I’m aware it’s pronounced “Leech-mere.” I made an error reading the script and I didn’t catch it before the video was uploaded. Thank you to those who brought it my attention. I’ll be sure to pronounce it correctly when Lechmere is mentioned again in a future video.
I remember riding to Zayre in my late Mom's 1967 Plymouth Fury station wagon, they had a lot of cool toys & model car kits, plus Matchbox cars, I loved that store
Zayre had that big sign where the letters would flash one at a time before the whole name. It was red! I was little, but I can still picture it! Crazy to see this!
I remember it very well. Every day my commute takes me right past the old site, where a born-again Christian church is now sitting. Directly adjacent was a drive-in movie theater which doubled as a flea market on the weekends during the day. Appropriately enough, it was called The Double Drive-In.
I lived in Mass. for a long time and watched many of these chains come and go. In my old town, there was a big hill overlooking the highway. I could go there, look down at the road, point and say, "That's where Bradlees used to be. That's where Zayre used to be. That's where Lechmere used to be", and so on. I worked for TJX for about 5 years, My first boss there started as a checkout clerk at Zayre and she knew Ben Camarata pretty well. She retired a couple of years ago as senior management, having worked for Zayre and TJX a combined 30+ years.
So far this is the best description of the Zayre story out there. Our Zayre was in the Wrestchester shopping center across the street from Kmart. The buikding still stands but has a Lowe's outlet and a Fresco Y Mas.
I remember Zayre very well, there was one near where I lived in the late 70s and early 80s. I use to ride my bike up there whenever I got some money to buy toys and baseball cards.
Enjoyed your video! My dad had Warwick Shoppers World and I remember when he sold it to Zayre and got a position there. My dad, now 91, is a wealth of knowledge of '60's/'70's retail in New England if you ever have questions.
So glad you enjoyed it! That’s very cool. Please contact me at the email in the “About” section of this channel, so I have your email. I may just take you up on that. Thank you.
I’m familiar with Zayre. I was a loss Prevention manager and was Assistant Store Manager at the end. We were taken over by Ames and eventually went out of business. I worked 12 years for them. The home office was based out of Framingham Massachusetts.
The problems and downfall of a family company always starts with that first CEO that isn’t family. They don’t care about the employees, they don’t care about the stores being clean and kept up, all they care about is their salary, stock options and golden parachute.
Sadly true in a lot of cases. I believe Segall wanted the best for Zayre, but profits came first. One article I came across mentioned how he promised to return Zayre to profitability, and how he ended up “achieving” this goal by selling the stores off and merging it with their better performing companies. Executive logic can be a mess.
Not always specially in the case of Ford motor company it's always said never put a Ford in charge because they will basically ruin it and that's been proven since basically Henry Ford the second and his time in the 70s running the company practically in the ground.
I was the part of the advertisement for the Zayre grand opening for the New Zayers in Lawrence mass.My dad and I were in the Eagle tribune on the grand opening poster in the centerfold I was twelve.and it was my first paying job.I was A model! Lol
Very thorough. I had only a passing familiarity with Zayre. I remember their glaring, huge neon all-cap signs, imposing enough to be seen from the street across their huge parking lots. One retro-memory of the chain: About 10 years ago, I saw a social media page about memories of a particular part of Louisville's suburbs known as Southwest Jefferson County (It's blue collar crowded suburbia). Someone posted a photo of a day in 1967 evidently memorable in Southwestern JC. It was when Zayre added a _pop corn machine!_ Really. In 1967, that was a big deal back when life was 3 TV channels, two top 40 rock stations, and getting up at 5 am to work the early shift.
Grew up with Zayre store in Addison, Illinois. I ended up working there part time while in high school from 1978 to 1980. I worked in the auto, sporting goods and toy departments. Originally I was only going to work in the store on weekends and evenings at the Zayre auto repair store which was in front of the big store but they closed that building was sold to Blockbuster video. I can remember learning the new IBM cash registers in 1980 when they came in. Mr Sult was the general manager of the store.
I grew up in Chicago and we had at least 2 Zayre shops that I remember. One was pretty damn huge on Southwest Highway, the other one on Cicero later on, a bit smaller, and they changed the logo to that awful thing with the asterisk, which was boring. I loved the giant red-neon blast that blinked on the roof outside. You KNEW where you were.
I remember in the mid 1960s, in Braintree, Massachusetts, there was a Zayre store. Each letter would light up and go out independently one after the other and then the entire Zayre name would flash two or three times. To a little kid it was like watching fireworks. My mother worked in the fabric department there. I was sorry to see the store go. And Ames after it.
This was a great video. It brought me back memories, I used to work for Zayre in the 80’s in the pet shop department. Zayre was always a mess, things were all over the place
Thanks for the story! I'm from western Mass, born in 1971 and vaguely remember as a child going into Springfield to a Zayres store as well as Two Guys and Lechmeres in the 70's with mom. Long forgotten memories and a storyline I was not familiar with.
Great video. Brought back two major memories for me. #1 - First job interview ever! Had to have been 15 or 16 years old. Told the manager interviewing me that I'd be a good hire because I would clean-up his MESSY store! I did not get the job. #2 - Bought my first rock music record ever at Zayre. Rush-All The World's A Stage. (Came out in 1976, this would have been 1980.) Rush is to this day my favorite rock group - majorly!)
I remember Zayre's Shopper City when I was a kid. They had the plastic tubs they sent your purchases outside on a roller/conveyor belt system and you would pull the car up to load it.
We had Zayre Shoppers City in Minnesota. Zayre bought the MN based Shoppers City chain and agreed to keeping the name. It was an early pioneer to the "super center" format. Kmart bought all the Shoppers City stores in 1980 and did a rebranding.
Zayre was another company that basically ran itself in the ground they expanded rather quickly and all they were able to pull that off was serious enough there's loans weren't exactly cheap that actually gets a lot of companies in trouble in fact that is most of the problem with the retail trade today frankly one could point to the 1980s and also say that that's what colors to collapse of a lot of companies everybody for the past decade wanted to talk about the retail apocalypse in reality it's retail apocalypse 7.0 if you look at any decade the fifties included you would be amazed at how many retailers we've actually lost so spend a half an hour to an hour on Wikipedia I know that some people have a problem with Wikipedia but you're not really looking at so much the substance of the articles you're looking for dates and basically look up a list that is called retailers or different discount retailers of the United States industrial look at a lot of the companies that you know or have heard of and figure out what year they went under you'll be amazed at what decades. Most of the information there is pretty accurate contraire to pointy-headed idiots via the college much when it comes to the documentation on businesses like I said they're pretty accurate so a lot of these companies would be a fun read but yeah like I said I mean in the 80s and nineties many more companies were gobbled up the mergers shit like that it's not new. And most of the time the story is always the same the company was going strong but they wanted to be bigger than they really were they wanted to not only maintain market share but they wanted to expand market share so they took on a series of dad in order to do so but then there was a bad year there was a bad whatever there was some other decision that went wrong and ultimately the customer base floundered and no they can't pay the bills so they end up closing locations as means of shoring up the cost of operations while at the same time it screwed them on market share because they were losing market share and so ultimately they fell into what they tried to avoid. So then ultimately they sold a lot of their locations to varying competitors this company is no different.
