DISCUSS!
hears a hills in thr distence the loGO has been taking down this was a hills that was no converted into a AMES
can u get a closer pic????
i'll try
I hope you can
remember Hills Snack bar
Oh man, now you're talking. Those slushies were great, and who can forget that popcorn smell. It made the store so special.. just the smell alone!
What happened to the snack bar when Ames moved into the stores. We're they taken out? :huh:
I guess Ames didn't believe in eating while you shop.
No.. Ames Kept them. Nothing changed in the stores, except for logo changes. and Employee smocks. Everything else stayed the same. It still had that same ole Hill snack bar smell everytime you walked in!
awesome!!
Here is a Hills in Camillus, NY that never became an Ames:
(http://img149.exs.cx/img149/4784/hills3tc.jpg)
This pic is from about two years ago
o a vacant hills:o:o:ois it still there?
that hills was in Camillus Mall. Ames was near by in Fairmount Fair. Benderson bough Camillus mall and tore it down exect for the Bon Ton store its still open today.
walmart Lowes and other stores are comming to the old Camillus Mall where hills use to be. Benderson will call it Camillus Commons.
I hate strip malls. I like malls because you don't have to walk out in the cold to another store
The people of camillus are fighting to keep Walmart supercenter not going into the old Camillus mall AKA Camillus Commons
Syracuse was very overmalled though. At one time they had about like 10..lol
Now, there's only 3(4 if you count Tri County Mall)
Watch it guys, no name calling!
Lifestyle centers are the "wave of the future". Isn't it funny how we keep going back and fourth between outdoor centers, malls, then back to outdoor centers again?
(I first saw what a "Lifestyle Center" was in Weston, Florida and I thught it was really neat. It was like a little village with custom shops, delis, bars and grills, services like dry cleaning and offices...even a mini Publix supermarket which blended in with everything. Of course, most of us on here including myself live in the Northeast where this kind of thing isn't that great in the winter)
The biggest reason for the death of malls is the lack of stores to fill them, especially with all these mergers and things.
If you want to respond to this, i created a new thread:
HERE (http://s116692408.onlinehome.us/forum/viewthread.php?tid=107)
hears a hills that was open
Here's a former Hills that closed shortly after Ames took over in late 1998. It was never an Ames. The last time I was in this store was in Dec. 1998 or Jan. 1999., just weeks before it closed. my most vivid memory of this store was the little concession cart near the enterance..They actually sold pop IN GLASS. I think Ames may have breifly operated this store for a few months or weeks, but never oficially converted it to an Ames. This one was used for about a year in 2002/2003 as a temporary location for Rosa's Furniture and Electronics while their store was being rebuilt after a fire. It's in an old Strip Mall that's basically dead. All that's left of it is a Tie-Kuon-Do place and something else.
That looks like a small store. What's the sq footage?
I'm not quite sure, but it wasn't that bix, I can tell you that. I think it's because it's one of their older stores, problably from the 70's or maybe even the 60's. (BTW, this isn't the whole store. there's a whole other left half, as you probably can tell. I cought it as we were whizzing by in the car.)
hears a hills add from 1996
and anouther one:bounce:
Sweet. Hills' logo was very 50's-ish.
Here's our former Hills, which DID become an Ames. Built in 1966. This store closed in 2001:(
I'm guessing that's the one on Union Road in Cheektowaga, right? Or is it another one?
Nope, this one is in the Clarence mall at Main St. and Transit Rd.
Here's the Hills from the Berkshire Mall (This past Week)
This one was converted to Ames, but since the Ames sign was removed you can see part of the old Hills Logo imprint
One more shot, a closer up of the logo area:
They're really not that similar. A lot of stores from the late 80's and early 90's used these types of logos; straight to the point. Smart truthfully!
I don't really see a similarity; Ames is like a modern print-type while Hills is classic cursive writing in my eyes.
The only thing similar is the way the bottom of the letters are the same for "mes" from Ames and "ill" from Hills ...
We were on the topic of Hills...we were discussing the logo.
I was in Hills maybe once. It reminded me of K-mart.
Is that the Hills in the black circle? Also, did you notcie that Hills sign where the green circle is?
What year did Hills go out? I can't remember.
1998.
There weren't any Hills near me.
98, that the same year Caldor announced they were closing. Wal-Mart killed them!
QuoteOriginally posted by storehistoryguy
There weren't any Hills near me.
98, that the same year Caldor announced they were closing. Wal-Mart killed them!
Cakldor closed in may of 1999 in jan 1999 they announced they were closing for good
in 1998 Caldor closed 12 stores so u could be thinking of thast
QuoteOriginally posted by Caldor1999
QuoteOriginally posted by storehistoryguy
There weren't any Hills near me.
98, that the same year Caldor announced they were closing. Wal-Mart killed them!
Cakldor closed in may of 1999 in jan 1999 they announced they were closing for good
in 1998 Caldor closed 12 stores so u could be thinking of thast
The branch where my mother used to work in 1991 started there closing sale in 1998 and closed in 1999.
The Hills Headquarters, now abandon.
QuoteOriginally posted by storehistoryguy
QuoteOriginally posted by Caldor1999
QuoteOriginally posted by storehistoryguy
There weren't any Hills near me.
98, that the same year Caldor announced they were closing. Wal-Mart killed them!
