Ames Plaza, Wrightstown, NJ (ABANDONED & COLLAPSED) - Raw & Real Retail
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- Опубликовано: 17 окт 2024
- On April 13, 2020 at around 8:30 AM, part of the Ames store at Ames Plaza collapsed. The plaza has been mostly vacant for nearly 20 years since the Ames store there closed with the rest of the chain in 2002. This store had previously been a Jamesway, and a Grant City before that. The Grant's had opened in the early 70s, as by around 1975-76, it closed when Grant's went under.
On the morning of April 13, reportedly under high winds and heavy rain conditions, the entire portion of the Ames building that had featured the auto center department, catastrophically collapsed. Fortunately there were no injuries reported as a result of the incident.
Many retail enthusiasts and urbexers have featured this property in their videos. You should refer to WallieB26's extensive tour of the store from October 13, 2018 on RUclips. It's likely the best pre-damage footage you will see.
CHECK OUT WALLIE'S AWESOME VIDEO HERE
• Inside The Abandoned A...
We heard about this sad incident that occurred in April from a friend of ours in a retail discussion group, and were anxious at the first opportunity to return there ourselves, as RRR, to photograph and document the destruction. We finally managed to get back out there yesterday to survey the situation for ourselves.
Rolling up on this mostly abandoned strip of stores, you are greeted by the still-intact Ames Plaza sign out front, as well as a real relic, the three-sided ACME sign from the ACME store that used to sit adjacent to the Ames Plaza. The store itself still bears the familiar Ames logo, having the most-intact sign of its type I've seen. A few of the letters are missing their covers, exposing the lights underneath.
The store itself is in awful shape, with mold and decay... and the store next to it is atrocious with the mold creeping across the floor and up the walls. Walking around to the auto center side, the entire portion has collapsed from the severe weather conditions that made the dated structure finally give way.
We were saddened to HEAR of this, and were even more deeply affected actually visiting the site. I will share the photos I captured from it, and there will be video forthcoming. I know many in the retail circuit will be interested to see the current state of a property that has received quite a bit of attention. We're happy to provide coverage and bring it to you.
--Heather, Raw & Real Retail
Songs used in this video (in order):
Stanley Myers - Images
Michael Rother - Blauer Regen
Steve Gray - Wonder Groove
Steve Gray - Reach Out
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I'd like to say a few words about being an ambassador to your local malls. We have been taking the time to visit all the malls within a reasonable driving distance to check up on them and see how they are doing. Also filming an updated video every year or so, regardless of the lack of many changes, just so there is a video record of the health over time. We think this is an important thing to keep tabs on, especially in these wildly turbulent times. The current health emergency has accelerated the impending Retail Apocalypse we've all been talking about these last several years. This was already a big problem, but the shutdowns and restrictions have made the issue 5x worse and likely hastened the death of the enclosed shopping mall.
I know we've all been on pins and needles wondering how bad the fallout is going to be from all of this.
There really is no way to know exactly unless we ALL go and do our small part to make it known how it turns out. I implore you, if you have the means to pick an area you would like to be an ambassador for, and go document your local malls. Whatever your medium, it doesn't matter, any and all documentation is necessary and vital in this day and age. Whether it be on Social Media, Flickr, RUclips, any platform gets it out there and preserves it for posterity. We can't paint this picture unless we all grab a brush...
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Thanks for the mention. It's a real shame that place was left just rot away like this. That could have been a real disaster considering this place had power when I was there. Lucky it didnt catch on fire if the electric was still on. Thanks for this update video of the Ames Plaza! I enjoyed it!
Hey! Glad you liked it. Hopefully the township does something about the property, the phone number on the door is out of service!
So sad to see this. I'm now 56 years old. My best friend's mom was the manager at Jamesway (before Ames) in the 1980's. My family owned the nearby Hilltop Motel, so I grew up going to that Acme and buying school clothes in this now delapitated store. I found my prom gown in one of the stores in this strip mall! The other large building where the pizza place was, was a movie theatre at one time. Good memories tho! Thanks for this video!
Hi, do you remember a dress store called Roma Fashions in that strip mall? My grandma used to own that store.
@@sean9566 Hi! Yesss! I bought my prom gown there in 1983! So fun to touch back to that memory, thank you.
The back end of that Ames looks like something out of an apocalyptic shooter game.
I remember fondly Ames. Back in the day before they went on a buying spree eating up numerous chains, they were a small town retailer. They wouldn’t open in a larger market. They were small an responsive to their customers. Then the buying spree started. Buying chains that were barely profitable. Upon reflection I suspect they may have not survived anyways. All I know is that I miss them.
Interesting to see. I remember my mom taking me shopping there when it was still Jamesway (I was very young). There also used to be a Payless. I believe there used small movie theater in the other plaza to the side?
Yes! My family bought everything at Jamesway. My friend's mom was the manager! Yes, that was a movie theater next door too. Good memories.
Just found this video. Thanks for posting it. Brings back memories .... Lived in Spartan Village next door from 72-79. Used to work for the Forman family that owned the park.. Early on, the shopping center was W T Grant and it had a restaurant on the left front corner of the building. I suspect that was the collapsed portion in the video. They had the best cheesburgers and fries there.. Oh and vanilla syrup flavored cokes from the fountain. The building out front was a bank... The side building didn't exist and we learned to drive on ice and snow in the side parking lot of the shopping center. Shopped for groceries at the Acme and got soft serve ice cream at the Carvel store across the street and lunch before or after school at the McDonalds.
Its a sad day when even the pizza shop in the strip plaza is gone.
There might be a incident