Bought my first tv from the Zayre on American Legion Highway in 1971. 13 inch black and white with uhf so I could watch the Bruins. Brought it home on the bus!
I worked for Zayre's in the 80's. The most memorable thing was the Sunday sale flyers in the newspaper. They had amazing sales that really brought the customers in. BUT, that only happened when there was a sale. On Sundays when there was no sale flyer in the paper, the place was nearly empty. I quit before the Ames buyout, but it wasn't long before all the Ames stores shut down and Zayre was history.
We had Zayre stores around when I was little and I hated the place. Every time I went there, loss prevention followed me around the store everywhere I went. I wasn't a threat or anything but I didn't look like the area residents so naturally that makes people suspicious. But it was also silly because Zayre was notorious for shoppers opening up one of almost every item for sale. So the toy section, my destination at the time, always had at least one of every toy already opened and ready to try. It was also kind of a game to catch LP peeking around corners. They wasted a lot of time following a kid who did nothing wrong. As an adult, all of that is forgiven. I can admire the company for their incredible ability to survive retail wars that have slayed giant after giant, and they did it by staying true to their off-price model rather than trying radical stunts that never work. Sam Walton used to say Mike Monus was the only retail operator he feared, because old Sam could not figure out how Monus did it. We know NOW how he did it. Fraud. But I would like to think Sam must have also had respect and maybe a little fear of Zayre because they never retreated. They never collapsed like so many others. They just got quiet and carried on. That had to worry the people in Bentonville and it probably still does.
When I was in college, I walked back to campus from the local library, where I had borrowed a record. I carried it with me through a Zayre store without incident. When I left, about 15 seconds later, a loss prevention guy came after me and harassed me about the record, which I was making no attempt to hide and which was in a bulky clear plastic holder. After going back and forth with this idiot, he "let me go". Then he told me not to do it again! To this day, I still don't know what it was that I wasn't supposed to do again!
@@notthatyouasked6656 Yeah; meanwhile in the K-Mart I worked back in 1975 the employees were stealing stuff by hiding it in the trash and picking it up later...the oldest game in the book.
Back in the early 80s, I got kicked out of Zayre because my stupid stepbrother(RIP) shoplifted, and I was his unwitting accomplice, we were barred for a year. He laughed it off, but I was mortified, and I don't think I ever forgave him for it. I never went back to that Zayre until it became an Ames about 5 years later.
Loss Prevention, at Zayer?! In the early 80s, we used to play in the toy section and there were so many opened packages. It was a free for all of 6-10 year olds. Always unkempt Perhaps why they went out of business. (@Fresh Pond Mall, in Cambridge, MA)
This video is so relevant to my youth growing up in Worcester. ...shoppong with my dad at Zayre's & The Mart. Thanks again for posting this important information about Zaire's. This is all so interesting. Please keep up the great work.
I remember ZAYRE’s in Warwick, Rhode Island as a kid in the 70s. It was rundown. I thought it was a tiny chain, not the giant you just told me it was. I’m amazed it became TJX! Thanks! You told me something new that surprised me!
When I was a kid I rode my bike to the Zayre in the Mid City Mall in Louisville. Not only did they have a ton of toys, they had plenty of albums and records. One of my favorite memories as a kid.
Im a 50+ year MA resident. I remember the Zayre in Acton in the 1980s. It was next to the Finast supermarket. The Finast closed and eventually became Roche Bros. The Zayre became Ames then Marshalls and is today a TJMaxx and Home Goods. And Acton had a Kmart until it closed in 2020.
I worked for Zayre in Woburn, Mass in the summer of '73 before going to college in the south. And my Mom liked shopping at Ames in Burlington. Long time ago!
Grew up in the north hills of Pittsburgh,and remember the Zyare store on McKnight road. Thing i remembered most was the blinking letters of the sign when we drove by at night. All of the connections of who bought and sold who was a very interesting part of this video.
I find it awesome that your telling stories of these chains that are often looked over as just being "bought out" by another big player like Ames. It's crazy to think that not only was Kmart the once THE primary discount store, but Zayre was also in that same sphere; at one time long ago. Thanks for the awesome video to start my week!
Oh yeah in the '60s through the early 70 s Kmart was everything that everybody has always accused Walmart of being they were the aggressive ones that went around and bought out competitors or straight up saturated their markets basically they were not afraid to take competitors and tied to a tree and beat him with the shovel Kmart at one time was literally that aggressive. The Kmart fell apart as the 70s went on because if you was a shareholder basically if you had their stock well it was good for you because they paid a very high dividend the problem with that is simply it doesn't really provide any reinvestment money for the company so they can sell the hell out of their stock all day long but most of that money is going to go right back in the pockets of the people who bought stock somebody can't really use it to reinvest or any of that business now they still make profits but the company also got stingy with profits so basically by the time you get into the mid 70s a lot of Kmart stores were getting to be run down they didn't care to do maintenance they started to get the reputation of being a ghetto store. Then they had executive problems there was an incident in the late seventies I think it was maybe around 78 where their CEO had embezzled a bunch of money it seems to me the vice president as well at that time that repeated itself two other times in the 80s so they had a lot of investment problems at the top that basically screwed them but the biggest mistake that they made... And it has to do with reinvestment was simply in the late 70s they failed to put money into computer systems that would have bolstered their logistics that's actually how Walmart surpass Kmart because in the late 70s Walmart actually did the reinvestment and they did invest in the computer systems to increase efficiency via the distribution center so they actually invest a lot of money into the back into their store whereas Kmart failed to do so and was very inefficient.. And then like I said you had all of the financial problems that also went down throughout the 80s well at the same time the disrepair of a lot of locations still continued yeah they were kind of catering in the 80s it's amazing that they last as long as they did beyond that company was very badly run and it's honestly really sad because they were wonderful brand and to be honest I can remember the Kmart in my area and it was always a wonderful store even though the roof leaked. Fortunately a lot of companies have been the dust over the years I mean there was a lot of retailers that didn't make it through the 80s there was a lot of other retailers that did the dust by the mid-90s we lost a lot of retailers in the eighties I think the reason why a lot of people don't realize it and that's why they want to say that the retail apocalypse is like within the past 10 years is because back decades ago if a company went under there was usually two or three others that would show up and fill the void. She didn't really notice it so much now what it is to this painfully obvious is simply there are different places there's really no incentive for anyone else or even an existing company to conduct expansion the cost of grabbing up another 3% market share is not justifiable so they're not willing to go in to set area where a store had closed even if they know they could fill the void the problem is simply that market share is just not enough to go after because of The upfront cost it would take to go there. As far as you and me hurting something comparable well first off it would be extreme small chips but even extreme small chips of a business it would cost us a tidy Fortune to open up before you do anything you have to lease a building you have to get retail space problem is simply that's going to cost you anywhere between 6,500 up front to $10,000 up front before you set up the first shelf before you put anything on it before you place your first order so someone like me who is previously been in business and would like to technically go back into business at this time there is absolutely no incentive to do so.
