Sounds like a great store, but I'd never heard of them until this video. I learned something.

That broken shopping cart in the parking lot in front of the Ann & Hope Store was simultaneously poetic and sad.

As an old New England native, my brothers and I grew up shopping at Ann and Hope, Caldor, Bradlees, and Zayer. How I miss the 50’s and 60’s.

The cool thing about the original Ann & Hope in Cumberland was because it was on two floors, and you had a shopping cart, there was this cog mechanism that would take your cart up and down to the different levels while you climber the stairs.

Shopped regularly at the Warwick, RI store, was a great place and miss it.

I was so sad to see Ann & Hope close. I thoroughly enjoyed shopping there for many years, and found many great items. They had a wonderful selection of curtains.

The original is in my home time. I remember being a kid and being in absolute awe of the shopping cart escalator. Thought it was the coolest thing in the entire world!

I remember Ann and Hope fondly it was a store we could get good merchandise on a reasonable budget, and the store in Cumberland R.I. was visited very often.

I furnished my first apartment with everything from Ann & Hope, miss that store.

I've never heard of Ann and Hope. I learned something new today!

Well, Grew up in Lincoln, next-door to Cumberland. Frequented Ann&Hope in the 60s. Bought record albums there, of the very latest releases, for 69 cents. Hard to believe. This enabled me to assemble an 1,100 album collection, which I still have today. The store itself, the original in Cumberland, wasn't pretty, but No one had prices as low as theirs....

Man, wish I had the chance to shop there... I don’t think we ever had those in the South. Thanks for your videos, Nostalgia is my guilty pleasure 🤣

I used to live in Massachusetts, then Rhode Island. Used to go to them all the time. Even worked in one for sometime during the Christmas season. Thanks.

growing up in Rhode Island we shopped there quite a bit. We always went to the Cumberland location. Inside the store they had a cool conveyor system for customers to bring their shopping cart from the main floor to the basement level.

This place holds great memories for me. It wasn't a big chain, they only had about five or six stores, all in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. But, the stores were huge and had everything, including much stuff you couldn't get elsewhere. It was the closest thing, at the time, to today's Walmart Supercenter. The earlier and first stores (Warwick, RI and Cumberland, RI) had a supermarket inside. They even had a large full-service food court, before it was called that. I remember it having the best pizza, and the aroma of fresh popcorn filled the store. As a kid, the holidays always seemed special there. Unfortunately, they closed as a department store in the 90s, and nothing has been able to take its place, certainly not Target. Unlike Target, A&H had atmosphere. Later, it evolved into outlet shops. Also, Sam Walton had been associated with the company at one time, and was instrumental in its unique design. By the way, I worked in that supermarket when I was 17.

⭐ I live in *Providence , Rhode Island* I know this store *very well* grew up going to it . I drive past the main building and now closed outlets often . Sooo many memories . 😊 Everyone , Stay Safe 😷 & 💖 Much Love ~ 😈🔺🦋

I grew up in SE MA, so Ann & Hope was a store from my childhood.

I remember walking from my home in Warwick RI to Ann & Hope. The store was a big part of my childhood and young adulthood. I miss the experience and the store.

I remember a great book on the different department stores and how they began and the decline. Always enjoy hearing,

The things I learn on the internet. Very interesting !

Loved Ann and Hope. Used to go to the one in Seekonk, MA. They always sold good quality items.

I visited the Cumberland mill location often as a child. My mom loved the place. As another comment mentioned, the most interesting part was the automatic machine track that moved the shopping cart between floors. I’d love to see that again for old time’s sake.

Wow, I had no idea that they had still existed (and I live in MA). But I pretty sure that I remember goin' , w/ my mother, when I was young.

I grew up in Cumberland in the 80s and visited the mill location often. As a kid the best part was watching the machine that would move your cart from the 1st to the 2nd floor.

