Search this site
Embedded Files
Zayre88
  • Home
    • BonanzaPonderosa
  • About us
  • Retail Timeline
  • Closed store list
  • Closed store chains
    • Almys
    • Ames
    • Ann & Hope
    • Bradlees
    • Caldor
    • Giant
    • Globe
    • Jamesway
    • JM Fields
    • Hills
    • King's
    • Mammoth Mart
    • Mars
    • Rich's
      • richs-pictures
    • Stuart's
    • Woolco
    • Woolworth
    • WT Grant
    • Zayre
  • Current retailers
    • Home Depot
    • kohls
    • target
    • Lowes
    • walmart
    • kmart
    • Sears
    • Costco
  • New England Malls
    • Airport Mall
    • Airport Plaza
    • Ames Plaza Dover
    • Ames Plaza Brunswick
    • AmesPC_Plaza
    • Apple Tree Mall
    • Aroostook Centre Mall
    • Auburn Mall
    • Auburn Plaza
    • Auburndale Plaza
    • Augusta Plaza
    • Bangor Mall
    • Bangor Parkade
    • Barre Plaza
    • Bedford Mall
    • Belknap Mall
    • Bradlees Plaza
    • Bradlees Plaza Concord
    • Broadway Plaza
    • Caldor Plaza
    • Capitol Shopping Center
    • Capitol Shopping Plaza
    • Center for Shopping
    • Center Street Plaza
    • Champlain Centre North
    • Champlain Centre South
    • Christmas Tree Shops Plaza
    • Christmas Tree Shops Center
    • Cooks Corner Mall
    • Crossroads Plaza
    • Derby Plaza
    • Diamond Run Mall
    • Dollar Tree Plaza
    • Dover Plaza
    • Durgin Square
    • East Side Plaza
    • Ellsworth Shopping Center
    • Elm Plaza
    • Exeter Commons
    • Fairbanks Plaza
    • Falmouth Shopping Center
    • Fairgrounds Markeplace
    • Five Point shopping center
    • Fort Eddy Plaza
    • Fox Run Mall
    • Globe Plaza Nashua
    • Globe Shopping Mall
    • Green Mountain Mall
    • Harbor Plaza
    • Hatch Plaza
    • Hood Commons
    • Indian Brook Commons
    • JFK Plaza
    • Kennebec Village
    • Key Road Plaza
    • Kings Hy-Way Plaza
    • Kings Plaza
    • Kmart Plaza West Lebanon
    • Kmart Plaza Salem
    • Lafayette Crossing
    • Lafayette Plaza
    • Lake Shore Marketplace
    • Lewiston Mall
    • Lilac Mall
    • Maine Coast Mall
    • Maine Crossing
    • Maine Mall
    • Mall of NH
    • Mall Plaza
    • Mallside Plaza
    • Mardens Plaza
    • Marshalls Mall
    • Market Basket Plaza
    • Merrymeeting Plaza
    • Merrimack 360
    • Millcreek Plaza
    • Miromar Outlet Mall
    • Mount Auburn Plaza
    • Mount Blue Plaza
    • Mountain Valley Mall
    • Nashua Mall
    • Newington Mall
    • Newport Plaza
    • Northport Plaza
    • Northway Plaza
    • Orion Center
    • Pentucket Plaza
    • Pine Tree Shopping Center
    • Plattsburgh Plaza
    • Port Plaza Portsmouth
    • Port Plaza
    • Renys Plaza
    • River Valley Crossing
    • Riverside Plaza
    • RKPlaza
    • Rochester Mall
    • Rochester Market Place
    • Rock Row
    • Rockland Plaza
    • Rockingham Mall
    • Royal Ridge Center
    • Rutland Mall
    • Saco Valley Shopping Center
    • Sanford Plaza
    • Salem Plaza
    • Scarborough Gallery
    • Seabrook Commons
    • Seabrook Plaza
    • Seabrook Southgate
    • Seacoast Plaza
    • Shaws Plaza
    • Skowhegan Plaza
    • Skowhegan Village
    • Somerset Plaza
    • Shops at Biddeford Crossing
    • Shops at Clarks Pond
    • South Willow Plaza
    • Southgate Plaza
    • Southgate Plaza nashua
    • Steeplegate Mall
    • Stateline Plaza
    • Stuarts Plaza
    • The Concourse
    • The Promenade
    • Tilton Center
    • Topsham Fair Mall
    • Topsham Landing
    • Townline Plaza
    • Tri City Plaza
    • Turner Street Center
    • Turnpike Mall
    • Turnpike Plaza
    • University Mall
    • Upper Valley Mall
    • Valley Square Plaza
    • Waterville Commons
    • Walmart Plaza
    • Wells Plaza
    • West Gate Plaza
    • Westbrook Plaza
    • Westgate Mall
    • West Side Plaza
    • West Street Shopping Center
    • Whiteholm Farm Plaza
    • Windham Mall
    • Winnipesaukee Crossing
  • Closeout stores
    • Christmas Tree Shops
    • Chapter11
    • Big Lots
    • Building 19
    • Marden's
    • Ocean State Job Lot
    • Renys
    • Wisebuys
    • Ollies
  • Discount retail in Canada
  • Links
  • Contact us
Zayre88
  • Headquarters: Rocky Hill, CT