I remember Zayre's in Cincinnati as they were going out of business there in the late 1980s. They had cheap merchandise and dirty, unappealing premises. It was the kind of place a grandmother who smoked 2 packs of cigarettes per day would stop in at odd hours to purchase another ashtray. I would never shop there -- but I worked for an inventory company and had to go there to count the merchandise.......Ames was a little better but still went out of business in the Cincinnati area.
I remember the Cincinnati stores definitely seeming run-down compared to brightly lit and clean Kmarts for sure. They didn't have quite the toy selection that a chain like Van Luenens had either, but they made up for it by having great prices. This was key for a kid on a budget lol.
My mother worked at Zayre headquarters in Framingham for years. She was in payroll department when people were paid in cash packets. The little packets were put together with the gross, the withholdings, and the net handwritten. She was actually doing Bell Store's payroll. The I worked a part-time, 2nd shift job at BJ's in Natick in the accounts payable department for a while. Yeah, they were busy enough to have an evening shift for that!
I was born in Hyannis and remember the Zayre there. The original location, which was before I was born, was in the building on the back side of the Stop & Shop right off of main street but eventually moved next door to them just to the west into a new bigger location, the one I remember as a kid. I live in Wisconsin nowadays, and we have a TJ Maxx in town here where I live, so it's cool to know that a part of Zayre still lives on in a way to this day.
I remember when they used to have their "crazy open all nite long sales", something unheard of at the time. My parents got me my first digital watch at their "jewelry" counter back in the early '80s.
Ah, Zayre! Yes, I remember this store very well! In fact, I bought my first 2 decks of playing cards there! Zayre was at the Dartmouth Mall here in Massachusetts in the 1970s & 1980s until it morphed into an Ames in 1990. I had the decks but got rid of them by accident until I found those same cards on eBay and now I have those cards once again!
Back in 1980-something I saw Elmer Lynn Hauldren (the Empire Carpet guy) at the Zayre store in Aurora, IL. I can still smell the popcorn while playing Donkey Kong in the little arcade there. The west wall of the store was literally the edge of civilization. Once you passed that there was nothing but corn fields until you get to California.
The Zayre I grew up with was in Bellingham, Massachusetts, but, in the location which Zayre occupied, there was a previous retail department store called “Warwick Shoppers World” which I recall had quite a few locations as well pre-Zayre. “Bentleys” was another retailer I grew up with in New England in the 70s and early 80s.
This is sooo cool! I’m in Newport Rhode Island. We had a ZAYER back in the day. First it was Warwicks. Then it was Warwick ZAYER. Then it was ZAYER. Then it became Ames before it closed its doors. It had a full service diner in it which was reminiscent of Woolworths and it had a Star Market grocery store connected to it on its left side in which you could walk from one to the other without going outside. The diner was actually very good and often times I’ve eaten dinner there. I really miss that place and will always remember it.
I had no idea that all those current day retailers were the spawn of *Zayre. Fascinating stuff! As a kid in Western Pennsylvania around the mid 80s my recollection of Zayre is that it was a crappier, dirtier Kmart. Or circa 1985 Zayre = circa 2005 Kmart. Of course all I cared about at the time is who had the best GI Joe selection (probably Hills)
I worked at the store in Hallendale, Florida. ‘75-‘76. One of my jobs was to make the pricing signs. We would roll ink onto wooden number blocks, then press the signs onto them. I can still smell that ink 😂. The all night sales were wild. Some very interesting people would stroll in at 3am. Fun times
Another important department store which had a kickass record section. First album I got there was Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut and bought Works there a few years later and also got my first copies of Led Zeppelin’s III and IV albums. Also The Police’s Zenyatta Mondatta.
After spending 45 years in customer service and retail, I’m loving these videos. Growing up in Columbus Ohio, Lazarus was the store to shop. Could you do a video on them?
Thank you! I’m glad you like them. Lazarus is on the list for future episodes. Should make an interesting video. Appears to have a similar history to Famous-Barr of St. Louis. Thank you for the suggestion.
I miss these stores. It was such a treat going into town with my mom. She worked for Bradlees for 30 years. Zayers was in Hyannis off north street. Loved that store.
My husband went to a Zayre in Maryland, when he was still active duty Coast Guard. His bank account was with a bank in his home state of Delaware. They refused to process his purchases because they refused to take an out of state check. That was ridiculous, considering how many military families are in Maryland. Ames did the same thing.
8:50 Rare car alert - 1985 or '86 Isuzu I-Mark. You can tell it from the more common, rebadged Chevy Spectrum by the full side cladding, alloy wheels and extra grille badge by the left headlight. Isuzu only had a few cars to sell for itself between VRA quotas and the ones they'd committed to sell through GM so they made theirs top-of-the-line.
One of my 3 older sisters (the youngest of the 3) worked @ the Zayre in what was then known as Elfers, FL (before that incorporated area of Pasco County got swallowed up by New Port Richey to the north). That Zayre was along U.S. Hwy 19 and was thought of @ the time (the late 1970’s, about a year before my sister started working in their fabric department in 1977) as a competitor to K-mart. It would end up closing 3 years after my sister left, in 1984, as Walmart started to become prominent in Pasco County. It still is difficult not to associate inedible mayonnaise in certain deli or counter products without thinking of Zayre, since that became a running joke in our family @ the time.😉
I worked at Ames corporate managing one of their business line information departments. Was truly a great job working with talented people. The three store executives however were out of touch with the business and like vampires, sucked the company dry. The company went into a free fall and one day when we arrived to work, we were met with a announcement that the company would be going into bankruptcy and closing it's locations. Many good hard working people, some who had been employees with Zayers for a total of 30 years lost everything. The tree senior managers walked away with millions of dollars. Sad day for retail and people's future. An example of how greed can destroy a once vibrant business.
It's actually nice to hear someone that was on the inside of Ames because yeah I would have liked to talk to you about 18 years ago given I had to do extensive research to find out everything you said. Yeah basically it was kind of all the sudden it was like one day they checked their accounts for whatever reason I don't know why they were prompted to check but they did somebody perhaps in the accounting department checked and they were bankrupt they were basically out of money they had no operating money and they immediately filed for bankruptcy and talked about how they were going after yeah I don't doubt that the executives probably walked away with a fat sack of money they usually do. Although I can say that was the cash value because their stocks in the company which he owes and other executives are commonly paid with stock yes they get money but a large portion of their salaries actually paid in stocks so all of that stock is immediately worthless they still lost their ass on the stock. Of course they did the typical bad management thing and they immediately ran to the media and blamed Walmart was the boogeyman of the '90s and it was largely bullshit a lot of regional companies claimed that but if you go digging into most of those companies finances you'll find that they made significant error and in a lot of cases to management went crazy their problem was not long not even in the slightest I remember when hills department store went under their executives claim the same thing even though they were the ones blowing money hand over fist that's why they opted to sell to aims.
My Aunt worked at ZAYER in the MA Hanover mall during the 70s into the 80s we loved going there the inside mall and to the Child world right down the hall. as an 11 year old ah the memories as of late 18 years ago!LOL my wife worked at walmart at the same location where ZAYRE had been my aunt/wife had worked selling the same stuff sewing and cloth and yarn stuff.