Cakldor closed in may of 1999 in jan 1999 they announced they were closing for good
in 1998 Caldor closed 12 stores so u could be thinking of thast
The branch where my mother used to work in 1991 started there closing sale in 1998 and closed in 1999.
huh uit had to be under preforming cause they didetn go out till 1999 mine closed in may maby they did it in a round og GOB sales like they closed one half in in early 1999 and the outher half in mid 1999
When Ames basically bought Hills (It was labled a merger)... anyways... They converted most of them to Ames Stores and closed the stores that overlapped each other. So, when Ames started having trouble and began to close stores... Ames stores that were Formerly Hills were closed. That was the first round of closings.
A Hills.
QuoteOriginally posted by 76BraldorZayKamesfanBBTB
Rubicks Cube demonstration at a Hills Department Store.
heh thats gotta be from 1981
QuoteOriginally posted by 76BraldorZayKamesfanBBTB
Hills Department store truck pic taken in 1991
Are you sure? It does not look like the real Hills logo...
http://www.hillstrucking.com/
Maybe that company once was the Trucking division of Hills and survived...
QuoteOriginally posted by 76BraldorZayKamesfanBBTB
Hills Department Stores recall
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml95/95060.html
an article reguarding Hills Chapter 11
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3092/is_n9_v32/ai_13826953\
Another thing about Hills
http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/1998/05/11/daily4.html
Hills Toy collectables
http://www.hillsstores.com/hills_collectibles.htm
BTW did Hills have a website and what was the address?
It might have been http://www.hillsstores.com/ How do you get those sites?
Hills Toy Truck.
You would think that Hills main office would be bigger.
How many locations did Hills have at the height of the company? When did HIlls originate and when did they go under? :huh::question::huh::question:
QuoteOriginally posted by HoJofan206
How many locations did Hills have at the height of the company? When did HIlls originate and when did they go under? :huh::question::huh::question:
hills was founded in 1957 they had over 160 stores but closed some before ames aquirred them in 1998 ames keped some hilss stores open bbut by 1999 hey were all converted into ames
a bad move if you ask me...
QuoteOriginally posted by 76BraldorZayKamesfanBBTB
another pic
Whats that supermarket there? I can't tell what it says.
QuoteOriginally posted by storehistoryguy
QuoteOriginally posted by 76BraldorZayKamesfanBBTB
another pic
Whats that supermarket there? I can't tell what it says.
It says P & C Foods...a chain owned by the almost-bankrupt Penn Traffic Corp. (They also owned the Big Bear chain that closed a few years back in Ohio and other states)
QuoteOriginally posted by MBZ321
QuoteOriginally posted by storehistoryguy
QuoteOriginally posted by 76BraldorZayKamesfanBBTB
another pic
Whats that supermarket there? I can't tell what it says.
It says P & C Foods...a chain owned by the almost-bankrupt Penn Traffic Corp. (They also owned the Big Bear chain that closed a few years back in Ohio and other states)
I'll start a thread for them in supermarkets.
QuoteOriginally posted by storehistoryguy
A Hills.
I beleive this one is in Horseheads/ Elmira new york, due to the address. I have never been to the area. From the store locator of the Ames fan club, it said Lake st for Horseheads new york.
I had never been in a hill's. were they like Ames??????????? I saw the one in Lanesboro vacant last year and the Hills labelscar showed. I saw the Ames vacant in Plattsburgh this sumer but it had the Ames logo. I heard the one in lanesboro will get torn down to be rebuilt to target that opens this march.
Yes, Penn Traffic closed Big Bear due to Chapter 11 bankruptcy re-organization. A ignorant move! They could have sold the chain and made money off the deal. The remaining stores under the Penn Traffic wing will no doubt see the same or worse fate that Big Bear saw!
This man is inside a Hills.
(http://www.moviereviewsandpreviews.com/24hr/22.gif)
http://www.moviereviewsandpreviews.com/24hr/handcuffed.html
I always liked this Hills sign. You can see Hills behind Ames in the second one.
(http://www.amesfanclub.com/imageserver/west.virginia/huntington/5th.st/12.jpg)
(http://www.amesfanclub.com/imageserver/west.virginia/huntington/5th.st/23.jpg)
If you read that little article they mention something about an Rubiks cube challenge at Hills.
(http://cubeman.org/images/buffalo-1982.jpg)
http://cubeman.org/
it says eastern hills. that may be the wrong hills. Hills has a unique logo!
I like this Hills. I've only seen it one time in person when it was open around the mid-90's I believe. Its in Camillus, Ny..
(http://img149.exs.cx/img149/4784/hills3tc.jpg)
Revived Hills.
QuoteOriginally posted by d_fife
it says eastern hills. that may be the wrong hills. Hills has a unique logo!
Actually, from the article, it did not take place at a Buffalo area Hills store, but rather the Eastern Hills Mall in Buffalo. There was a Hills down the street however.
I believe this Johnstown, PA Hills was in the Richland Mall. This does look like the old 80's Sears facade and that's where they moved when they moved from their very old location to a former Sears when Sears moved into a new Galleria Mall. More info see deadmalls.com. Ive been in this Hills many years ago barely remember it but at that time the mall was doing well.
Hills is open!
(No just an old Williamsburg, PA Hills when it was open and had cars in the parking lot!)
QuoteOriginally posted by dayville81
I believe this Johnstown, PA Hills was in the Richland Mall. This does look like the old 80's Sears facade and that's where they moved when they moved from their very old location to a former Sears when Sears moved into a new Galleria Mall. More info see deadmalls.com. Ive been in this Hills many years ago barely remember it but at that time the mall was doing well.
