. There was an ancient Galaxian machine in there as well. This was one of the last Ames stores to close and is still vacant. My mother cried when this happened. The auto center is now a Hollywood Video store

Have any pics of East Providence store? I saw the outside of it last year when driving down Route 44. It looked like it was in a bad end of town. But all the lights were on and they had a high roof in the front. Even the Ames sign was lit up. Is it still like that?

That area isn't really bad, it is just more commercial businesses  than residential, although there are plenty of homes in back. The lights are off now. That plaza used to have a Stop & Shop and a Columbus Bank. Both were demolished when Shaw's moved in. The CVS is still in the same place although the vacant storefront in between was a Newport Creamery. The shopping center across the street has a much more interesting history, at some point I will post about it.

[JimSawhill]

Originally posted by Chris
Mine was supposedly a Gems Food Store? I'm not sure. My dad said his mother used to shop for food there in the 50s and 60s. That's why they tore down the existing Ames to build Price Chopper. The reason was due to the old deteriorating structure and plumbing, it would of costed more to fix up the building than re-build. I thought the store was in good shape. It looked very nice. The inside fixtures were just old. I really didn't understand that though.

Chris:

     If it was the Ames in Newington (next to Dicks), it needed to be torn down. It was a GEM back in the 60s, and then it was a skaking rink, then it was Zayre's and then Ames. I think Price Chopper will do good in Newington.

[storehistoryguy]

Lansdale Pa.
circa 1970-2003.
Today: Big Lots
Original to building.

[storehistoryguy]

Warminster PA.
2000-2002
Today: Closed down Burlington Coat Factory
Formerly a Caldor.

[d_fife]

Originally posted by JimSawhill

Originally posted by Chris
Mine was supposedly a Gems Food Store? I'm not sure. My dad said his mother used to shop for food there in the 50s and 60s. That's why they tore down the existing Ames to build Price Chopper. The reason was due to the old deteriorating structure and plumbing, it would of costed more to fix up the building than re-build. I thought the store was in good shape. It looked very nice. The inside fixtures were just old. I really didn't understand that though.

Chris:

     If it was the Ames in Newington (next to Dicks), it needed to be torn down. It was a GEM back in the 60s, and then it was a skaking rink, then it was Zayre's and then Ames. I think Price Chopper will do good in Newington.

stuff said the 79,500 square foot zayre opened in 1987.

[bkt70]

The Ames I shopped at the most was located in Coal Township Pa. It was a small store that never seemed to have more than ten people working at it at any time. Didn't seem to do great business and never had more than 1 or 2 registers open at one time. It still stands vacant today, along with a vacant Kmart which is about a 1/4 mile down the road.

[BillyGr]

Originally posted by d_fife
I went to Albany and east greenbush last summer and I saw the ames in East greenbush vacant and it had the lettering off.

The East Greenbush store is now in use as office/storage space for a company called CSC (Comupter Services Corp I think??).  They have not put any sign up on the building itself (they have, however, put curtains over the front windows) but have put up a sign on the roadside sign (has spaces for all the stores in the plaza).  This is recent (since holiday time).

[d_fife]

Originally posted by BillyGr

Originally posted by d_fife
I went to Albany and east greenbush last summer and I saw the ames in East greenbush vacant and it had the lettering off.

The East Greenbush store is now in use as office/storage space for a company called CSC (Comupter Services Corp I think??).  They have not put any sign up on the building itself (they have, however, put curtains over the front windows) but have put up a sign on the roadside sign (has spaces for all the stores in the plaza).  This is recent (since holiday time).

When did they start work, when I was in east greenbush last august, the lettering was off Ames.

[BillyGr]

Originally posted by d_fife
When did they start work, when I was in east greenbush last august, the lettering was off Ames.

Don't know for sure - I'm not in there often (and you wouldn't see much from the road) - just went in once (probably Nov or so) to get something at the Auto store and noticed a lot of cars in the Ames part of the lot - then saw the sign by the road a few weeks back .

[eagle1960]

What happen to the wharehouse in Leesport PA

[Zayre88]

Originally posted by dayville81
Was Lewiston ME Ames Store high ceiling a result of being like that from a past store? What does the rest of the store look like? Is the store in a shopping center or standalone?

These kinds of former Zayre stores were mostly like that.  The front section of the stores had a higher ceiling at an angle and it ended outside the building to form the rooftop over the entrance and sidewalk.  The stores looked like it was high but inside, it was not.

[C. Fontaine]

Originally posted by eagle1960
What happen to the wharehouse in Leesport PA

It's now used as a warehouse for Ashley Furniture...

[Caldor1999]

hearsb teh carmel one at night and im gussing hannaford decisied now to move in hear after all

[Caldor1999]

hears anouther pic

[Caldor1999]

unfortaley they dont keep the lights on and such u can add these when ya updated the sight again

[Caldor1999]

the auto cenetr still loighst up at night

[C. Fontaine]

Originally posted by Caldor1999
unfortaley they dont keep the lights on and such u can add these when ya updated the sight again

Will do!