From the time when Ames bought Zayre until the end of Ames, they had two stores in Plattsburgh, NY within a mile of each other; one a mall anchor and the other freestanding. If it weren't for I-87 cutting between them you'd have been able to see the back loading dock of one from the other.
I was born in Pittsburgh in 1959. K-Mart was our first taste of large format discount retail, I'd guess that they arrived in our market around 1964 or so. They had this market to themselves until around 1967 or 1968. The Zayre stores were a bit smaller than what K-Mart had built in our area. My family shopped at both. We had a local 5 & 10 chain called Murphy's that had a large location downtown and small locations in most neighborhoods. Murphy's was impacted and decided to open their own large format discount stores, called Murphy's Mart around 1970. They didn't have a lot of them, but the quality of each location was higher than either K-Mart or Zayre. I don't think that my family shopped in a K-Mart or Zayre in the 1970s. We preferred Murphy's Mart by a wide margin. I moved to Florida in 1979. K-Mart was king down there. At one point I lived very close to a Zayre. I did shop there, mainly because it was a three-minute drive from my house. The store was very tired and sloppily run. The sale to Ames happened about that time. Ames didn't do any better with that particular location. I moved back to Pittsburgh in 1991. Murphy's Mart was gone, the new competitor was Hill's. Hill's seemed to do well in this market for a time, until Wal Mart showed up around 1994, and Target maybe a year or two later. Ames bought Hills, and a lot of people thought that they destroyed them overnight. Ames didn't last long here, K-Mart totally collapsed here after the merger with Sears. With K-Mart and Ames gone Walmart and Target are the only large format discount retail chains in the Pittsburgh region.
Ah! Fellow St. Louisan I see! Yes, I saw that picture and I knew I had to use it. One of the locations I used to shop at. Yes! You’re right about the Shop n Save. I found an old newspaper advertisement for when it opened, with an artist’s rendering. Hope I get a chance to use it in the future.
Fun Fact - Back when companies actually cared about employees and stores in MA were closed on Sunday, Lechmere Sales used to open up on Sundays in December so employees and their families could come in for food, drink and shopping. the entire store was heavily discounted for the day and employees and family could do their Christmas shopping.
I seem to remember Zayre in Beverly opened at 12:01 AM on black Friday. I remember the state fining them. They stayed opened 24X7 until Christmas Eve. Does anyone else remember this? I was a kid, my memory may be foggy. It was the 70s after all!
Goldblatts was always a special day we went to both they had one in Addison Illinois near the Zayers which meant we would go to TOPPs as well and lunch would be at the original Portillos hotdogs when he had that original towable walk up widow shack on North avenue Villa Park Illinois and the other Goldblatts on Harlem avenue Elmwood Park side the East side of Harlem Ave is Chicago going to the E,P, store also meant going to my Uncles house who lived 5 min from there in Elmwood Park
I bought my Nintendo Entertainment System Deluxe Set and a copy of Super Mario Bros. from a local Zayre in Brockton, Massachusetts, circa 1986 or 1987. The store was always clean and orderly that I can remember. Before that, I remember getting a raincheck for a copy of Dragon's Lair for the Coleco Adam from there. lol The location became a HomeGoods for awhile before becoming a couple of locally-owned supermarkets.
Ah yes, Zayre stores. We had them in Illinois back in the 70s. I still have a number of vinyl LPs that I bought at Zayre back then. At the time I bought most of my albums from an old school record store/head shop located just across the street from the Zayre store. The head shop offered a better selection of LPs (including imports) and a better atmosphere, while Zayre often offered better prices.
Zayre came to McKeesport PA in the 60's., it was great with the selection all in one store. Not being in downtown required a car. It became dumpy and we switched to K-Mart instead. My wife worked at GC MURPHY headquarters that was eventually bought by Ames.
I used to love Zayre as a kid. My mom would take me and my brother there to buy Star Wars action figures then eat at the DQ that was in the same parking lot. Good times.
Might be hallucinating, but in 1967 the original "Thomas Crown Affair" had a few scenes filmed in Beverly Massachusetts. One showed a prominent shot of a Zayre store. It had a weird colorful design on the outside of the building.
My grandmother worked at Zayre In Alexandria and Woodbridge VA for 30 years. She retired from their in the mid 80's before the Ames take over. She passed away in 1989. Still to this day I have her retirement lighter (24K gold electric cigarette light) They gave her.
I’m aware it’s pronounced “Leech-mere.” I made an error reading the script and I didn’t catch it before the video was uploaded.
Thank you to those who brought it my attention. I’ll be sure to pronounce it correctly when Lechmere is mentioned again in a future video.
Some people just gotta make it a point to correct 🤷🏽♂️
I remember riding to Zayre in my late Mom's 1967 Plymouth Fury station wagon, they had a lot of cool toys & model car kits, plus Matchbox cars, I loved that store
Did they add a popcorn machine that year? (See my above post.)
Matchbox!!!
I remember walking there to buy my usual hot cup of chicken broth from the vending machine for 25 cents
@@wheelie642wow, I never saw that and I worked there.
You forgot Mals, Mals marvelous Mals!
Zayre had that big sign where the letters would flash one at a time before the whole name. It was red! I was little, but I can still picture it! Crazy to see this!
At the very end of this video you can see the "running" sign, blurred out in the background.
Z-A-Y-R-E “ ZAYRE “ “ “ “ ZAYRE “
@@wheelie642 Oh man my sister and I used to sing to that haaa
The Zayer's on McKnight Road in Ross Township Pa. always had at least one letter on the fritz.
I remember it very well. Every day my commute takes me right past the old site, where a born-again Christian church is now sitting. Directly adjacent was a drive-in movie theater which doubled as a flea market on the weekends during the day. Appropriately enough, it was called The Double Drive-In.
I lived in Mass. for a long time and watched many of these chains come and go. In my old town, there was a big hill overlooking the highway. I could go there, look down at the road, point and say, "That's where Bradlees used to be. That's where Zayre used to be. That's where Lechmere used to be", and so on.
I worked for TJX for about 5 years, My first boss there started as a checkout clerk at Zayre and she knew Ben Camarata pretty well. She retired a couple of years ago as senior management, having worked for Zayre and TJX a combined 30+ years.
So far this is the best description of the Zayre story out there. Our Zayre was in the Wrestchester shopping center across the street from Kmart. The buikding still stands but has a Lowe's outlet and a Fresco Y Mas.
I remember Zayre very well, there was one near where I lived in the late 70s and early 80s. I use to ride my bike up there whenever I got some money to buy toys and baseball cards.
Very good story telling. Very professional.
Thank you very much!
I admire the vibrancy of so many people shopping. The hustle and bustle of early America. The growth. The opportunities.
I careered in retail from the bottom to the very top and had no idea Zayre started TJX. Very cool! And an excellent overview, thanks.
and BJ's too.
Enjoyed your video! My dad had Warwick Shoppers World and I remember when he sold it to Zayre and got a position there. My dad, now 91, is a wealth of knowledge of '60's/'70's retail in New England if you ever have questions.
So glad you enjoyed it! That’s very cool. Please contact me at the email in the “About” section of this channel, so I have your email. I may just take you up on that. Thank you.
