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The Ames Fan Club
By adamg on Wed, 11/16/2005 - 5:02pm
Alrighty then. This is a group of people attempting to build a database of every Ames store ever and what happened to it after Ames went belly up. Where's the Zayre fan club, I ask you?
Via MetaFilter.
UPDATE: Steve worked at a Zayre in high school:
We were slaves to the minimum wage. When the increase of the minimum wage happened to coincide with time for my raise, my manger told me that the higher minimum wage was my raise. ...
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Comments
Zayres and Ames in Dedham
From my younger days, I'm pretty sure I remember a Zayre's being on Rt. 1 at the Dedham Plaza. That location was later held by an Ames. I'm almost positive the Zayre's preceded the Ames, but I admit I can't say that with 100% recollection.
You remember correctly
And now it's the world's largest Star Market (featuring tons of exclamation points).
This is true
It was a Zayre, then Ames bought out the Zayre chain in the 1990s, bringing with them "Bargains by the bagfull."
Wasn't Ames also the chain that advertised sales occasionally with a TV spot featuring a woman wondering about her husband's unexplained absence, saying "Ed's never out on egg noodle night." For some reason that line sticks out and I mutter it to myself when I run across something that can't be easily explained.
The Star Market is nice, except for the identity crisis. Outside, it screams Star Market, but everything inside from aisle markers to the checkout stands shouts Shaw's. I know that Shaw's bought Star in 1998, but I could never get an explanation why the continued to operate the two nameplates when the interior is all Shaw's. I mean, why bother?
Unions
Shaws has a union, while Star doesn't. I've heard Shaws go so far as to submit building plans with the Shaws name, which is more high end perception wise, then before opening, switch to Star to avoid having the union workers.
There was a Zayre on Main St/North St in Hyannis. It's now an empty 'outlet mall' with a neglected parking lot.
Zayre, not formerly called the Congo
The Fresh Pond Mall [sic] used to have a Zayre, which spent its last few declining years as an Ames. I don't recall exactly where it was -- probably in the space now occupied by either Toys 'R' Us or Staples, maybe both.
It wasn't the most disorganized store I've ever visited -- but only because that honor belongs to the old downtown Boston Woolworth's.
Natick
Use to be where the Christmas Tree Shop now is in Sherwood Plaza (which was named for Sherwood Village, the subdivision right behind it which got its name because the developer gave the streets names like Robin Hood Lane, but I digress). I was never a big Zayre shopper (hey, what about Caldor? Lechmere? Sigh), but when I covered Natick as a reporter, every so often the selectmen had to hold a hearing to decide whether to give Zayre an "amusement license" for the coin-operated horsie they had out front.