What am I Reading? An OId Book on Buffalo Retailing

My desk is overflowing with books I want to read, and I became frozen with indecision. So what did I turn to instead? A Lulu-published book that John Eklund picked up from Talking Leaves in Buffalo called Nine Nine Eight: The Glory Days of Buffalo Shopping, by Michael F. Rizzo. We don't stock it, but TL does. (Note to the wonderful Jon and Lucy--John knew what he was doing when he bought this book for me.)

Several interesting tidbits of the many detailed in this book:

J. H. Hudson of Detroit operated a men's store in Buffalo for over 40 years.

It seemed that every family member of the beloved department store Adam, Meldrum, and Anderson (often known as A, M & A's) had a spin off store. The J. N. Adams Company was known as J. N.'s, which for some reason amuses me.

The Canadian supermarket chain not only ran Loblaw's in Buffalo for many years, but also secretly owned the grocery chain Bell's. How they did that I don't understand.

When Associated Dry Goods merged the William Henerer chain of Buffalo into the Sibley, Lindsay, and Curr chain of Rochester, they briefly called it "Hengerer's and Sibley's." Oh, to have that shopping bag! (I'd take just the Hengerer bag, frankly. I've got a few from Sibley's.

If you want to buy the book from us, it's $19.95, and since its POD nonreturnable, you'd need to buy it ahead of time. If I thought that anyone besides me would be interested in Milwaukee, I would bring it in for stock. I fear I've covered the market, but you have to read about my obsessions anyway.

Why is the book called Nine Nine Eight? Ask me. Or listen to this jingle.