Shoppers World! I remember the TV and radio ads well.
I’m familiar with Zayre.
I was a loss Prevention manager and was Assistant Store Manager at the end.
We were taken over by Ames and eventually went out of business.
I worked 12 years for them.
The home office was based out of Framingham Massachusetts.
The problems and downfall of a family company always starts with that first CEO that isn’t family. They don’t care about the employees, they don’t care about the stores being clean and kept up, all they care about is their salary, stock options and golden parachute.
Sadly true in a lot of cases. I believe Segall wanted the best for Zayre, but profits came first. One article I came across mentioned how he promised to return Zayre to profitability, and how he ended up “achieving” this goal by selling the stores off and merging it with their better performing companies. Executive logic can be a mess.
Not always specially in the case of Ford motor company it's always said never put a Ford in charge because they will basically ruin it and that's been proven since basically Henry Ford the second and his time in the 70s running the company practically in the ground.
I was the part of the advertisement for the Zayre grand opening for the New Zayers in Lawrence mass.My dad and I were in the Eagle tribune on the grand opening poster in the centerfold I was twelve.and it was my first paying job.I was A model! Lol
Very thorough. I had only a passing familiarity with Zayre. I remember their glaring, huge neon all-cap signs, imposing enough to be seen from the street across their huge parking lots. One retro-memory of the chain: About 10 years ago, I saw a social media page about memories of a particular part of Louisville's suburbs known as Southwest Jefferson County (It's blue collar crowded suburbia).
Someone posted a photo of a day in 1967 evidently memorable in Southwestern JC. It was when Zayre added a _pop corn machine!_ Really. In 1967, that was a big deal back when life was 3 TV channels, two top 40 rock stations, and getting up at 5 am to work the early shift.
Grew up with Zayre store in Addison, Illinois. I ended up working there part time while in high school from 1978 to 1980. I worked in the auto, sporting goods and toy departments.
Originally I was only going to work in the store on weekends and evenings at the Zayre auto repair store which was in front of the big store but they closed that building was sold to Blockbuster video.
I can remember learning the new IBM cash registers in 1980 when they came in. Mr Sult was the general manager of the store.
I grew up in Chicago and we had at least 2 Zayre shops that I remember. One was pretty damn huge on Southwest Highway, the other one on Cicero later on, a bit smaller, and they changed the logo to that awful thing with the asterisk, which was boring. I loved the giant red-neon blast that blinked on the roof outside. You KNEW where you were.
Must have been misplaced as a retailer, because Sears ruled Chicago. Different concept though I suppose.
I remember in the mid 1960s, in Braintree, Massachusetts, there was a Zayre store. Each letter would light up and go out independently one after the other and then the entire Zayre name would flash two or three times. To a little kid it was like watching fireworks. My mother worked in the fabric department there. I was sorry to see the store go. And Ames after it.
It's "Leech-mere"...
Oh! Interesting. Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind next time I mention them.
Just as in its home base, it was ZAY-uhs
We always called it "zay er" like sayer.
Potato potahto I guess.
Darn right
Tomato, Tomato 🍅.
just when you thought you knew a lot about a particular chain, you find out there is still so much more to learn
Used to buy all my 45 records at Zayre’s in the 60s. Good memories.
I remember going to Zayre with my grandmother back in the 70s. One of her favorite stores.
This was a great video. It brought me back memories, I used to work for Zayre in the 80’s in the pet shop department. Zayre was always a mess, things were all over the place
What a great video. Well done. I remember being dragged around Zayre by my mom in Medford MA. That was shortly before Ames replaced it in the late 80s
Thanks for the story! I'm from western Mass, born in 1971 and vaguely remember as a child going into Springfield to a Zayres store as well as Two Guys and Lechmeres in the 70's with mom. Long forgotten memories and a storyline I was not familiar with.
Well hello from Chicopee Ma.
@@brucetifer Greetings! I grew up in Belchertown, then spent years in Amherst, Northampton and then Easthampton. Since 2008 Albuquerque, NM.
@@kevin2542 been through Albuquerque before I was a truck driver for a while retired live just off base Westover on the South Hadley line greetings
Didn’t know about the Hit Or Miss connection. Loved that store!
I worked security at hit or miss in the 90s.
Great video. Brought back two major memories for me. #1 - First job interview ever! Had to have been 15 or 16 years old. Told the manager interviewing me that I'd be a good hire because I would clean-up his MESSY store! I did not get the job. #2 - Bought my first rock music record ever at Zayre. Rush-All The World's A Stage. (Came out in 1976, this would have been 1980.) Rush is to this day my favorite rock group - majorly!)
Great job! Such a compelling story!
Thank you, my man.
I remember Zayre's Shopper City when I was a kid. They had the plastic tubs they sent your purchases outside on a roller/conveyor belt system and you would pull the car up to load it.
Zayre! We had one just far enough away that we went only once in a while. 9:27 “Many of the stores were unkempt…” That described ours for sure.
No secret here, they were all unkept LOL!
We had Zayre Shoppers City in Minnesota. Zayre bought the MN based Shoppers City chain and agreed to keeping the name. It was an early pioneer to the "super center" format. Kmart bought all the Shoppers City stores in 1980 and did a rebranding.
Zayre was another company that basically ran itself in the ground they expanded rather quickly and all they were able to pull that off was serious enough there's loans weren't exactly cheap that actually gets a lot of companies in trouble in fact that is most of the problem with the retail trade today frankly one could point to the 1980s and also say that that's what colors to collapse of a lot of companies everybody for the past decade wanted to talk about the retail apocalypse in reality it's retail apocalypse 7.0 if you look at any decade the fifties included you would be amazed at how many retailers we've actually lost so spend a half an hour to an hour on Wikipedia I know that some people have a problem with Wikipedia but you're not really looking at so much the substance of the articles you're looking for dates and basically look up a list that is called retailers or different discount retailers of the United States industrial look at a lot of the companies that you know or have heard of and figure out what year they went under you'll be amazed at what decades.
Most of the information there is pretty accurate contraire to pointy-headed idiots via the college much when it comes to the documentation on businesses like I said they're pretty accurate so a lot of these companies would be a fun read but yeah like I said I mean in the 80s and nineties many more companies were gobbled up the mergers shit like that it's not new.
And most of the time the story is always the same the company was going strong but they wanted to be bigger than they really were they wanted to not only maintain market share but they wanted to expand market share so they took on a series of dad in order to do so but then there was a bad year there was a bad whatever there was some other decision that went wrong and ultimately the customer base floundered and no they can't pay the bills so they end up closing locations as means of shoring up the cost of operations while at the same time it screwed them on market share because they were losing market share and so ultimately they fell into what they tried to avoid.
So then ultimately they sold a lot of their locations to varying competitors this company is no different.
Bought my first tv from the Zayre on American Legion Highway in 1971. 13 inch black and white with uhf so I could watch the Bruins. Brought it home on the bus!
I worked for Zayre's in the 80's. The most memorable thing was the Sunday sale flyers in the newspaper. They had amazing sales that really brought the customers in. BUT, that only happened when there was a sale. On Sundays when there was no sale flyer in the paper, the place was nearly empty. I quit before the Ames buyout, but it wasn't long before all the Ames stores shut down and Zayre was history.
