From May to Macy's

May Department Stores was once responsible for many popular mall-anchored department stores such as Lord & Taylor, Filene’s (Boston-based) and their many acquisitions of regional offsprings such as Hecht’s, and Kaufmann’s (New York-based) over the last century plus. In 2005, May Department Stores were acquired by Federated Department Stores, another once rival giant who owns the more upscale Macy’s, and the even more upscale Bloomingdale’s. As a result of the acquisition, Federated prompty chose to brand all of May’s string of department store chains and names which includes Filene’s and names under one successor: Macy’s. If you’ve shopped a Filene’s, then-owned by May Department Stores, the company who acquired the former G. Fox and Sage-Allen locations (which originated right here in Hartford), you’re basically shopping at the same stores as you’ve been going to all along. But there are some differences within...

Farewell to Filene's; taken weeks before the transformation.

What’s the real difference with the merger? Store interior designs have changed a bit; mostly in regards to Macy’s promotional banners and signage in and out of the stores. Facades have been repainted and some restructured (although varied in some locations) and prices aren’t quite as heavy as Macy’s have been known to charge in the past. Selection? The same trendy brands Filene’s has been offering over the past years. Presentation wise, you might not be able to tell anything beyond marginal differences here and there. The personality of many of these stores, including Filene’s, some of which many people including myself have grown up with have now been uniformly rebranded in Macy’s name which kicked off officially on September 9, 2006.

The Westfarms Mall; located between Farmington and West Hartford, Connecticut was host to original Hartford-originated G. Fox and Sage-Allen stores before their fallouts in the early 90's.

The final weeks of Filene's brand, originally G. Fox in front of one of the two monuments built here since the 1974 opening.


Macy's now operating at the former Filene's, originally G. Fox.


Macy's main exterior entrance.


Macy's upper-level entrance.


The Filene's Men's Store/Furniture Gallery operating in the former Sage-Allen space. This photo was taken after mall closing hours and months before the Macy's rebrand.


Overlooking Westfarms center court, Macy's now operates in the former Filene's Men's/Furniture, originally Sage-Allen.

Macy's Men's Store upper-level entrance, brown facade unchanged from the Sage-Allen era.


Macy's Furniture Gallery entrance, brown facade also unchanged from Sage-Allen.


Macy's Men's/Furniture entrance with original "sky-rise" style window facade.


Macy's Men's/Furniture entrance with original flare.


Then: Filene's Men's Store/Furniture Gallery exterior entrance.


Now: Macy's Men's/Furniture entrance as of September 9.

Danbury Fair Mall; Danbury, Connecticut

The now vacant Filene's at the Danbury Fair Mall; a mall which hosts an original Macy's. Photo taken earlier this year, the building now features stripped away signage.


An original Macy's at Danbury Fair Mall also one of only original stores in any mall in Connecticut.


Macy's mall entrance at Danbury Fair Mall.


The former Filene's at Danbury Fair Mall still without a known replacement anchor.

Stamford Town Center; Stamford, Connecticut


Connecticut's first original Macy's and it's grandiose exterior at the other Connecticut Taubman Center; Stamford Town Center.


Interior the Stamford Town Center Macy's

Enfield Square; Enfield, Connecticut


Macy's sign being assembled outside the former Filene's Men's Store exterior entrance.



Macy's sign being assembled at the former Filene's Men's Store at the Enfield Square (formerly known as Westfield Shoppingtown at Enfield).


Another exterior entrance with "rainbow" arch entrance throwback to original 1960's design of the mall.


A Filene's tarp just before pre-unveiling the company's uniform brand outside the exterior entrance.



An unusual "rainbow" style facade on a former G. Fox, to Filene's, and now Macy's inside the one-level Enfield Square.

Some Other Malls...

Soon to be removed signage at the Auburn Mall in Auburn, Massachusetts.


The last notion of Filene's on this road pilon at the Holyoke Mall in Holyoke, Massachusetts.


An unusual Macy's facade at the Sunrise Mall in Massapequa, New York (Long Island) which was not Filene's before (Photo credit: Michael DiMaio).