I like that one! :yup:
QuoteOriginally posted by shakethis1234
remember Hills Snack bar
I have many fond memories of the snack bar.. especially those warm pretzels after school shopping!
Hills president
I fondly remember the first time that I went to a Hills outside of the Pittsburgh, PA area. They were well-stocked and super clean and neat. Their prices were good enough to make me go out of my way at least every 2 weeks to see what I could make a killing on.
Does anyone have pictures or any stories from the Pittsburgh area stores?
;)
Here's a Hills shopping cart found next to an overwhelming amount of Bradlees carts at (the nicest) Ocean State Job Lot in Collinsville, CT. I've never seen or visited a Hills (not sure if they were in Connecticut or my area).
Altoona, PA
Bloomsburg, PA
Cumberland, MD
Morgantown, WV
State College, PA
Uniontown, PA
Some Hills brand products
A Hills ad
I have a Hills price sticker. I bought the Hot Wheels car it was on at a flea market for $15 just to get the sticker! I think that above their price it said "Hills Everyday Low Price". Apparently toys were department 23!:P:P
hears a pic of a hills that clsoed in 1997
here is the 80,000 sq.ft. hill's in cicero in teh former pen cann mall that opened october 1983 and was said to be the 3rd of its stores. I heard they started 1957 and founded in youngstown ohio.
Thanks for the pictures! I can't believe that I had been in the Morgantown store years ago while I was visiting my family in WV.
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
here is the remnants of the old Ames that was a hill's in massena ny and it was 82,500 sq.ft. and opened summer of 1990 and is in teh st. lawrence centre mall. the labelscar of hill's can barley be seen.
QuoteOriginally posted by d_fife
here is the remnants of the old Ames that was a hill's in massena ny and it was 82,500 sq.ft. and opened summer of 1990 and is in teh st. lawrence centre mall. the labelscar of hill's can barley be seen.
massena ny
beautiful store! :)
you couldn't go 5 miles in PA without running into a Hills.
it was great..
QuoteOriginally posted by jameswayizdashiz
you couldn't go 5 miles in PA without running into a Hills.
it was great..
I noticed taht too, but I realized there were none around allentown and philadelphia. they started in youngstown ohio which was near western pennsylvania, like they were in bloomsburg, scranton, wilkes barre, a town near wilkes barre, altoona, 2 in erie, many many many around pittsburgh, harrisburg, reading, lancaster, state college, williamsport, johnstown etc. IN BUFFAlo new york it was that way of seeing many hills, like they had ones in dephew, 2 in buffalo, cheektowaga, amherst, clarence, blasdell.
the 1000 store numbers on ames where hills stores.
QuoteOriginally posted by MBZ321
DISCUSS!
about hill's. was it known more for toys? I heard of an advertising jingle about little folk know hills is where the toys are
I found this on you tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn2DUj29V0k
I worked for Hills in Bethel Park, PA for 18 years before Ames bought them out. There were many factors with the Hills buyout and the buyout by Ames didn't actually hurt Ames as much as the fact they went to Chicago and bought out Goldblatt's-some of those stores closed after Ames went into Chapter 11, some very soon after they remodeled and opened them and far before they closed former Hills Stores. Both Hills and Ames went into Chapter 11 when they bought out other stores-for Ames it was Zayre's and for Hills it was Gold Circle. Hills upper, upper management after the original owners left had no loyalty to the company and some did things that were not quite kosher. First, before Chapter 11, it was found out that they had used the monies from employees 401K plans-in fact, they never even invested it and most of the info employees were fed was untrue. When this was found out-we were no longer in the same programs-like Magellan-because we never were to begin with. That caused alot of debt along with remodeling stores. In the PA area ,especially in Pittsburgh,Hills stores were more popular than Ames. By 1998, we had many presidents and CEOs come and go-ones were given golden parachutes and lots of $$$ before they left. The employees thought we were going back into Chapter 11 and then on Dec. 17, 1998-Ames officially bought Hills. I think it would have been better for Ames to keep the logo and name and just take over the distribution and running of the company-it should have been Hills, a division of Ames-much like TJ Maxx and Marshall's. many of the folks I met at Ames were kind of shocked that it wasn't the other way around but Ames was much better managed at the corporate level at this time than Hills was. I enjoyed working for both companies:D-both had there good and bad points. With Ames, they had better register programs but the quality of the merchandise was just slightly not as good as Hills. Also, as Hills, we did a much better business and our numbers were higher(this was true even after I transferred to a non-Hills Ames store later on). Hills was able to fend off Wal-Mart, it really didn't effect us when they moved in and Ames was a different store than Wal-Mart and that didn't hurt them in our area either. Hills was known for better quality items at affordable prices-it was more lower middle class, a couple of notches below what Target does now. They also competed with Toys R Us and Children's Palace to bring about the holiday Toy books. As you make most of your profit in the final quarter and toys are a big part of that, it only made sense to be a leader with toys. Hills was known for many things but the toy book and toys were very integral in their business. Many stores still have a toy book at the holidays till this day. We had three Ames in Bethel Park and that was too many even though each serviced three totally different areas. One is now a Home Depot, one is now a Wal-Mart (both are smaller versions of the bigger box stores)and one was torn down along with entire strip mall for a Lowe's. I still think if Ames had left the name Hills and just took it over as a division of Ames and didn't continue to expand even after buying out Hills that it possibly could have worked for a while longer as a smaller alternative to the big box giants Wal-Mart and Target. I think by this time, though, they would have been gone anyways since even KMart still seems as if it may have trouble competing out there with Wal-Mart and Target. It was just far more enjoyable working for Hills and Ames and it is too bad that the plan to become the biggest regional discounter didn't pan out. In fact, I even hear till this day when I am recognized that folks still miss Hills and they have been gone since March of 1999-that is 8 years ago.
