Thank you! It means something to get your attention with a video of mine and it means even more that you enjoyed it and chimed in. I really appreciate the support. Thanks again!
@@WallieB26 When it comes to the Urban Explorers Universe, you'll get no bigger or better endorsement than one from the man that pretty created the genre. This video was superb too. I don't know why, but my favorite abandoned videos are the ones from Ames. And you have two of the best abandoned Ames videos on all of You Tube in my opinion (this one & the "LOOK AT THE FRONT! WHERE IT SAYS AMES *REAL BIG!!!!!"* video).
there's probably laws that might allow discovery, but not "theft". These guys would be the ones that could time travel without affecting the timeline. You would not :D
I would have grabbed one of those brand new fans still in the box. It's only stealing to the worthless cops but trust me the owners left it behind because they didn't want it they're not going to come back sometime in the future for that stuff. lol it's not stealing when it's abandoned and left behind.
whats really screwed up is how you have so many people now with families jobless, no money, or homeless, yet here you have a store filled with toys, fans, etc... and nothing can be donated to anyone? food expires, but you think that the pink Barbie car couldn't be donated or all the toys in boxes to needy kids? This is how f**ked up and greedy this world really is that businesses rather let products rot away than to give charity. That's a disgrace right there.
A series of big ol' sidewalk/parking lot sales would clear everything out of there, and what didn't sell could be donated to charity thrift stores or scrap dealers could show up in their pick-ups and haul it away. It is strange that so much stuff in there.
My roommate and I were thinking the same thing. It's a damn shame to see all this stuff sitting in that building rotting and decaying when there is a fair amount of it that could probably be sellable. Mold can be cleaned off if it's not really bad. It looks like they were processing the place to bring a lot of that stuff somewhere else, and something happened to put a stop to it.
That store was very disgusting inside I don't know why they would leave a store so filthy like that and what's even more sad is all that stuff in there was ruined. I want to thank your channel so much because your youtube Channel gives us an opportunity to see how disgusting abandoned stores are. Awesome video sir!!
find who owns the property. or go there record the Vins and do a trace online find who the last owner was and see if they will sell or talk to your local DMV about abandoned cars. i tried to do a trace on the TX plate but its so old there is no info on it.
Great video. You and Kayla are good tour guides. Extremely interesting and enjoyable. I’am an old dude 78 years and kinda shut in so I really enjoyed it. Thanks again and best of everything.
Yeah what year did she work at Murphy's Mart? Also I have never heard of Ames, Grant's nor Murphy's Mart before I seen Wallie's channel. In one part of this vid he showed a shopping cart that said "HOUCHENS" on it. Probably cuz I live in a state where it doesn't have locations with those stores ✌
Mom worked there from around 1977 to the summer of 1985 - first on the sales floor and later in the cash office. I didn't notice the cart marked 'Houchens' - that was a local grocery chain that I believe finally went under around 2000.
Dude, finally watched it. This place is a freaking gem. Holy *bleep*ing crap. Everything. This is the jackpot. The boxes of nostalgia, the game machines, the claw machine, the cars, Ames as itself, dude. This is one for the books Wallie. My god man, I am jealous. This is absolutely insane.
I'm still shocked this exploration happened. I literally thought I would do my typical walk around the place outside and talk about my story about Ames etc. But then the wide open door changed that. I literally didnt touch a thing to walk inside and explore and walk down memory lane.
Holy cow, that's quite a surprising find! Three cars in a row?! As a car guy, I would have nearly had a heart attack seeing those sitting there. I can't really figure much on that Corvette, other than it clearly being a C3. The Jaguar appears to be an XJ40 generation XJ Vanden Plas. I can faintly see the Vanden Plas on the emblem on the right. That would be a late eighties or early nineties model. Very sharp, those were the top of the line models. Then, the Porsche. Definitely the most valuable of the bunch. Looks like it's got the 5-MPH bumpers mandated in 1974, but it's got the 930 style bumper without the wide flared fenders, which would likely make it later model (mid-late 80's) Carrera 3.2. I hope someone gets the chance to buy and fix/clean up those cars, especially the Porsche. It deserves better than to sit there languishing...I mean, those Fuchs wheels...so iconic! Also astonishing how much stuff was still in that building. Shame that hardly anything in there can be salvaged now...other than possibly the arcade stuff and the skill crane. Those could certainly be restored, for sure.
