05.08.06

A big update coming soon!  Loads of pictures from Xismzero, a totally redone Store Locator, and new photos just taken this weekend on a venture deep into the heart of New York state by Cassie and I!  To the right you can see, we acquired the receiving signs from Great Barrington, MA, and Hudson, Kingston, and Napanoch, NY!  We also found the A+ Service cards for employees of the Napanoch store as well as an A+ pin pushed into a wall!  More details coming soon!

 

 02.03.06

More updates added!  More to come soon

To the left, Cassie and I have caught the Marlboro Ocean State Job Lot red-handed using a cheesy Ames ripoff!  The only problem is, their patrons can't bring those bargains home in a cart, like you could by the bagful with Ames!

 

 08.12.05

Yaaaa...  Sorry guys I have been slacking.  Be prepared for one massive update within the next few days.

 

 

 06.25.05

The whole of our Dudley Ames is nearing it's end!  The realtors have packed up their sign and there has been much activity inside the empty half.  Within the past week they have also painted over the classic Ames green color on the stores facade, you can still see the outline in the picture.

 

 04.02.05

The Ames Fan Club needs YOU!  Ames stores are disappearing faster than ever before...  And in the light of my recent camera theft, it has temporarily become increasingly harder for us to get pictures at all!  That is why we are encouraging you, our valued visitors more than ever to go out there and snap a few photo's of what is left of your former Ames!  It is up to us all to keep the memory of Ames alive!

 

03.22.05

Drive safely!  Don't let your car turn out like this one from a violent movie-style Webda police chase!  Also, check out our new AFC special, The history of a nametag!

 

02.26.05

An exclusive, inside look at the remains of Dayville Store # 0233!  Thanks to former employee M. Vandale for submitting these awesome pictures!  More of this story to come!

 

02.12.05

A boring nothing-better-to-do roadtrip turned completely around today!  First off I went down to Rocky Hill, just to see what was new with the Ames's in the area.  Passing by the Sturbridge Ames I noticed a change in realty companies, and a grave tradgedy.  Later on I ended up seeing the Ames Planagram Building, nabbing the receiving sign from there, and not one but two from the Rocky Hill Ames!  After that on the way home, I figured I would stop by and see whatever became of the Manchester Ames, and on my way finding it because I am an idiot with a map, happened upon a completely abandoned Bradlees!  Hope you guys enjoy!!!

 

01.23.05

Southern Massachusetts is buried under 20+ inches of fresh powder!  This means some parts of the site, namely the store locator, might be down if I lose power here at home, since the Access database depends on my server at home.  The forum will not be affected!

 

01.11.05

Well, we've been through some tough times, but we're still here!  Many thanks to everyone for keeping it together through this whole ordeal!  We may be changing servers again soon, but it won't even be noticeable, because one of our servers isn't down this time.

 

12.22.04

Breaking news!  We have acquired not two but the four plaza signs from the Webster Square (Stafford St.) Ames in Worcester, MA!  Thanks to Sarah and the Shaw's signage guys for giving them to us!  More to come!

 

11.08.04

Test your Crafts Department skills with this interactive fabric selling training session!  Thanks to Steve Hammes of store #0435!

 

08.19.04

The latest and more than half-way successful Ames trip!  On this roundabout of Connecticut we hit Seymour, Naugatuck, Meriden, Southington, and Bloomfield!

 

07.27.04

Ok guys.  I just want to thank everybody who has sent in tips, updates, pictures, etc...  This is what keeps this site going.  I am extremely sorry about the delay in actually making the information available, I received so much over vacation on top of a load of my own material, and I also had to figure out a method of organization for it all.  I feel really bad.  Anyway, I have finally sorted through it all and posted everything I have received in the store locator or its appropriate section.  Now that I have a system, all of your updates should be posted almost immediately.  You can see a list of everything I have updated here.  Also if anyone is interested I have plenty of cool pictures from my vacation that I will post soon!

7.28.04

On a carefully planned, spur of the moment Ames safari, me and an accomplice headed back down to Rocky Hill.  We seized three shopping carts and threw them in the back of an SUV, and brought them back to our Ames cart haven, in other words my backyard.  You can see the complete pictures along with a Dudley Ames update by clicking the picture on your right.  Also while in the area, we saw what was the Newington Ames, and also West Hartford.

 

06.22.04

A surprise paint spill rerouted traffic from Chase Ave. in Webster today all the way to North Main St.  I happened to come across it while looking for something to eat and snapped some photo's.

 

 
06.15.04

Not able to stand the anticipation, me and Sarah headed out to western Massachusetts to document more Ames.  We even ended up in Enfield, Connecticut, of who's Ames is now a Home Depot.  In Mass we hit Agawam, which takes the cake for loneliest Ames ever.  We also went to an oldie, Holyoke, which closed way back in the day and wasted no time renovating.  The Southampton and Southwick Ames's were generally on the same road, and East Longmeadow was very recently renovated into a Home Good's and a Staples.

06.16.04

Venturing deep into the inner city, Andrew and I took a follow up trip to Rhode Island to finish up the state.  In Providence we hit Silver Spring St. and Hartford Ave, which turned out to be plastered with graffiti.  We also went to East Providence and North Kingstown in the area.  Much to our disappointment, the Providence Ames were the only ones still around.  After those it was all over.  North Kingstown, Cranston, Narragansett, Middletown, and even in Massachusetts, South Attleboro, had all been renovated into some other store.