Thanks for all the background, Hatrick. I lived in Bethel Park from 1979 until we moved to FL in 1985 and I can only remember the one Ames that was way up on the hill along Route 88. Do you have any details on where the other stores (along with Hills) so I can try and get a mental picture of where all the stores were located?
;)
The Hills/Ames was on Baptist Road across from Cool Springs golf course that is now a Lowe's.It was on Baptist Road beyond the Caste Village shopping center and before you hit South Park-sort of midway between those two destinations. The Village Square one was across from St. Thomas More Chruch and across the Highway from South Hills Village Mall. They built that around the mid 80's, I think. I remember when I started at Baptist Road, they had just opened the Hills at Century 3 Mall in West Mifflin and that is now a Big Lots. Hope that jogs your memory!:D
Does anyone know when Hills entered the Nashville, TN area and when they exited out of that market? I recently discovered a former Hills location not too far from my home. I know at the time of close, the only Hills location was in Bristol, TN.
There was a Hills here in Greensburg some years ago. I don't know all the details but will get them to you as soon as I can. All I know is that it is now a Burlington Coat Factory. When I get the chance I plan to drive around to the back of the store to look for any kind of labelscars because the front was painted over in beige.
I need a NEWER pick of the hills near altoona /state college of TODAY.....brings back grandma memmories..... :(
Here is the Hills in TN. If you want to see more: tokensafari.com/foto
QuoteOriginally posted by tokensafari
beautiful store! :)
The former Hills/Ames store in the St. Lawrence Centre mall in Massena NY is still empty to this day. The mall moved the tenants in that part of the building out because they had planned to demolish that wing and build a Super Wal-Mart. That was, until the Hannaford store nextdoor threatened to sue because there was a clause in Hannaford's lease that said the mall could not put another store that sold food in the mall. However, this was back when the mall's first owners owned it. The current owners tried to say that this agreement was cancelled when they bought the mall, but the village board agreed with Hannaford. So apparently, this is causing a problem for the mall to fill up the space.
I ordered some books off of e-bay and one of them had this gem...
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3032/2453287276_8146c18a41_m.jpg)
Riverdale Plaza shopping center in Hampton, Virginia. This Hills was short lived it opened in 1995 closed in 1997 when Ames bought out Hills.
Here another Dead Hills that didn't become an Ames. Newport News Virginia. on Denbigh Blvd
Very nice, intact Hills! I notice thta many have the older-style logos.
QuoteOriginally posted by HatTrick
They also competed with Toys R Us and Children's Palace to bring about the holiday Toy books. As you make most of your profit in the final quarter and toys are a big part of that, it only made sense to be a leader with toys. Hills was known for many things but the toy book and toys were very integral in their business. Many stores still have a toy book at the holidays till this day. We had three Ames in Bethel Park and that was too many even though each serviced three totally different areas. One is now a Home Depot, one is now a Wal-Mart (both are smaller versions of the bigger box stores)and one was torn down along with entire strip mall for a Lowe's. I still think if Ames had left the name Hills and just took it over as a division of Ames and didn't continue to expand even after buying out Hills that it possibly could have worked for a while longer as a smaller alternative to the big box giants Wal-Mart and Target. I think by this time, though, they would have been gone anyways since even KMart still seems as if it may have trouble competing out there with Wal-Mart and Target. It was just far more enjoyable working for Hills and Ames and it is too bad that the plan to become the biggest regional discounter didn't pan out. In fact, I even hear till this day when I am recognized that folks still miss Hills and they have been gone since March of 1999-that is 8 years ago.
Hills usually did have the best prices on toy. Toys R' Us though had a better selection. As for Children's Palace they were insanely overpriced and that's probably why they wound up going under. I remember there was another toystore called Family Toy Warehouse but as far as I know they went under too. the one closest to me wound up becoming a Steve & Barry's. I occasionally like going there for the good cheap clothes.
QuoteOriginally posted by storehistoryguy
I like this Hills. I've only seen it one time in person when it was open around the mid-90's I believe. Its in Camillus, Ny..
(http://img149.exs.cx/img149/4784/hills3tc.jpg)
I would go to this Hills with my mom every Friday as a treat it was 20 min from me and the closest to me. We would go for the popcorn (which was 2nd to none), an Icee, and the HUGE toy dept. I collected WWF wrestling figures and they always had the best selection. I was born in 83 and I remember going here in the 80's as a kid.
The ICEES and WWE wrestling figures.... oh lord does that bring back the memories. I remember when Hills had their big sale right before the became Ames. We bought a wicker patio set for next to nothing.
Only Hills I remember on Long Island was a supermarket in East Meadow, NY connected to the HUGE Great Eastern department store. From there, Hills went to Foodtown and Edwards and now is a Stop and Shop. The Great Eastern became Woolco, then Service Merchandise (with supporting stores) and now, sadly, is a WalMart. :(
I had worked for Hills, several years after I had worked for Ames, but before they merged with Ames. (during the intervening time I had worked for Service Merchandise. I decided that 3 Chapter 11's were enough and got out of the business). I remember one year Christmas at Hills came on a Wednesday, which was "Senior Dog Day". (Senior Citizens could get a free hot dog and Coke at the snack bar by showing the receipt from any purchase). The day after Christmas I was accosted by an old man who claimed that since the store had been closed on Christmas Wednesday we had cheated him out of his hot dog! My boss was greatly amused by watching him rant at me.