My mom made me return and apologize for some candy I took from Ames in Liverpool ny. I’ll never forget it. This brought back a lot of memories, hills was always a big day out for me too
I used to love going to Ames. Always great bargains. My Mom's favorite place. I loved Hills too. Thank you for preserving these old memories. Ames stores were very special to me and my family too💜
Ohhh 40 minutes? this ought to be good *EDIT* I Was right, seeing that C3 Corvette and the Porsche in that condition broke my heart. Also that Street Fighter 2 pinball machine is impossible to find.
I worked in this store from 1987 until it closed.all the other ames dept stores particularly the one in salem indiana used to send us their "junk" they couldn't sell and have us store it.before this store in Radcliff was ames it was Murphy's mart and before that it was W.C.Grant's.
Thank you very much. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I tried to be as respectful as humanly possible as per the urbex code. We literally left this place the way it was before we walked around and filmed the place. I was happy to save the memory of this place through my eyes and perspective as Ames meant something to me when I was young. It was s walk down memory lane and I cannot believe just how ridiculous this exploration was. A surprise around every corner.
That was pretty wild. Makes me think of what the apocolypse looks like. It's such a shame how much commercial property around this country is going to pot. Thanks for sharing and glad you guys are being safe; mold is some yucky stuff...
As a kid, I was actually in W. T. Grant's mansion in Greenwich CT. This is late 60s/early 70s. The property sat facing Long Island Sound. I enjoyed trying to count all the rooms/bathrooms. My favorite was the billiards room. Of course there was an outdoor pool, but also a putting green. Mr. Grant was elderly and infirm but inside the house with nurse, cook etc. - but never got to see him. I like to think he enjoyed hearing kids having fun there.
Gimme 2 days in there ... Your right I bet there's amazing finds in there ... I worked for Ames dept store in liberty ny from 1995 to 2000 and it was one of my FAVVVVVORITE jobs I ever had in my life ... Thank you for showing it ...i also opened many if the stores in and around where I lived in ny ...i did every single job thats Ames had to offer and I'm freinds with almost every single person I worked with back tgen still to this day
Hi Wallie 26 . I just saw this Ames video in Kentucky. With tons of stuff left behind and abandoned. It’s sad to see this happen to a great store that was once open. Now it’s closed and gone.
DEFINITELY SO EXCITED TO WATCH THIS!!!!!! ❤️ These videos are why I got into urban exploration. Ames brings back so many memories of me going with my grandpa when he would go there for anything he needed. He loved that store so much. When they went out he was so upset and said that the store who took over wasn’t the same. Thank you for allowing me to relive these memories ❤️❤️
Thank you for taking time to post! i feel the emotion in your voice and memories of Ames when filming , time will not stand still but memories will. Best wishes from UK. x
That definitely was some kind of flea market situation but to leave all that behind seems odd almost like they were locked out from getting their stuff.
That's what I wonder. I'd be mad as all get out if I was a vendor there and that happened and I couldnt get my items back and lost a lot of possessions/money as a result.
WallieB26 anyway to contact you at all? I’d take the legal route to buy some of the items seen here. I’ve done this at other abandoned locations in the northeast with good results
in australia.. if the company goes bust,, they are locked out.. even tradesmen doing work there will have there tools locked in ,, even though they have nothing to do with the company..
I'm glad to see you still at it, and more popular than ever. I am glad to see another intact abandoned Ames video!!!!!! I definitely need this at this point in my life.
According to the local newspaper - the property has been purchased by the city of Radcliff. Demolition of the property should begin in August 2023. About time. Was used recently as a Ford truck storage lot during the pandemic/parts shortage.