[beachgal26]

I wish that I still lived in FL and could send before/after pics of the Ames that we always went to.  It started out as a Zayre and became an Ames sometime in the mid 1980's and was still there when we moved a few years later.  
Has anyone else lived in the Orlando area and remember any of the other stores before they closed?

[eagle1960]

Originally posted by C. Fontaine

Originally posted by eagle1960
What happen to the wharehouse in Leesport PA

It's now used as a warehouse for Ashley Furniture...

How about the other wharehouse Mansfield and Westfield MA . I worked in both of them and also I worked in Clinton MA before we got closed down.

[C. Fontaine]

Really?  Do you have any pictures or anything else you could share?  I am actually not sure about either of them...

[Zayre88]

Originally posted by beachgal26
I wish that I still lived in FL and could send before/after pics of the Ames that we always went to.  It started out as a Zayre and became an Ames sometime in the mid 1980's and was still there when we moved a few years later.  
Has anyone else lived in the Orlando area and remember any of the other stores before they closed?

I have seen a closed Ames in Florida in 1992.  Zayre had stores down there so when Ames acquired the chain, they entered the Florida market too.  The store i remember was located along a highway but i really don't remember where exactly.  Bac then, we visited the area around Orlando, Ormond, Daytona and Cape Kennedy.

[d_fife]

Originally posted by Zayre88

Originally posted by beachgal26
I wish that I still lived in FL and could send before/after pics of the Ames that we always went to.  It started out as a Zayre and became an Ames sometime in the mid 1980's and was still there when we moved a few years later.  
Has anyone else lived in the Orlando area and remember any of the other stores before they closed?

I have seen a closed Ames in Florida in 1992.  Zayre had stores down there so when Ames acquired the chain, they entered the Florida market too.  The store i remember was located along a highway but i really don't remember where exactly.  Bac then, we visited the area around Orlando, Ormond, Daytona and Cape Kennedy.

there wer 82 stores and they closed all the florida stores when they closed the 221 stores in teh first wave of closings; Which happened in Spring-Summer 1990; of when Ames went bankrupt when buying Zayre out in 1989.

[R2-Bacca]

My Store (Oneonta, NY) was formerly a Big N... Goes back quite a way

[d_fife]

Originally posted by d_fife

Originally posted by Zayre88

Originally posted by beachgal26
I wish that I still lived in FL and could send before/after pics of the Ames that we always went to.  It started out as a Zayre and became an Ames sometime in the mid 1980's and was still there when we moved a few years later.  
Has anyone else lived in the Orlando area and remember any of the other stores before they closed?

I have seen a closed Ames in Florida in 1992.  Zayre had stores down there so when Ames acquired the chain, they entered the Florida market too.  The store i remember was located along a highway but i really don't remember where exactly.  Bac then, we visited the area around Orlando, Ormond, Daytona and Cape Kennedy.

there wer 82 stores and they closed all the florida stores when they closed the 221 stores in teh first wave of closings; Which happened in Spring-Summer 1990; of when Ames went bankrupt when buying Zayre out in 1989.

my ames in plymouth nh was a giant department store that opened in the early 1970s and clsoed 1973 and was immediatly replaced by ames. most ames were not built from the ground up.

[XISMZERO]

The Ames I consider "mine" or the one I shopped most at was the Ames on Queen St. in Southington, CT. I actually remember when it was a Zayre (I must've been 3 or 4 but nonetheless I remember it). The store was alright, we always preferred to go down the road to Caldor. Ames was never that great and quality vs. price was always considered a step down from Caldor. I have memories of it like when the electronics department was hidden in the very back of the store.

[beachgal26]

Hi!  If you remember a store around Cape Kennedy, it was probably in the Orlando, Titusville or Cocoa areas.  Since I used to work as a rep for Golden Book and came across alot of reconfigured stores, there was a supermarket right along the main route in Cocoa Beach that could have been an Ames in the 80's or before.  There were also some small shopping centers in the Titusville area that could have had Ames as early as the 1970's.  (It was kind of a retro area that seemed to spring up in the late 1960's along with the space program-think "I Dream of Jeannie.")

[Amesdepartmentstores]

about the zayre ames stores in florida  there was one in sanford florida and apopka that i remember.one of the stores makes a brief apperance in an old cops eppisode...lok carefully and you will se the zayre in sanford fl  twice....I will be moving back to florida soon and according to the map i have the zayre is still there:boring::boring:

[beachgal26]

Which part of Florida will you be moving to?  If you will be anywhere in the Kissimmee (Orlando) area, I would love to know what happened to the Ames that was located along the main drag of Irlo Bronson Highway.