Nothing overly exciting but when I was a kid the Incredible Crash Dummies were my absolute favorite toy in the early 90's and I had dozens of them. I was always careful with my stuff as a kid and left a lot of things with the box, in some cases I even had the restraint to never open anything. I peeled off the store stickers to most of them unfortunately, but one sticker in particular held some resistance and I never tried to fully remove it
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v41/CorporateA/hills2.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v41/CorporateA/hills3.jpg)
The evil empire back in 1991, how little we knew...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v41/CorporateA/hills001.jpg)
piece of a hills price tag.
We used to have a Hills. It was my favorite store when I was little. When Ames took it over they did infact remove the snack bar, I think it became the customer service area.
The store is a Magic Mart now, and the building still looks mostly the same as it did when it was Hills, red and white exterior.
Hampton, VA. Circa 1997.
(http://www.hillsstores.com/HamptonVAhills.jpg)
Circa 2006.
(http://www.hillsstores.com/Hampton%20Hills%20Closed.jpg)
http://www.80stees.com/products/Hills-T-shirt.asp
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hills-Department-Store/92491012242
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hills-Department-Store/92491012242?v=photos
(http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs103.snc1/4884_92619922242_92491012242_1873723_553878_n.jpg)
(http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs147.snc1/5453_126476755662_695995662_3353556_5992080_n.jpg)
Northern Lights Shopping Center in Conway, PA.
(http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs189.snc1/6331_107238319835_777274835_2033914_5557938_n.jpg)
Beckley, WV.
(http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs181.snc1/6014_1104077852746_1550752029_30348655_2946603_n.jpg)
Blue Prince Plaze, near Princeton, WV.
(http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs161.snc1/6014_1104121213830_1550752029_30349069_83072_n.jpg)
This is where the wonderful snack bar used to be!
(http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs200.snc1/6773_1202920789837_1133107040_639034_5907469_n.jpg)
This is the tile mosaic logo from the old Hills in Morgantown, WV. Photographed August, 2009.
(http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs181.snc1/6014_1104079012775_1550752029_30348656_5769574_n.jpg)
Door of the Hills at Blue Prince Plaza. It's hard to see, but there is a sign on the door behind this one that says "To keep prices low, Hills does not accept credit cards".
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_eEdWxmHQSDk/SKTeLQGCLkI/AAAAAAAABcs/t-fEwElNt4M/s1600/HILLS%2BEdwardsville%2Bstore.jpg)
http://wyomingvalleyphotos.blogspot.com/
QuoteOriginally posted by Anonymous
Hear is a Hills in the distance, the logo has been taken down. This was a Hills that was not converted into Ames.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_AcUdTl7Aq-s/SnCQvNjHOEI/AAAAAAAAN6U/kt6T0zoZbJs/s400/12_Ames.jpg)
This might be the same location after it changed into Ames.
QuoteOriginally posted by ahbb18
(http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs189.snc1/6331_107238319835_777274835_2033914_5557938_n.jpg)
Beckley, WV.
Nice. This was my store, brings back memories. Still looks a lot like this even today.
"The Walmart of the 70's", at least, that's what people around here always refer to it as.
here is Hills commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4Qjzwd7NAw
Here's a Hills commercial advertising the NES:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoUhRoD2z-E
Quote from: ahbb18 on November 02, 2009, 03:11:09 AM
QuoteOriginally posted by Anonymous
Hear is a Hills in the distance, the logo has been taken down. This was a Hills that was not converted into Ames.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_AcUdTl7Aq-s/SnCQvNjHOEI/AAAAAAAAN6U/kt6T0zoZbJs/s400/12_Ames.jpg)
This might be the same location after it changed into Ames.
it is now used as All Season's Market Place! its cool in there
I gotta find the thread with cart pictures, but this is just as appropriate...My friend found this today when she was at the DMV plaza in Greensburg
I hope this works...
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/12675558@N02/6975893168/in/photostream)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12675558@N02/6975893168/in/photostream
let me try again lol
Here's the former Hills/Ames in Wilkes-Barre, PA. It was a Steve and Barry's for a short time, before becoming Beiter's Home Center.
I worked at Hills #66 in Jamestown, N.Y. in 1990. Worked in layaway and at the front checkouts. They put new registers in when I worked there, but we didn't get scanning until about a year later. The new registers had buggy software. You could put in any four numbers for the SKU and it would go through. As I recall Hills hadn't accepted credit cards for very long when I started working there.
Hills paid in cash. You went up to the cash office at the end of your shift and they gave you an envelope with your paycheck already cashed in it - all your deductions and the like were written on the envelope.
It was a good place to work though.
Ok how similiar was Ames to Hills. and did Hills have a big toy department?
Quote from: storehistoryguy on July 02, 2005, 09:11:58 AM
What year did Hills go out? I can't remember.
It is true that Hills closed its doors in 1998. But Hills never did go out. What happened to Hills Department Stores is that they sold themselves to Ames. After Hills sold themselves and their stores to Ames, that was how Hills no longer came to be in existence. I used to shop there all the time when I was a little boy. My shopping with my mother at Hills originally started out when they were still Gold Circle. Gold Circle went out of business when I was like five years old and Hills Department Stores purchased the gone out of business Gold Circle Chain. Although Gold Circle was no more, my mother loved Hills just as much as she did Gold Circle and continued to shop there which is what led to me falling in love with shopping at Hills. My mother also took me to shop at Kmart while I was growing up, too. Now that Hills is no longer around and I am an adult, I do all of my discount department store shopping at Kmart.