It is so sad tax payers had to pay to haul all the garbage away. They should have been more transparent where all the garbage and things ended up unless the owner took some stuff out before the city took over the building. I hope they charged the previous owner for the clean up inside of the building for not properly maintaining it. I also hope this owner did not write it off on his taxes,
LOL well I can almost guarantee after putting this video up, someone is going to show up and clean out all those signs and potentially those cars. Good money to be made there.
Great video, thanks for sharing this ! Without efforts to preserve memories of places like this, they will be forgotten forever. No one seems to care about preserving the past anymore, but intent on destroying it. Sad.
Believe me, I would have loved to spend the time going through things just to see what's all there but everything was pretty moldy and not to mention it would have taken me a week to go through everything. Lol I anticipated taking a walk down memory lane but didnt anticipate to see all the items inside. I was happy to at least create a video looking back at some things from the past. Many items I did see and had in the video made me feel like a kid again. The older items reminded me of my dad and other family members who arent here anymore and it made me feel pretty sad so i didnt want to get upset by possibly unveiling something I know my dad had or whatnot.
Hello! I think this is probably a collector's storage area. A friend's dad buys up old retail buildings sometimes with merchandise still in them and uses them for his personal storage. I went into one of the buildings with my friend and others to help our friend try to get a handle on what to do with all of his dad's stuff, and to our surprise it looked about the same (with the ceilings leaking and moldy, etc.). It must be nice to have that kind of money to buy up all of that retail real estate and all of those collectables and department store displays, like my friend's dad, and let all of it go to waste. I appreciate and love your quest, sorry that you couldn't find anything with Ames written on it. That was a pretty cool store. We had a few here in VA too. Brings back memories 😃
I agree, especially with all of the banana boxes, and things wrapped up on pallets. Also, no Ames would have had all the National Geographic magazines stored. As a former employee of retail stores of 1997-2003 magazines were not kept like that. You tore off the cover where the title was and the issue with date, those were given in for credit. The rest of the magazine was trashed. We used to send them to the local high school because the art teacher used them for collages. Also, AMES would not have taken back beer cans. There is no way the Ames closed looking like this. They liquidate everything including fixtures. This is clearly a hoarding situation.
This was my grandma and grandpas flea market, it was called the red mart plaza. I have pictures of it when I was like 4 years old lol they sold the building and they moved their flea market to Irvington ky, ALOT of that stuff was part of the flea market but wasn’t left by them, it was left by the vendors that rented spots, I’m not sure what happened after they moved the flea market. But seeing this stuff and knowing how it was when I was younger is getting me in my feels lol that popcorn maker for instance, she sold actual food like a restaurant at her flea market including that pop corn. Thank you for posting this! ❤️
The second store was most likely a Winn Dixie grocery store. Later occupants put up a non-bearing dividing wall to block off the rest of the store space behind it.
I was watching The Perfect Storm not long ago and one of the characters said she was late because she stopped at Ames because they were having a sale. I thought wow! Ames! The nostalgia hit me like a brick.
This place looks like it hasn't been touched since 1998. It was literally like stepping back in time and seeing my childhood while shopping with my mother. Especially with all of the old toys. Great video!
@@RYMAN1321 I mean there isn’t much of a difference between 1998 and 2002 in terms of aesthetics. I was born in 2002 and my brother was born in 1999. The electronics, merchandise, etc in our baby photos look the same. It’d be like saying a department store in 2019 looks vastly different than one in 2023. Not much of a difference, even after Covid.
@@RYMAN1321 If you watch again closely, you'll see some shirts that say 1998 Championships with Kentucky Wildcats, which was the year they won the NCAA men's basketball championships. So clearly the store closed before 1998, since this was a flea market after and then a hoarding situation. There is also a part where they show some kind of game with 2000 on the side of the box. Either way this store closed much, much earlier than 2002. I doubt there would be merchandise that said 1998 on it in the year 2002. Those shirts would have been clearanced and marked down to zero and discarded a long time before 2002.
To my understanding, the flea market that took place here after Ames got shut down because of a building code. Probably due to the condition then and they just never addressed it. I could be wrong though. But you're right, so many items could have been salvaged. So many toys that could have gone to children within families that may need a little help around the holidays. No shame in that. No judgement. Instead, so many things have been ruined and most if not all would have to be thrown away at this point unless someone knew how to properly clean things. It's rather sad to see what happened here.