Big Canadian Attack

Tim Hortons Opens Eleventh Connecticut Store

Back in July, the lot beside Walgreens on the cross between Routes 10 and 372 in Plainville was slowly showing progress of something on the former, and long departed site of Pilgrim Furniture. No more than a month later, Canadian-based coffee house chain Tim Hortons announced they were to open a store right in in the center of Plainville. Tim Hortons, which has very few stores in the northeastern portions of Connecticut in Meriden and New London areas, decided that Plainville would be the next elusive store to enter the Connecticut marketplace being one of the only stores in Hartford-area Connecticut. No more than just a few summer months, Tim Hortons opened on Friday, September 15, 2006 to a public of which who may have never even heard of the “Always Fresh” coffee and pastery chain.

Tim Hortons now competes with various Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks, and Donut World all of which located a few miles away.

Tim Hortons doesn’t just serve up coffee, instead, they offer a bevy of both breakfast, lunch, and dessert menu items from doughnuts, turkey sandwiches, soup, and even iced beverages. Around the same time as Hortons conception in Plainville, franchise-owner GAD, Inc. opened yet another Dunkin’ Donuts right on the former site of Just Java on Farmington Avenue/Route 10, of a now bankrupt independent coffee house, to possibly counter the traffic of cars seen at the lunchtime crowd of Tim Hortons today. GAD, who franchise owns many Dunkin’ Donuts shops in Farmington, New Britain, and Plainville will see a new challenger with fresh new concepts beyond breakfast sandwiches, sweets and sometimes, stale coffee.

Tim Hortons is open 24 hours and contains a Drive Thru to ensure convenience despite how much I despise them.

Seeing as Dunkin’ Donuts holds my favorite coffee, when brewed correctly and fresh (two of which have a hard time meeting consistency), I set foot into Tim Hortons for the second time in my life and walked away very much pleased. A reasonable $1.45 for a medium coffee versus GAD's Dunkin' Donuts medium $1.83 (some franchisees price differently) that’s fresh, hot, and friendly-served to me is something I’ll remember when I’m on the prowl for a good coffee and am sick of Dunkin’ Donuts problematic employees and sometimes dissatisfying coffee. Having been a former Dunkin’ employee, and long-time frequenter, I’m not being irrational more or less testimonial.

Swing by if you're in the area, as they're open 24 Hours (in competition with the nearby Dunkin' Donuts) even if you must pass ten Dunkin' stores and discover why Tim Hortons is refreshingly different from Dunkin' Donuts or Starbucks. What better face-name recognition to serve up hot coffee than a native hockey playing Canadian?!

Here's some photos of Tim Hortons during construction. Photos taken July 2006.

Construction workers for Hortons caught red-dead handed leaving a Dunkin' Donuts bag on site.

Rocking Heart

Being the gamer I proclaim to be, I’ve been slacking a lot in keeping up with games. Being the up-to-date, avid game music listener I am, I am unyielding to proclaiming my burning anticipation for an upcoming arrangement album from the Wild Arms series with WILD ARMS Music the Best -rocking heart-. The album is not only packed with 17 select arrangements from the five Wild Arms games but has incorporated famed Falcom composer and arranger Ryo Yonemitsu (to name a familiar name) to arrange them along with some personal favorite musicians MASA on guitars (Shin Sangokumosou 3, 4 to name a few), Masato Honda (T-Square, Rockman X arrange album) and Mitsuru Kanekuni on Sax (Double Dragon II, V’ Ball arrange albums) in a foray of rock and fusion elements.

Don’t feel absent; I’ve never played a Wild Arms game nor am I very familiar with any of the original soundtracks. The website has samples, even if you don’t listen to game music casually or mostly (as I), the music generally invites music and melody lovers alike. My senses are already melting over “FATE BREAKER” so give those a listen by clicking on the little headphones logo; you won’t be disappointed.

The Big E Weekend And Meeting Darth Vader

Rocky's/ACE Hardware/Friendly's Plaza at the intersection before Westfield River, $5, Full Lot. Walk another hundred feet and the friendly folks at 53 Suffield Street host the best place to park your car for $3.