Quote from: d_fife on November 21, 2012, 12:56:04 PM
Ok how similiar was Ames to Hills. and did Hills have a big toy department?
Hills did have a pretty big toy department. The toy department at the Hills that I used to shop at while growing up covered half of the west side of the building. It was so big that my mother could never get me out of there.
what toys do you remember at Hills. did Hills have electronics??? and how Similar was Hills to Ames
Quote from: d_fife on November 24, 2012, 09:17:58 PM
what toys do you remember at Hills. did Hills have electronics??? and how Similar was Hills to Ames
Hills had all of the normal toys that you would find in most stores sold back in the 80's & 90's.
I cannot remember if Hills had an electronics department at all or not. I know for certain that Ames did though because I went to it an awful lot at my local Ames once they took over the Hills Department Store that my mother took me all the time to.
Hills and Ames were both very similar. While Ames had a couple of departments that Hills never did have, they were both very nice, but Hills was always my favorite, due to the fact that it was originally my mother's favorite store back when Hills Department Stores were still Gold Circle. Gold Circle went out of business in 1988 when I was just six years old and Hills Department Stores bought out the gone out of business Gold Circle Chain. Although Gold Circle was no more, my still continued to shop there when it became Hills. I remember that the Hills Store that I went to was always busy. My mother would do a lot of her discount department store shopping at Hills and she would always take me to Hills with her. The only time my mother went to Hills to shop by herself in secret was when she had to go Christmas shopping for my brother and I both. One thing that my mother loved about Hills and took advantage of there was their layaway department. My mother would buy my brother and I both our school clothes at Hills every summer and would put them in layaway until they would finally be paid off in the fall just in time for the new school year every single fall of every single year. The only con to Hills layaway department is that you would have to wait for more than an hour every two weeks to make your layaway payment. That is not all though. This repeated itself every single summer. This is just a perfect example of how great a business Hills was. If their layaway department was always this packed, just think of what it was like in the rest of the store. My mother also shopped at Kmart, too when I was growing up. I always liked Kmart too, but Hills was always my favorite as a little boy. Now that Hills is no longer around and I am now an adult, Kmart is now my favorite discount department store and I go to Kmart an awful lot.
if you watch this at 1:22 you will see a hills located in the backround of this new report taking when USair flight 427 crashed in PA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huvVlYtj7bA
Very neat video. I saw the store in the background.
I saw it too.
Nice find!
Anybody can make out The name of the plaza on the sign above where it says "PLAZA"? I tried with no luck the video is so old. It must be in some area of Pennsylvania.
the plane crashed in Hopewell Township while it was trying to land in Pittsburgh Aliquippa is also near by
Quote from: CTAmeshopper on December 18, 2012, 03:40:43 PM
Anybody can make out The name of the plaza on the sign above where it says "PLAZA"? I tried with no luck the video is so old. It must be in some area of Pennsylvania.
It took a bit of research but I finally I found that sign says GREEN GARDEN. It was the Green Garden Plaza in Aliquippa, PA. The Hills became a Big Lots.
I looked it up on Google images found a property page (it's the first hit) and checked the street view and guess what? The same old sign was STILL THERE the sign hasn't changed (besides the tenants) in 18 years! WOW that is RARE nowadays. :o
Does anybody happen to have any Hills Brand Items at all that would happen to be from their health & beauty department that are still brand new and have never been used that they would be willing to sell to me? I would be very interested in purchasing them from anybody interested. I have tried searching for them on Ebay as well as amazon.com, but there never seems to be any available. If anybody is interested please feel free to send me a message through the message-board.
Here is a picture of some of the Hills Brand health & beauty items that I am talking about. I must give credits to the http://tokensafari.com/hillsstores/ website, due to the fact that this image is from their website.
Please keep in mind that there are a lot more items than this, but these are just a few examples.
Quote from: Caldor1999 on December 17, 2012, 02:48:56 AM
if you watch this at 1:22 you will see a hills located in the backround of this new report taking when USair flight 427 crashed in PA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huvVlYtj7bA
Couldn't help but notice there was also a Kangaroo gas station at the front of the plaza present in the video, where there is nothing there today on Google street view.
Quote from: IGA/Kmart Is Forever! on November 30, 2012, 11:25:44 PM
Quote from: d_fife on November 24, 2012, 09:17:58 PM
what toys do you remember at Hills. did Hills have electronics??? and how Similar was Hills to Ames
Hills had all of the normal toys that you would find in most stores sold back in the 80's & 90's.
I cannot remember if Hills had an electronics department at all or not. I know for certain that Ames did though because I went to it an awful lot at my local Ames once they took over the Hills Department Store that my mother took me all the time to.