They were a small, Rhode Island based chain, also with stores in Massachusetts. As a kid, I went to both the Cumberland and Warwick R.I. locations. Years later I worked for several years in their large curtain department at the Seekonk, Massachusetts location. They a wide variety of great merchandise and very reasonable prices.

Never heard of them. Grew up in NY/NJ area.

Great video, as a New England resident, this is much appreciated!

never heard of this place great video none the less.

Thank you for sharing this I do remember Ann & hope when I was kid. It was a great store. I really like going there alot. I was very sad to see it closed. It brings back lot of memories thanks for sharing.

I shopped at the Danvers, MA location many times in the 1990s before I moved away. I found the quality to be better than other discount department stores, and it was always clean and well-staffed. I had not given it a thought in many, many years until this video. Thank you.

Growing up, my family (mostly my Mom and Aunts!) would pack us kids into their cars and we'd all go on a shopping expedition to Ann & Hope. We looked at these outings as adventures to see who would find the best deal, as cousins do! As we grew, we began making our own expeditions to Ann & Hope, and I never got tired of finding not only what I needed at the time, but also a few other bargains to bring home. This was my go-to place for my flowers to plant in the spring, my household curtain and mini-blind source, and countless other fun surprises that I found along the way. I miss Ann & Hope like no other retail store; and, in my humble opinion, there will never be another place like it. RIP.

Grew up in the area of the original "Mill" as my family called it. As described, I remember my parents spending 2-3 hours there every weekend, while I spent my time in the toy department then in latter years the computer and video game department. I was always fascinated by the fact that the store had two floors (each floor only had an entrance on opposite sides of the building), but in order to make sure people could shop both floors in the center of the complex in between two normal staircases they had a two unique powered cart ramps (one pulled the cart up and the other brought the cart down) the best way to describe these is similar to a rollercoaster lift chain that would hook on to the cart and (pull it up, or support it down) on ramped steel tracks for the wheels. Just had to make sure your cart wasn't overflowing as the angle it put it at was quite steep. This is someone else's video taken with a camera (quite shaky) obviously take after the store had been closed a while kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Zq-RfMma0dK1aWg.html

64 and never heard of this one.......still interesting tho

Wow. As a Pittsburgher I never heard of them. This is an awesome learning video.

I remember Ann & Hope well as I used to shop there with my grandmother when I was a child in the 90s early 2000s though we never saw Santa there we either went to the mall or my elementary school took us to Jordan Marsh's flagship store in Downtown Crossing Boston which in 1996 became Macy's east Flagship in Mass

I worked for Hamilton Beach (small appliances) in the 70's and was Regional manager for sales in NY, NJ, and part of New England including R.I. One of the accounts we sold to was Ann and Hope. They were very aggressive in both purchasing and resale. Their buying staff was very sharp led by a particularly entertaining and funny Merchandising Manager who also was well know in the trade as someone who struck a hard bargain, but always lived up to his end of the deal. In today's world of everything being dominated by computer data, it is unlikely that venders will ever see the free wheeling style I experienced at Ann and Hope and elsewhere, and loved.

good childhood memories growing up going there in the late 80s,90s i rember the food area to eat before my family would shop.Good memories for Christmas shopping my dad would buy us gift certificates i still have the paper reciept will cherish that forever.Also i rember the carriage conveyor it would bring the carriages downstairs to shop .Miss this store so much.

Never heard of Ann & Hope. Still an interesting story of a lost discount store chain.

worked in warwick store 35 yrs in warehouse the store opened in 63 and sam walton was there for ribbon cutting it was the bomb in the 70's hundreds of people waiting outside the door waiting to get in during the big sales sorry that it all went downhill retired there in 01 moved to fla

I bought many record albums at the Cumberland RI store

Thanks again for the great video content.

A favorite shopping destination 1when I was a child. The original mill location was an absolute wonderland for me. I truly miss the cart escalator which brought your shopping cart to and from the second floor. At Christmas, a visit to the original location was the next best thing to Edaville Railroad.