  • President: Joseph E. Ettore

  • Employees: 22,000 (Aug.2002)

  • Stores: 467

  • Slogan: Bargains by the bagful!

  • Founded: 1958

  • Closed: 2002

COMMENTARY:

Ames was one of the leading regional discount tore chain. Ames once stood as the nation's fourth largest discount chain behind Kmart, Target and Walmart. Over the years, Ames acquired several discount chains to expand. Of course, the Zayre acquisition became infamous for being the one that almost killed the company. Ames went through Chapter 11 and reorganized to bounce back after a long difficult period.  Back then, Zayre was too big to swallow for a small chain like Ames.  When Ames emerged, it became profitable again.

 From 1996 to 2000, Ames resumed opening new stores. It acquired the 155-store Hills chain and bought some former Caldor and Goldblatt's locations. Ames expanded to the mid-west and continued it's growth. Ames enjoyed a good period, but the Hills acquisition created a lot of debt and that, combined with a bad economy caused another "Zayre storm" for Ames. It had to re-organize again under Chapter 11 and had to close almost 130 stores (mostly former Hills).  Other rounds of closings occured after that, and in August 2002, the company had to pull the plug on Amazing Ames and its long history.

 OVERVIEW:

The original Ames concept was «To bring discounts to the under-served rural areas» and they have done that very well.  Ames began in 1958 when two Connecticut brothers, Milton and Irving Gilman, opened their first store in the Ames Worsted Textile Co. mill in Southbridge, Mass. In its first year of operations, the store generated $1 million in sales, encouraging a third Gilman brother, Herbert, to join the Company in 1959. The Company began opening stores in upstate New York and northern Vermont as it followed a business strategy of bringing discount stores to under-served smaller towns and rural areas in the Northeast. In 1962, the company went public as Ames Department Stores, Inc., and by 1970, there were 23 Ames stores in operation, with $50 million in annual sales.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the Company expanded its store base both organically and through the acquisition of other chains in the Northeast. Acquired companies included: Joseph Leavitt and K&R Warehouse in 1972; Davis Wholesale in 1978; Neisner Brothers' in 1978; King's in 1984; G.C. Murphy's in 1985; and Zayre in 1988. While the acquisitions between 1972 and 1995 helped the Company grow into a leading player in the discount retail market, its 1988 acquisition of Zayre proved disastrous. After closing 74 Zayre stores, the company began converting the remaining 318. The effort went slowly and proved to be very costly. The Company sold the Zayre shoe concession to J.Baker in May 1989, and sold 130 G.C. Murphy stores and 25 Bargain World stores in September 1989. Even after recouping approximately $137.6 million from the sale of the G.C. Murphy and Bargain World stores, the cumulative effects of the Zayre's acquisition drove the Company to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code in April 1990, as unpaid vendors refused to ship new merchandise to the Company. In October 1989, the 11 Zayre stores in NH were renamed Ames. At that time here was 27 Ames in the state and 632 stores nationwide.