Hills and Ames were both very similar. While Ames had a couple of departments that Hills never did have, they were both very nice, but Hills was always my favorite, due to the fact that it was originally my mother's favorite store back when Hills Department Stores were still Gold Circle. Gold Circle went out of business in 1988 when I was just six years old and Hills Department Stores bought out the gone out of business Gold Circle Chain. Although Gold Circle was no more, my still continued to shop there when it became Hills. I remember that the Hills Store that I went to was always busy. My mother would do a lot of her discount department store shopping at Hills and she would always take me to Hills with her. The only time my mother went to Hills to shop by herself in secret was when she had to go Christmas shopping for my brother and I both. One thing that my mother loved about Hills and took advantage of there was their layaway department. My mother would buy my brother and I both our school clothes at Hills every summer and would put them in layaway until they would finally be paid off in the fall just in time for the new school year every single fall of every single year. The only con to Hills layaway department is that you would have to wait for more than an hour every two weeks to make your layaway payment. That is not all though. This repeated itself every single summer. This is just a perfect example of how great a business Hills was. If their layaway department was always this packed, just think of what it was like in the rest of the store. My mother also shopped at Kmart, too when I was growing up. I always liked Kmart too, but Hills was always my favorite as a little boy. Now that Hills is no longer around and I am now an adult, Kmart is now my favorite discount department store and I go to Kmart an awful lot.
Yes, Hill's did have an electronics department, I remember it pretty well. In my local store, it was in the far left corner of the store in the back. Actually, I remember looking at the video game selection there a lot.
Here is an ad I saw a while back - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoUhRoD2z-E
Quote from: XDeSuEhTX on January 01, 2013, 05:24:43 PM
Quote from: IGA/Kmart Is Forever! on November 30, 2012, 11:25:44 PM
Quote from: d_fife on November 24, 2012, 09:17:58 PM
what toys do you remember at Hills. did Hills have electronics??? and how Similar was Hills to Ames
Hills had all of the normal toys that you would find in most stores sold back in the 80's & 90's.
I cannot remember if Hills had an electronics department at all or not. I know for certain that Ames did though because I went to it an awful lot at my local Ames once they took over the Hills Department Store that my mother took me all the time to.
Hills and Ames were both very similar. While Ames had a couple of departments that Hills never did have, they were both very nice, but Hills was always my favorite, due to the fact that it was originally my mother's favorite store back when Hills Department Stores were still Gold Circle. Gold Circle went out of business in 1988 when I was just six years old and Hills Department Stores bought out the gone out of business Gold Circle Chain. Although Gold Circle was no more, my still continued to shop there when it became Hills. I remember that the Hills Store that I went to was always busy. My mother would do a lot of her discount department store shopping at Hills and she would always take me to Hills with her. The only time my mother went to Hills to shop by herself in secret was when she had to go Christmas shopping for my brother and I both. One thing that my mother loved about Hills and took advantage of there was their layaway department. My mother would buy my brother and I both our school clothes at Hills every summer and would put them in layaway until they would finally be paid off in the fall just in time for the new school year every single fall of every single year. The only con to Hills layaway department is that you would have to wait for more than an hour every two weeks to make your layaway payment. That is not all though. This repeated itself every single summer. This is just a perfect example of how great a business Hills was. If their layaway department was always this packed, just think of what it was like in the rest of the store. My mother also shopped at Kmart, too when I was growing up. I always liked Kmart too, but Hills was always my favorite as a little boy. Now that Hills is no longer around and I am now an adult, Kmart is now my favorite discount department store and I go to Kmart an awful lot.
Yes, Hill's did have an electronics department, I remember it pretty well. In my local store, it was in the far left corner of the store in the back. Actually, I remember looking at the video game selection there a lot.
Here is an ad I saw a while back - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoUhRoD2z-E
I hope you weren't looking at those terrible rzone games
(http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/s540/zonezilla/IMG_20130129_193037_zpsd1e40646.jpg)
(http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/s540/zonezilla/IMG_20130129_193100_zps9c1b5ca6.jpg)
From Charleston, WV
http://www.wchstv.com/newsroom/rememberwhen/rem130728_21.shtml?wap=0
Quote from: Caldor1999 on December 17, 2012, 02:48:56 AM
if you watch this at 1:22 you will see a hills located in the backround of this new report taking when USair flight 427 crashed in PA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huvVlYtj7bA
I was driving back from Michigan and very nearly drove right under that crash. Only missed it by a few minutes.
That was next to the old Operations Center in Green Garden Plaza. Hills opened their doors and donated batteries, flashlights, rope or whatever else was needed for the rescue effort.
I had worked for both Ames ('88-'92) and Hills ('96-'98).
Hills sign for the former Delco Plaza Mall in York PA
May 1993 photos from the John Lewis collection.
(http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/s540/zonezilla/pathmark_zps2c76aa05.png) (http://s1304.photobucket.com/user/zonezilla/media/pathmark_zps2c76aa05.png.html)
a Hills store being converted into an Ames
(http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e232/CharmedOne9805/256402_3854265953233_1697239202_o_zps3faadf67.jpg) (http://s40.photobucket.com/user/CharmedOne9805/media/256402_3854265953233_1697239202_o_zps3faadf67.jpg.html)
I guess it would have made sense for Ames to close and completely revamp the stores. Here, I thought they just painted things, slapped the green border around the store, and kept the stores open in the interim. Goes to show you what I knew back then! (BTW, the move to the red/white grid-style entrance exteriors was in 1996. The one out here that got the revamp was in the process of renovating when I moved to the area in June/July of that year.)
Quote from: jason83080 on July 17, 2014, 10:59:01 PM
I guess it would have made sense for Ames to close and completely revamp the stores. Here, I thought they just painted things, slapped the green border around the store, and kept the stores open in the interim. Goes to show you what I knew back then! (BTW, the move to the red/white grid-style entrance exteriors was in 1996. The one out here that got the revamp was in the process of renovating when I moved to the area in June/July of that year.)