My first job on 1975! Loved working there. Great snack bar with burgers and fries.
We had Zayre stores around when I was little and I hated the place. Every time I went there, loss prevention followed me around the store everywhere I went. I wasn't a threat or anything but I didn't look like the area residents so naturally that makes people suspicious. But it was also silly because Zayre was notorious for shoppers opening up one of almost every item for sale. So the toy section, my destination at the time, always had at least one of every toy already opened and ready to try. It was also kind of a game to catch LP peeking around corners. They wasted a lot of time following a kid who did nothing wrong. As an adult, all of that is forgiven. I can admire the company for their incredible ability to survive retail wars that have slayed giant after giant, and they did it by staying true to their off-price model rather than trying radical stunts that never work. Sam Walton used to say Mike Monus was the only retail operator he feared, because old Sam could not figure out how Monus did it. We know NOW how he did it. Fraud. But I would like to think Sam must have also had respect and maybe a little fear of Zayre because they never retreated. They never collapsed like so many others. They just got quiet and carried on. That had to worry the people in Bentonville and it probably still does.
When I was in college, I walked back to campus from the local library, where I had borrowed a record. I carried it with me through a Zayre store without incident. When I left, about 15 seconds later, a loss prevention guy came after me and harassed me about the record, which I was making no attempt to hide and which was in a bulky clear plastic holder. After going back and forth with this idiot, he "let me go". Then he told me not to do it again! To this day, I still don't know what it was that I wasn't supposed to do again!
@@notthatyouasked6656 Yeah; meanwhile in the K-Mart I worked back in 1975 the employees were stealing stuff by hiding it in the trash and picking it up later...the oldest game in the book.
Back in the early 80s, I got kicked out of Zayre because my stupid stepbrother(RIP) shoplifted, and I was his unwitting accomplice, we were barred for a year. He laughed it off, but I was mortified, and I don't think I ever forgave him for it. I never went back to that Zayre until it became an Ames about 5 years later.
Carry a library record into the department store Maybe? Duh!!! @@notthatyouasked6656
Loss Prevention, at Zayer?!
In the early 80s, we used to play in the toy section and there were so many opened packages. It was a free for all of 6-10 year olds. Always unkempt
Perhaps why they went out of business.
(@Fresh Pond Mall, in Cambridge, MA)
This video is so relevant to my youth growing up in Worcester.
...shoppong with my dad at Zayre's &
The Mart. Thanks again for posting this important information about Zaire's.
This is all so interesting.
Please keep up the great work.
Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it.
I remember ZAYRE’s in Warwick, Rhode Island as a kid in the 70s. It was rundown. I thought it was a tiny chain, not the giant you just told me it was. I’m amazed it became TJX! Thanks! You told me something new that surprised me!
When I was a kid I rode my bike to the Zayre in the Mid City Mall in Louisville. Not only did they have a ton of toys, they had plenty of albums and records. One of my favorite memories as a kid.
Im a 50+ year MA resident. I remember the Zayre in Acton in the 1980s. It was next to the Finast supermarket. The Finast closed and eventually became Roche Bros. The Zayre became Ames then Marshalls and is today a TJMaxx and Home Goods. And Acton had a Kmart until it closed in 2020.
I worked for Zayre for 4 years. 3 in high school and 1 in trade school. it was a fun working there in high school. fond memories.
I worked for Zayre in Woburn, Mass in the summer of '73 before going to college in the south. And my Mom liked shopping at Ames in Burlington. Long time ago!
Grew up in the north hills of Pittsburgh,and remember the Zyare store on McKnight road. Thing i remembered most was the blinking letters of the sign when we drove by at night. All of the connections of who bought and sold who was a very interesting part of this video.
Zayre my families go to store in the 70’s. Thanks for the forgotten memories of childhood. By the way this was in Miami not northeast
I find it awesome that your telling stories of these chains that are often looked over as just being "bought out" by another big player like Ames. It's crazy to think that not only was Kmart the once THE primary discount store, but Zayre was also in that same sphere; at one time long ago. Thanks for the awesome video to start my week!
Oh yeah in the '60s through the early 70 s Kmart was everything that everybody has always accused Walmart of being they were the aggressive ones that went around and bought out competitors or straight up saturated their markets basically they were not afraid to take competitors and tied to a tree and beat him with the shovel Kmart at one time was literally that aggressive.
The Kmart fell apart as the 70s went on because if you was a shareholder basically if you had their stock well it was good for you because they paid a very high dividend the problem with that is simply it doesn't really provide any reinvestment money for the company so they can sell the hell out of their stock all day long but most of that money is going to go right back in the pockets of the people who bought stock somebody can't really use it to reinvest or any of that business now they still make profits but the company also got stingy with profits so basically by the time you get into the mid 70s a lot of Kmart stores were getting to be run down they didn't care to do maintenance they started to get the reputation of being a ghetto store.
Then they had executive problems there was an incident in the late seventies I think it was maybe around 78 where their CEO had embezzled a bunch of money it seems to me the vice president as well at that time that repeated itself two other times in the 80s so they had a lot of investment problems at the top that basically screwed them but the biggest mistake that they made...
And it has to do with reinvestment was simply in the late 70s they failed to put money into computer systems that would have bolstered their logistics that's actually how Walmart surpass Kmart because in the late 70s Walmart actually did the reinvestment and they did invest in the computer systems to increase efficiency via the distribution center so they actually invest a lot of money into the back into their store whereas Kmart failed to do so and was very inefficient..
And then like I said you had all of the financial problems that also went down throughout the 80s well at the same time the disrepair of a lot of locations still continued yeah they were kind of catering in the 80s it's amazing that they last as long as they did beyond that company was very badly run and it's honestly really sad because they were wonderful brand and to be honest I can remember the Kmart in my area and it was always a wonderful store even though the roof leaked.
Fortunately a lot of companies have been the dust over the years I mean there was a lot of retailers that didn't make it through the 80s there was a lot of other retailers that did the dust by the mid-90s we lost a lot of retailers in the eighties I think the reason why a lot of people don't realize it and that's why they want to say that the retail apocalypse is like within the past 10 years is because back decades ago if a company went under there was usually two or three others that would show up and fill the void.
She didn't really notice it so much now what it is to this painfully obvious is simply there are different places there's really no incentive for anyone else or even an existing company to conduct expansion the cost of grabbing up another 3% market share is not justifiable so they're not willing to go in to set area where a store had closed even if they know they could fill the void the problem is simply that market share is just not enough to go after because of The upfront cost it would take to go there.
As far as you and me hurting something comparable well first off it would be extreme small chips but even extreme small chips of a business it would cost us a tidy Fortune to open up before you do anything you have to lease a building you have to get retail space problem is simply that's going to cost you anywhere between 6,500 up front to $10,000 up front before you set up the first shelf before you put anything on it before you place your first order so someone like me who is previously been in business and would like to technically go back into business at this time there is absolutely no incentive to do so.