During its Chapter 11 case, the Company sold its wholesale sporting goods division, Mathews & Boucher, in 1992. That same year it sued the investment banking firm that had advised it to buy the Zayre chain, alleging it paid too much based on receiving "inaccurate and misleading information and self-interested advice." The suit was settled in 1994 for $19 million (after Ames' emergence from its reorganization case). During its Chapter 11 case, Ames closed 370 stores, successfully exiting bankruptcy late in 1992. In early 1993, the Company decided to close an additional 60 stores, not previously slated for closure during the bankruptcy reorganization case.

Back to expansion mode

Ames underwent a major growth spurt in 1998, increasing their store count by 50% with the purchase of the 155 Hills Department Stores chain and ten former Caldor sites. Ames operated 456 stores in 19 states and the District of Columbia in 1999. Ames had a unique program offering special discounts for customers 55 and older, the 55 Gold® Savings Card. No matter what the size of the community they continued the original mission of the Gilman brothers in providing quality service to the under-served, time-starved customer looking for great value. After the Hills acquisition, Ames quickly went from 301 to 456 stores and became the nation 4th largest discount chain behind Walmart, Kmart and Target.  It was the nation's largest regional full-line discount retailer with annual sales of over $4 billion.

A slow and painful demise...

In March 1999, Ames closed 8 stores in markets where its Ames stores and its newly acquired Hills units overlapped. In November 2000, Ames closed 32 stores, 31 of which were acquired from Hills. In August 2001, Ames closed another 47 stores and filled for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Ames closed 16 stores and a distribution center in November that year. In December 2001, Ames closed an additional 54 stores leaving the chain with 333 stores. Ames closed 6 more stores in June 2002. Ames finally announced on August 14 2002 it would go out of business closing its last 327 stores after 44 years of operation.

 ME/NH/VT LOCATIONS:

MAINE

  • Augusta*

  • Bangor (Broadway) *

  • Bangor (Airport Mall) **

  • Belfast

  • Brunswick*

  • Calais

  • Caribou

  • Dover-Foxcroft

  • Ellsworth

  • Falmouth **

  • Farmington

  • Houlton

  • Jay

  • Lewiston *

  • Millinocket

  • Newport

  • Oxford

  • Portland *

  • Rockland *

  • Rumford *

  • Sanford

  • Skowhegan

  • South Portland *

  • Waterville*

  • Wells

  • Wiscasset

* Former Zayre

** Former Rich's

NEW HAMPSHIRE

  • Belmont*

  • Claremont

  • Concord *

  • Dover *

  • Groveton

  • Hooksett*

  • Keene

  • Londonderry*

  • Manchester (Downtown) *

  • Manchester (East Side Plaza)

  • Milford

  • Nashua

  • Nashua (Nashua Mall)

  • Newport

  • Ossipee

  • Peterborough

  • Plaistow

  • Plymouth

  • Salem*

  • Seabrook

  • Stratham

  • Somersworth

  • Tilton (Franklin)

  • West Lebanon **

  • Woodsville


*Former Zayre

** Former Rich's

VERMONT

  • Barre

  • Bennington

  • Brattleboro

  • Newport (Derby)

  • Essex Junction

  • Middlebury

  • Morrisville

  • Rutland

  • Rutland

  • Rutland

  • South Burlington *

  • Springfield

  • St. Albans

  • St. Johnsbury ** 

  • St. Johnsbury

  • St. Johnsbury


*Former Zayre

** Former Rich's

 AMES FAN CLUB

This website is not affiliated with the former Ames Department Stores chain.

 © 2000-2025 Zayre88 unless otherwise noted, All Rights Reserved. This website is not affiliated with any retailers or shopping centers. For the most accurate and current information about stores and malls, visit their official websites. All company names are property of their respective owners. Disclaimer
Almy's  Ames   Ann&Hope   Bradlees   Caldor   Giant  Globe   Hills   Jamesway  JM Fields   King's   Mammoth Mart  Rich's   Stuart's  W.T.Grant  Woolco   Woolworth   Zayre
Google Sites
Report abuse
Google Sites
Report abuse