BUFFALO, N.Y. — This week’s News 2 You Extra is about the end of an era which occurred 30 years ago with the sale of the Buffalo based AM&A’s department store chain to Pennsylvania based Bon Ton Corporation.
The sale left Jenss as the only locally based department store at the time.
Adam, Meldrum & Anderson Company (AM&A's), which traced its roots back more than a century, was founded in 1867 as Adam, Meldrum & Whiting with its original store at the approximate site of the now mostly vacant Main Place Mall.
Its flagship store eventually moved across Main Street in 1960 and occupied the retail space which formerly housed the J.N. Adam & Company.
Between 1948 and 1958 AM&A’s branched out by opening stores in several suburbs including at University Plaza, Sheridan Plaza, Abbot Road Plaza, and Thruway Plaza.
Later, as major malls were developed in Western New York, AM&A’s had stores in most of them.
At the time of the sale most were converted to Bon Ton Stores.
However, there was immediate concern about the future of venerable downtown store which had been a beacon for shoppers and generations of families, particularly during Christmas, where a trip downtown to see the holiday window displays became a tradition.
Those concerns were realized when, only months after the sale was completed, Bon Ton announced the downtown store would close.
The building, later listed on the National Register of Historic Places, currently remains vacant after several unsuccessful redevelopment efforts.
We hope you enjoy this special look back featuring video from inside the once popular downtown store and interviews with shoppers and AM&A’s store employees, including one who predicted their jobs would be safe because she felt family that owned AM&A’s would never sell to a company who wouldn’t plan to retain them
The video includes reporting from Channel 2’s “Money Matters” reporter Mike Igoe who explored the business side of the sale, and Wes Goforth who provided historical retrospective.
Watch News 2 You every Monday morning at 11 a.m. on Channel 2’s Midday.
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