I remember Zayre's in Cincinnati as they were going out of business there in the late 1980s. They had cheap merchandise and dirty, unappealing premises. It was the kind of place a grandmother who smoked 2 packs of cigarettes per day would stop in at odd hours to purchase another ashtray. I would never shop there -- but I worked for an inventory company and had to go there to count the merchandise.......Ames was a little better but still went out of business in the Cincinnati area.
I remember the Cincinnati stores definitely seeming run-down compared to brightly lit and clean Kmarts for sure. They didn't have quite the toy selection that a chain like Van Luenens had either, but they made up for it by having great prices. This was key for a kid on a budget lol.
My mother worked at Zayre headquarters in Framingham for years. She was in payroll department when people were paid in cash packets. The little packets were put together with the gross, the withholdings, and the net handwritten. She was actually doing Bell Store's payroll.
The I worked a part-time, 2nd shift job at BJ's in Natick in the accounts payable department for a while. Yeah, they were busy enough to have an evening shift for that!
I live in MA, and remember goin' to Zayre, as a kid. Although, my parents did more shoppin' (i.e. school clothes), at Bradlees.
I was born in Hyannis and remember the Zayre there. The original location, which was before I was born, was in the building on the back side of the Stop & Shop right off of main street but eventually moved next door to them just to the west into a new bigger location, the one I remember as a kid. I live in Wisconsin nowadays, and we have a TJ Maxx in town here where I live, so it's cool to know that a part of Zayre still lives on in a way to this day.
I remember when Zayre first stayed open all night on Christmas Eve!! Did all my Christmas shopping then.
I remember when they used to have their "crazy open all nite long sales", something unheard of at the time. My parents got me my first digital watch at their "jewelry" counter back in the early '80s.
Great job on this story. Very informative. Thank you!
Thank you!
Ah, Zayre! Yes, I remember this store very well! In fact, I bought my first 2 decks of playing cards there! Zayre was at the Dartmouth Mall here in Massachusetts in the 1970s & 1980s until it morphed into an Ames in 1990. I had the decks but got rid of them by accident until I found those same cards on eBay and now I have those cards once again!
Zayre was converted Ames Department Stores as retail stores in 1990
Back in 1980-something I saw Elmer Lynn Hauldren (the Empire Carpet guy) at the Zayre store in Aurora, IL. I can still smell the popcorn while playing Donkey Kong in the little arcade there. The west wall of the store was literally the edge of civilization. Once you passed that there was nothing but corn fields until you get to California.
The Zayre I grew up with was in Bellingham, Massachusetts, but, in the location which Zayre occupied, there was a previous retail department store called “Warwick Shoppers World” which I recall had quite a few locations as well pre-Zayre. “Bentleys” was another retailer I grew up with in New England in the 70s and early 80s.
I live in Bellingham and used to go to that Zayre too!
This is sooo cool! I’m in Newport Rhode Island. We had a ZAYER back in the day. First it was Warwicks. Then it was Warwick ZAYER. Then it was ZAYER. Then it became Ames before it closed its doors. It had a full service diner in it which was reminiscent of Woolworths and it had a Star Market grocery store connected to it on its left side in which you could walk from one to the other without going outside. The diner was actually very good and often times I’ve eaten dinner there. I really miss that place and will always remember it.
I had no idea that all those current day retailers were the spawn of *Zayre. Fascinating stuff!
As a kid in Western Pennsylvania around the mid 80s my recollection of Zayre is that it was a crappier, dirtier Kmart. Or circa 1985 Zayre = circa 2005 Kmart.
Of course all I cared about at the time is who had the best GI Joe selection (probably Hills)
Thank you for doing this story.
I worked at the store in Hallendale, Florida. ‘75-‘76. One of my jobs was to make the pricing signs. We would roll ink onto wooden number blocks, then press the signs onto them. I can still smell that ink 😂. The all night sales were wild. Some very interesting people would stroll in at 3am. Fun times
Another important department store which had a kickass record section. First album I got there was Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut and bought Works there a few years later and also got my first copies of Led Zeppelin’s III and IV albums. Also The Police’s Zenyatta Mondatta.
In the old photos, I'm noticing there's always at least one bad parking job in the lot shown.
After spending 45 years in customer service and retail, I’m loving these videos.
Growing up in Columbus Ohio, Lazarus was the store to shop.
Could you do a video on them?
Thank you! I’m glad you like them. Lazarus is on the list for future episodes. Should make an interesting video. Appears to have a similar history to Famous-Barr of St. Louis. Thank you for the suggestion.
Excellent also put on the list hills department store.
We called it Zayres
Are you from Chicago? That's definitely what we called it.
@ From Worcester, Massachusetts
Some of my earliest memories are going to Zayre's in Atlanta in the early 70s.
TurnStyle....That was a great little department store. RIP
🤯... never would have remembered TurnStyle if you didn't mention = thank you>>
I miss these stores. It was such a treat going into town with my mom. She worked for Bradlees for 30 years. Zayers was in Hyannis off north street. Loved that store.
Bradlees is coming up next!
Zayre's big red neon letters were quite a sight.
Rapids Drive in Racine WI there was a Zayre. Building is still there it was a Pick and Save now it's an indoor craft/flea market.
My husband went to a Zayre in Maryland, when he was still active duty Coast Guard. His bank account was with a bank in his home state of Delaware. They refused to process his purchases because they refused to take an out of state check. That was ridiculous, considering how many military families are in Maryland. Ames did the same thing.
My first job after high school in 1979 was at Zayre.
Getting a Commodore 64 from Zayre as a Christmas present was the best thing I ever got, and set me on the career path I am still on.
8:50 Rare car alert - 1985 or '86 Isuzu I-Mark. You can tell it from the more common, rebadged Chevy Spectrum by the full side cladding, alloy wheels and extra grille badge by the left headlight. Isuzu only had a few cars to sell for itself between VRA quotas and the ones they'd committed to sell through GM so they made theirs top-of-the-line.
One of my college roommates had an Isuzu Trooper III of about the same vintage.
@@danlowe8684 Troopers and pickups kept the dealers' lights on, they were allowed to import an unlimited number of trucks including SUVs.
One of my 3 older sisters (the youngest of the 3) worked @ the Zayre in what was then known as Elfers, FL (before that incorporated area of Pasco County got swallowed up by New Port Richey to the north). That Zayre was along U.S. Hwy 19 and was thought of @ the time (the late 1970’s, about a year before my sister started working in their fabric department in 1977) as a competitor to K-mart. It would end up closing 3 years after my sister left, in 1984, as Walmart started to become prominent in Pasco County. It still is difficult not to associate inedible mayonnaise in certain deli or counter products without thinking of Zayre, since that became a running joke in our family @ the time.😉
I worked at Ames corporate managing one of their business line information departments. Was truly a great job working with talented people. The three store executives however were out of touch with the business and like vampires, sucked the company dry. The company went into a free fall and one day when we arrived to work, we were met with a announcement that the company would be going into bankruptcy and closing it's locations. Many good hard working people, some who had been employees with Zayers for a total of 30 years lost everything. The tree senior managers walked away with millions of dollars. Sad day for retail and people's future. An example of how greed can destroy a once vibrant business.
It's actually nice to hear someone that was on the inside of Ames because yeah I would have liked to talk to you about 18 years ago given I had to do extensive research to find out everything you said.