I remember shopping in the original Ann & Hope - what a place! The best feature, and surprisingly not mentioned in the video, was the escalator for shopping carts only to bring them up to the 2nd floor and back down again!

I’ve never heard of this store. We must not have had them in the Midwest.

I lived in Rhode Island all my life and the last Ann & Hope closed last year due to sales etc and covid, it was kinda sad.

I worked at the lonsdale store in the late 60s..great store. 😢sadly missed.

Interesting.... This is one business that I've never heard of. Really enjoy this channel... Thanks 👍🏻

We didn’t have these stores in Wisconsin. Wish we had! Now, all we have left are Walmart, Target, Kohls and Penney’s.

i remember it well!

When I went to college in Rhode Island in the early 80’s I used to shop at the Warwick store a lot One of the best department stores I have ever been in

I remember going to the Ann & Hope store near Amesbury, Massachusetts around 1994-1996.

Never heard of this one before till now !

How interesting. I didn’t know about Ann & Hope.

I grew up in the deep South, (Louisiana) and lived many years in the West (California) and Southwest (Arizona) but I have never heard of them. Good video, the broken shopping cart in the last photo say's it all.

I've heard of them, but we never had them in the Southeast. I always thought the name sounded lovely.

Another great video awesome pics and wonderful content to provide an accurate breakdown of the stores history! Just as good as your Sears & JC Penny videos! Kudo’s always! ** fast food idea Pup N Taco so many great fast food ideas in Southern California!

My first job was at Ann & Hope and lasted for 6 years through part of High School and part of College. Was a great place, met a lot of good people, said it's gone :(

I loved shopping at the one in Randolph MA.. Depressed because it is closed now.. Anne & Hope was cheaper than Bed and Bath..

Never heard of Ann & Hope. I do remember White Front and my parents shopped there a lot.

If you grew up in RI you probably have a fond memory of Ann & Hope. Miss that store. Another RI gem was a store called Apex. An Apex video would be welcomed! Thanks for the memories.

I'm from RI and remember shopping here as a kid. We didn't have Walmarts here until the 1990s. The reason is because Sam Walton agreed not to compete with Ann & Hope based on his relationship with the owners. However when Sam died in 1992 the company decided to tackle the southern New England market and in time Ann & Hope folded.

I loved Ann & Hope's in Danvers Mass, So bummed out when they went out of business! Then their outlet died of COVID 😭

Greatest job I ever had was operating the carriage escalator at the Cumberland while in High School during the 90’s

I live in Detroit, Michigan and I was born in 1957. I have never heard 👂 of Ann &Hope Department Store. I have never seen a Ann &Hope Department 🏬 Store in the State of Michigan.

I actually used to live nearby one of these

We had a version of Ann & Hope in PA named Colonial Fair

I just learned of this company.

I have no memories of Ann & Hope stores, but I imagine when they died, so did integrity.

Never heard of Ann & Hope here in the South. Great inspiring history!

I never heard of ann and hope

Don't think this place ever came to my town (Toledo).

I love your videos, but I think you have overlooked some other discount retailers. Caldor, Bradlee's to name a few. I worked for Caldor, and they considered themselves to be the Abercrombie and Fitch of the discount world. I would love to see you cover them

Hahahaha!! Cuz it was already written on the buildn!

Please do a video about Smitty's Grocery store in Arizona. Please! Please! 1965-1990

If it wasn’t Ann and hope Macys Target Walmart Amazon + eBay would not exist that’s kind of cool they were the founding fathers of department stores

Remember Sad Sack? think was Levis the way they were meant to be made.

Never saw them in Georgia

Never heard of them, but I am saddened that they were another victim of the great reset called Covid.

To be honest, in my 51 years I have never heard of it.

Meijer's was founded long before Ann and Hope in 1934

Although I was from NJ, not familiar with this store.

Not familiar with "ANN & HOPE". Zayre and Kmart were the stores we had here in Miami Florida back in the 70s, Walmart rules here now.

Never shopped there. I'm not a girl.