We, the people of the Northeast, have pride in our accomplishment and contributions to America. We celebrate it by attending an annual bi-weekly fair called The Big E also known as the "Big Eastern", "Big Eat" but all encompassing "Eastern State Exposition". Well that was this weekend and for the first time in many years, Renee and I went along to spend our Saturday with a sabotage of hot weather, messes of crowds, and people driving hours plus to wait in snaking lines to scarf down potatoes. Big E was as I remember it all for the above and some more little odds and ends.

Living in Central Connecticut as I do, I decided to go the way my dad drove us, which is taking the “truck route” or Route 75, passing Bradley and through Suffield to get straight to border in Agawam, where the Big E sits beside in West Springfield. It’s a pleasant drive through the plains of Connecticut’s northern end and eliminates some of that unwanted traffic going near Springfield via 91. Digression aside, I made a few stops before the Big E.

March 22, 2006; A trip to the long vacant Ames of Agawam and a souvenir I wasn't leaving without...

Earlier this year, I drove all the way to Agawam to visit what might be one of most intruging long vacant Ames stores in the more northern parts of the area. Agawam is a small town which borders Connecticut and shares a small, albeit “hick” town persona not worried about all those modern conveniences. While I’ve seen much worse towns to live in, in terms of population versus entertainment, than Agawam (the upper parts of Massachusetts represented on I-91 which include butterfly museums or Deerfield) the town has a working class blended with farming town element going and I’m pretty sure the folks who live here like it this way.

Southgate Shopping Center might be Agawam's early 1970's timewarp which once housed a Zayre which became Ames in it's very final, few years. Italian aquaduct-style architecture never goes uninspired.

Inside this former Zayre gone Ames now "JRs Flea Market" were many signs of Ames once existing here for only a couple years. The red "A" were vestige of Ames, while a sticker and even a painting inspired by Caldor were there at the Flea Market.

Along the way on 75 was what I knew, courtesy of The Ames Fan Club, of as a former Ames within the town of Agawam in a very brown, very outdated looking shopping plaza. Now if you think you might know what Ames I’m reffering to (a very rare part of the reading audience may know), you might be mistaken. At one point in history, Agawam had two Ames stores not much more than two or three miles separating them. Actually, the blame goes to Zayre, a chain seized and rebranded by Ames in 1989, who drove themselves out of business for reasons like this. This former Ames had not been an Ames for almost 16 years when I had learned this store closed in 1990, in a prime strategic move by Ames which probably benefitted the company by eliminating stores which shared close proximity to one another.

The other Ames store, on Springfield Street, is the one that lasted around the time Ames finally folded. This is also the store I visited in March of this year where I took an invaluable souvenir with a few coins and the risk of being arrested (or so I thought). This store is located next to a traffic heavy intersection that attracts all to the area being that it’s right off 75 and approximately 100 feet from the Big E hosted town of West Springfield. Needless to say, it’s a good area for commerce, questionably better than the now flea market location a few miles away.

This plaza also turned out to be a disaster for the town seeing as the entire shopping center is now vacant, along with the overgrown husk which was once Ames. There was, at one point, plans to have this center purchased by a Massachusetts local who runs a “Pet and Soda” store who has since built nearby, due to a contractual deal to have caved at the time. The former Ames, however, is still there alongside a small business, who didn’t call the police on me when I originally came here earlier this year.

The unforgettable creepy small town Agawam Motel still kickin'.


The memorable intersection, crossing the Westfield River bridge on the brink of Agawam.

The Westfield River and the Hood blimp which continued to hover over us all day.

A new reason to name Vermont the forbidden fruit state in spite their lacking efforts to punish child rapists.




We waited. It was worth it.


Darth Vader making an appearance at the Big E... "What?!"

After my revisit, it was off to the Big E once again to wait in line for gallons of apple cider, and a baked potato. Don’t blame me, I grew up here. So unless you have the urge to go see Foreigner live (more like alive), wait in long lines for everything (including sweltering in heat, inhaling fresh horse droppings, or clotheslining little children) then get your butt to West Springfield as the fair ends the first of October, or as we Northeasterners call it, the beginning of a time that's just too damn cold to be outside even for us.