 

05.26.04

Before another day of boredom could overtake me I got in my car and went on a trip, to Rocky Hill.  I finally got there around noon and checked out an email tip regarding shopping carts at the Rocky Hill Ames.  After unsuccessfully trying to squeeze one in my car I decided to go in search of Ames Corporate Headquarters.  It didn't turn out to be much of a search, considering it was only about 2 miles down the road.  On the way home I also stopped and documented the East Hartford Ames.

06.03.04

Stafford Street Ames in Worcester demolished.

 

05.24.04

Today, out of school and being overcome by boredom, I decided to check up on a few of our frequented Ames.  The Dayville Ames hasn't changed a bit, except for a few hand-made loitering signs.  The exhaust pipe is still in it's chain-link confinement.  While at the Jewett City Ames however, I rolled down the behind Ames access road and Holy Sh*t, that's a lot of garbage!  Counting this as a behind Ames, this one takes the cake on the pollution meter.  It also seems to have been spared by the Ocean State Jobbers, this time...

 

05.12.04

Added the Ames Resource section for anything related to Ames.  I also spotted an old rusty Ames cart outside Grossman's today, I am going to try to remove it from it's vile captors later this evening.

05.18.04

The Ames cart has come home to a heroic rescue.  Well, we just walked off with it but the point is we rescued it from its evil dictator.

 

 

 04.20.04

Chris goes on vacation and tracks stores along the coast.  Added:  Virginia Beach, Seaford.

04.17.04

Follow up road trip.  Added:  Hanover, Weymouth, Abington.

04.15.04

Major update!  The picture gallery had been updated with photo's from the Ames Fan Club's official tax filing deadline road trip!  We hit seven Ames stores in about nine hours!  Stores added:  Warren, Fall River, New Bedford, Dartmouth, Raynham, Franklin, Bellingham.

 

03.20.04

Grossman's Bargain Outlet now open to the public!  Ames's fate is sealed!

 

03.04.04

Time for an update.  I have updated our store locator database with a few more Illinois locations.  As you can see to the left, Grossman's is nearly ready to fulfill Ames's morbid fate.  It is slated to open sometime this month.

 

 

03.11.04

Ames is gone for good!  Although there will always be a piece of Ames in every Dudley resident, the signs that have been branded in the Dudley Plaza displays for over a decade, have been permanently disbanded.

 

02.10.04

Coming home from work today I noticed something odd and went to check it out.  What did I see?  Another gaping home in the side of Ames!  And they couldn't even clean up their mess!  Gah!

I've also revised the store locator section.  It now fetches its data directly from our master Ames list in our master Access database.

 

The new Amesmobile01.29.04

YYEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!  Time for a new,  massive update!  Andrew and Chris have gone on an official Ames hunt today beginning at 12:00 PM EST.  From it they have documented 3 more Ames sites in Connecticut and come across the sad truth about 2 of their past targets.  They have even been lucky enough to capture some former Ames shopping carts in their natural habitat.

Update:  I have added a few articles including a vintage Ames ad to the about Ames section.  The picture gallery has also been updated with all of our road trips, some photography from our wonderful town, and the updates for Jewett City and Norwich, CT have been added.  Three new Ames locations (East Haven, Old Saybrook, and Waterford) have been added.

 

01.20.04

New!  Ames Fan Club Exclusive photo's from the new Ames replacement!  From what I can see they kept what they wanted and threw everything else over in the left side of the building.

 

01.19.04

'Grossman's Bargain Outlet' is now hiring!  As my duty to Ames I went down and filed my application.  I walked into the store after a year and a half, and it was breathtaking.  You can find my entire account in the message board.

 

01.18.04

Gah!  There's been a fire alarm at Ames!  And I have no information at this time!

Update:
I have concluded after doing a few donuts in the Ames parking lot that it was probably a false alarm.

 

01.07.04

A great travesty has occurred my friends.  Our own Dudley Ames has been robbed of the only identification it had left.  Today approximately between the hours of 4:00 and 6:30 PM EST, the majestic white sign which hung over our heads before we entered paradise each day has been dismantled and taken away to some unknown fate.  The sign that remained on, even after the store closed - it's brand, the proof that the building was once occupied by a store far greater than anything that can move in - the white illumination of hope I passed everyday on the way home from work, is gone for good.  I also discovered in my own investigation, that they have brutally knocked down a wall on the side of the building!  I looks to be a future loading dock or something.

 

12.05.03

Winter storm warning!  Through Sunday we are supposed to get a total of 12-20 in. of snow!  Poor Ames is out there battling the storm cold and alone!  Click here for live weather and cam from my high school.

 

12.01.03

The Dudley Ames is rumored to become a Grossman's hardware store within the next year.  The store has been cleared out of any remaining Ames stuff and a wall has now divided the once vast white-tiled prairie of the building.  The other half of the store is said to become a dollar store.  Either way, or whatever moves in, they will probably suck, and they will never surpass the green greatness of its predecessor.

 

11.??.03

Throughout the month there has been more and more activity building at the Dudley Ames.  They have apparently fixed the roof and seem to have raided whatever was left inside the crappy electronic doors of Ames.  A white Chevy Corsica has also been abandoned on the outskirts of the parking lot.  It was there for 3 weeks before it disappeared, and had the parking tickets to prove it.