How To Help Bring Ames Department Stores Back to Binghamton

It’s official – the much loved and very missed Ames department stores are coming back and now; you have an opportunity to help Binghamton get its own store.

Get our free mobile app

On December 12, 2022, we shared with you that we stumbled on a website that vaguely indicated that Ames department stores might be revived although, at that time there was very little to go on and we couldn’t say for certain.

According to AmesStores.com, Ames is returning in the Spring of 2023. The original Ames stores were first opened in Massachusetts in 1958, becoming incorporated in 1962. Ames would spread to 19 contiguous northeastern, midwestern, and Mid-Atlantic states with 450 stores before facing serious financial troubles and closing all remaining stores on October 19, 2002.

21 years after its final store closed, Ames is making a comeback as a project by the Molyneux Group, the owners of Bradlees Department Stores PLC, and will be headquartered in Gloversville, New York which is located in New York’s Capital District.

In a post to Instagram, amesdepstores shared a screenshot of its website from August 20, 2001, in which the company announced that despite every effort to reorganize and save the brand simply was not possible. Under the screenshot, the company wrote on Instagram:

While you wait for details about the new Ames department stores, the company has added a "process for requesting expansions" on its website. What this means is that if you would like an Ames to open in the Southern Tier, you can fill out this form and let the company know.

In the process for requesting expansions form, the company is looking for community members to let them know where you would like to see an Ames store along with "City/State Population, any vacant properties you've seen, and what other stores are around your area."

If you would like to work for Ames when the new stores open, the company will be posting job openings here once plans for store openings progress.