Yeah basically it was kind of all the sudden it was like one day they checked their accounts for whatever reason I don't know why they were prompted to check but they did somebody perhaps in the accounting department checked and they were bankrupt they were basically out of money they had no operating money and they immediately filed for bankruptcy and talked about how they were going after yeah I don't doubt that the executives probably walked away with a fat sack of money they usually do.
Although I can say that was the cash value because their stocks in the company which he owes and other executives are commonly paid with stock yes they get money but a large portion of their salaries actually paid in stocks so all of that stock is immediately worthless they still lost their ass on the stock.
Of course they did the typical bad management thing and they immediately ran to the media and blamed Walmart was the boogeyman of the '90s and it was largely bullshit a lot of regional companies claimed that but if you go digging into most of those companies finances you'll find that they made significant error and in a lot of cases to management went crazy their problem was not long not even in the slightest I remember when hills department store went under their executives claim the same thing even though they were the ones blowing money hand over fist that's why they opted to sell to aims.
My Aunt worked at ZAYER in the MA Hanover mall during the 70s into the 80s we loved going there the inside mall and to the Child world right down the hall. as an 11 year old ah the memories as of late 18 years ago!LOL my wife worked at walmart at the same location where ZAYRE had been my aunt/wife had worked selling the same stuff sewing and cloth and yarn stuff.
The Scott Antique Markets in Atlanta used to be a Zayre. We always called it Zayre’s…
From the time when Ames bought Zayre until the end of Ames, they had two stores in Plattsburgh, NY within a mile of each other; one a mall anchor and the other freestanding. If it weren't for I-87 cutting between them you'd have been able to see the back loading dock of one from the other.
I was born in Pittsburgh in 1959. K-Mart was our first taste of large format discount retail, I'd guess that they arrived in our market around 1964 or so. They had this market to themselves until around 1967 or 1968. The Zayre stores were a bit smaller than what K-Mart had built in our area. My family shopped at both. We had a local 5 & 10 chain called Murphy's that had a large location downtown and small locations in most neighborhoods. Murphy's was impacted and decided to open their own large format discount stores, called Murphy's Mart around 1970. They didn't have a lot of them, but the quality of each location was higher than either K-Mart or Zayre. I don't think that my family shopped in a K-Mart or Zayre in the 1970s. We preferred Murphy's Mart by a wide margin. I moved to Florida in 1979. K-Mart was king down there. At one point I lived very close to a Zayre. I did shop there, mainly because it was a three-minute drive from my house. The store was very tired and sloppily run. The sale to Ames happened about that time. Ames didn't do any better with that particular location. I moved back to Pittsburgh in 1991. Murphy's Mart was gone, the new competitor was Hill's. Hill's seemed to do well in this market for a time, until Wal Mart showed up around 1994, and Target maybe a year or two later. Ames bought Hills, and a lot of people thought that they destroyed them overnight. Ames didn't last long here, K-Mart totally collapsed here after the merger with Sears. With K-Mart and Ames gone Walmart and Target are the only large format discount retail chains in the Pittsburgh region.
I spy the SoCo Marshalls! I just learned the old Shop n Save on South Lindbergh was once a Zayre.
Ah! Fellow St. Louisan I see! Yes, I saw that picture and I knew I had to use it. One of the locations I used to shop at.
Yes! You’re right about the Shop n Save. I found an old newspaper advertisement for when it opened, with an artist’s rendering. Hope I get a chance to use it in the future.
Fun Fact - Back when companies actually cared about employees and stores in MA were closed on Sunday, Lechmere Sales used to open up on Sundays in December so employees and their families could come in for food, drink and shopping. the entire store was heavily discounted for the day and employees and family could do their Christmas shopping.
I remember Zayre’s from when I was a little kid.
I seem to remember Zayre in Beverly opened at 12:01 AM on black Friday. I remember the state fining them. They stayed opened 24X7 until Christmas Eve. Does anyone else remember this? I was a kid, my memory may be foggy. It was the 70s after all!
Years ago, my mom worked at Zayre briefly. She once said that a manager told her that a lot of the products they sold were seconds.
Goldblatts was always a special day we went to both they had one in Addison Illinois near the Zayers which meant we would go to TOPPs as well and lunch would be at the original Portillos hotdogs when he had that original towable walk up widow shack on North avenue Villa Park Illinois and the other Goldblatts on Harlem avenue Elmwood Park side the East side of Harlem Ave is Chicago going to the E,P, store also meant going to my Uncles house who lived 5 min from there in Elmwood Park
I ❤ Goldblatts. 🐩
The thing I most remember about the Zayre where I lived was that it smelled like bath soap and that the lighting seemed super-bright.
Grew up in bean town Zayre , Jordan marsh ,kings ,gilcrest, A&P
I bought my Nintendo Entertainment System Deluxe Set and a copy of Super Mario Bros. from a local Zayre in Brockton, Massachusetts, circa 1986 or 1987. The store was always clean and orderly that I can remember. Before that, I remember getting a raincheck for a copy of Dragon's Lair for the Coleco Adam from there. lol
The location became a HomeGoods for awhile before becoming a couple of locally-owned supermarkets.
Would like to see Ukrop’s someday! Interesting tale of a family grocer in Virginia
I remember the Zayre on Boston Rd in Springfield MA. They had a great record department.
Ah yes, Zayre stores. We had them in Illinois back in the 70s. I still have a number of vinyl LPs that I bought at Zayre back then. At the time I bought most of my albums from an old school record store/head shop located just across the street from the Zayre store. The head shop offered a better selection of LPs (including imports) and a better atmosphere, while Zayre often offered better prices.
Born and raised in Hyannis. I remember that Zayre' s very well..
We had one in Parma OH in the 1960's. We went to it like once a week.
A great store to shop in the '60s and 70s nearby as a kid. A groyzn dank aun zey gezunt.
Loved Zayre. Then later Ames. Miss them both.
Zayre came to McKeesport PA in the 60's., it was great with the selection all in one store. Not being in downtown required a car. It became dumpy and we switched to K-Mart instead. My wife worked at GC MURPHY headquarters that was eventually bought by Ames.
Went too the ZAYER store in Rockville Md, for years as a child with mom and dad, 1960s/ 1970s fun time !
I used to love Zayre as a kid. My mom would take me and my brother there to buy Star Wars action figures then eat at the DQ that was in the same parking lot. Good times.
There was one in Medford MA.Across the street was JM Fields store which was kind of like another "Zayre type" chain.
I worked for the law firm representing "Zayres" in the Mid 1980's - my team helped transform the company into T.J. Maxx
Might be hallucinating, but in 1967 the original "Thomas Crown Affair" had a few scenes filmed in Beverly Massachusetts. One showed a prominent shot of a Zayre store. It had a weird colorful design on the outside of the building.
The Zayre in Notwich CT had the best toy dept. around in the 80s. Hands down.
My grandmother worked at Zayre In Alexandria and Woodbridge VA for 30 years. She retired from their in the mid 80's before the Ames take over. She passed away in 1989. Still to this day I have her retirement lighter (24K gold electric cigarette light) They gave her.
Zayre's still Lives, in a way, bigger than before.