This breaks my heart in more ways than one, I don't know what's worse the fact that Aims is dead or everything was left behind, all of those old pallets of boxes of stuff still shrinkwraped are probably what killed it, when you stop and consider the fact that some discount retail stores have enough in the back to resupply a few times a day and they got more on back order from suppliers yeah that be great for perishables but what about non perishables how much stuff sat on shelves before it got bought and what about everything on back order that they wasted money on? They could have handed all of that stuff down to other stores to make sure it still got sold and made a lil cash to cushion the bankruptcy or returned it all to the manufactures and canceled the rest, maybe they could have gotten enough cash back to save it. I went to Aims growing up to you never expect the good places to go under, I always figured Aims Walmart Kmart Tops and the dollar stores would be around forever they're such house hold names that you would think they'd have a "save you're local retailers" commercial on for it but they never did. I got old enough to get out of the house on my own and I figured Aims would be as big as the Makinly mall that was gonna be my regular hang out every week, I was gonna blow my allowance there and window shop for the stuff I couldn't afford lol. Kinda makes me wanna cry, eh what the hell I'm gonna go cry why not.
I cried a little as well. Just purely because there was no reason to leave everything, it could have been donated to any number of charities or goodwill, etc. there's too much disgrace, too many big corp's buying out others, too much wrong with the world. This just hit too hard. Really wish things were different
@@mastercleanseNOTdiet owners may have passed away. Only problem is laws make it very hard if not impossible for anything too be done with the items. Unless direct relatives give permission then nothing can be done with the stuff inside except eventually into landfill or incinerator if possible. Cars and equipment could be possibly sold but title work may not be worth it.
Very cool find! I had a stocking hob with them in VT in the evenings during the 2nd half of the 80’s while I was in college. My first wife had a job with them as well in VT and in Albany, NY in the 90’s. Not being in the Northeast anymore I had no idea they went the way of the dinosaurs. Thanks for sharing!
Wow. This is one of the most unbelievable explorations I have ever seen. I was expecting the "vehicles" to be some old American car shells from the 80s or 90s but that Porsche is incredible. Looks like it's in pretty good condition besides being dirty. I wonder who owns all that stuff
"The owner was mentioned in a linked article above: "Matt Valenti of Louisville, who represents The Cameron Group, has come to terms with Eddie Cato, who owns most of the land including vacant buildings that made up the shopping center. He also has a deal in place for frontage owned by Glenn Turner, a local developer."
Props to you for not taking any of the nostalgic goodies. This should be fixed as a 90s relic for people like us to go back in time sorta speak haha. Loving the Ghost shirt 🤘.
When you mentioned Grants it brought me back to my youth as Ames does you. I remember buying my turtles at Grants and eating there on Sundays before visiting relatives that are no more. I feel ya dude.
At 32:24 I think that was a lot of things that belong to someone else. Just look at the things that are there. Like you said about that lawn mower(JOHN DEERE) BIG $$$$$$$$.... OR SOMEONE JUST BOUGHT ALL THOSE THING'S AND SAVE IT....BUT, it's none of my business... At 32:53 I was bored and Iran the plate from vehicle...guess what it came back as.... must watch the other channel....
Everything you see inside of the old Ames is from when it was a Peddlers Mall. It’s been closed for a good 15+ years. There used to be a donut shop to the right of the main entrance. The plaza was never really full. The other part of the complex held a laundry mat, an awards/military shop when Fort Knox was a bit more booming. The building behind Ames is an old Kmart. The Ames building area is under chats of being torn down to rebuild for a hotel and the like. The current owner of the Ames building/complex really just doesn’t Carr about it and he’s cleaned it up a bit to please the city but none of the buildings are useable anymore sadly. (I’m a resident of the area and grew up there)
Wow this is a blast from the past. My mom used to get all of our school clothes at ames. It's now a tractor supply. I'm glad the building didn't go to waste