Actually that's sort of what did happen...while they were holding the GOB sales at Hills they were renovating the stores (painting, etc) at the same time. You'd notice it more as they consolidated the leftover merchandise to the front of the stores.
For the most part, the snack bars and layaway areas were just left alone and not revamped. Some stores they even reused Hills old red checkout stands.
From the buffalo news about two new hills store opening one in Amherst and Blasdell ny
http://history.buffalonews.com/2014/09/30/sept-30-1979-career-waiting-new-hills-stores-amherst-blasdell/
what customers did Hills cater to and how similar was it to Ames?
Quote from: d_fife on October 06, 2014, 08:50:14 PM
what customers did Hills cater to and how similar was it to Ames?
Very similar product lines. Hills had a larger percentage of it's stores located in urban areas, so the
product mix was slightly different (i.e. less likely to find Country Geese patterns on everything).
Hills had a bigger toy department while Ames had a larger domestics department.
Ames in some areas was dabbling in Fashion Forward where Hills was not (one of the Ames locations
I was in had a Gitano shop, for example).
Both would have catered to middle-to-lower middle class consumers. Both did so successfully insofar
as they were able to stick to their niche and to their strengths (which, of course, is never good enough
for any retail executive)
On the whole the Ames-Hills merger was a much more rational one than Ames-Zayre (though Ames
was too weak to pull out of another downturn by that time)
I had worked in management for both Hills and Ames.
there is an old Hill's sign at Hills Stationary in Troy NY it also appears that they use the logo on a lot of their internal paperwork as well
how similar was Hill's to Ames?
Quote from: danfifepsu on January 28, 2015, 10:16:38 AM
how similar was Hill's to Ames?
Hills - very popular snack bar
Ames - no snack bar (until they acquired Hills and retained them at some locations)
Ames - no armored car service, had to drop the bank deposits by myself
Hills - used armored car service (thankfully, as my last assignment at Hills was in an absolute combat zone)
Hills - Senior discounts, plus free hot dog and Coke for seniors on Wiener Wednesday
Ames - No senior discount (until the late 90's, up close to the Hills acquisition)
Hills - Paid employees in cash each payday (was a method to their madness as most people will spend some of it on their way from the office to the front door)
Ames - Paid employees by check (which actually bounced when we filed Chap. 11)
Ames - Jewelry and shoe departments were leased
Hills - No leased departments, at least when I worked for them
Hills - Was nominally headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts. But other than the buyers and C-level management, the heart of all chain operations was really located in the Green Garden Plaza in Aliquippa, PA.
Ames - All power was concentrated in Rocky Hill, CT
Ames - much bigger Domestics department
Hills - much bigger Toy department
Hills - extensively used TV advertising
Ames - used relatively little TV advertising (other than during the relaunch of the former Zayre stores)
Ames - all employee scheduling was done by management, by hand.
Hills - all employee scheduling was generated by a computer (which had to be extensively edited by the Operations Manager because the algorithms in the computer program refused to accept that you could actually run a store on that puny amount of payroll, and it kept overspending)
Both chains offered layaway. Both used red in their color scheme and red smocks for their
employees (until Ames changed to green some time after I had left them). Both chains used
Ames employees to maintain the floors and restrooms, instead of subcontractors. Both launched into
Michigan with great fanfare in the late 1980's, and then quickly retreated with their tails between
their legs.
I was a manager for Ames from 1988-92 and for Hills from 1996-98.
what made the toy department large? and was Ames and Hill's quality of merchandise the same?
Other than the layout and design of the store, I don't recall any major changes during the conversion of the Hills store I frequented. The snack bar (mentioned in a previous post) was retained. They sold hot dogs, soft pretzels, popcorn, soda and various other small snacks/candy from what I can remember.
One of the most popular promotions run by Hills was "Wiener Wednesdays", where
any customer 65 or older could get a free small drink and a hot dog from the snack bar with
any purchase.
In some stores literal busloads of seniors would arrive for this. I used to get complaints
from girls at my service desk because a lot of these seniors would purchase one item, use
the receipt to get their hot dog, and then return the item (I had actually seen this done where
the item purchased was a single pack of Wrigley's Spearmint Gum!) They said "can't we just
give them a hot dog and not do all of this paperwork?"
One year Christmas fell on a Wednesday and the store was closed. An old man came in the
day after and yelled at me, accusing me of cheating him out of his hot dog. My boss stood at
the snack bar (munching a hot dog, of course) and laughed his butt off at me!
Quote from: TheFugitive on September 23, 2015, 01:46:38 PM
One of the most popular promotions run by Hills was "Wiener Wednesdays", where
any customer 65 or older could get a free small drink and a hot dog from the snack bar with
any purchase.
In some stores literal busloads of seniors would arrive for this. I used to get complaints
from girls at my service desk because a lot of these seniors would purchase one item, use
the receipt to get their hot dog, and then return the item (I had actually seen this done where
the item purchased was a single pack of Wrigley's Spearmint Gum!) They said "can't we just
give them a hot dog and not do all of this paperwork?"
One year Christmas fell on a Wednesday and the store was closed. An old man came in the
day after and yelled at me, accusing me of cheating him out of his hot dog. My boss stood at
the snack bar (munching a hot dog, of course) and laughed his butt off at me!
So much for "The Greatest Generation", lol.
Fans nostalgic for Hills Department Store are going gaga over a new candle designed to smell like the defunct retailer’s snack bar.
http://www.buffalonews.com/business/people-love-this-candle-that-smells-like-a-hills-snack-bar-20160414
Fans nostalgic for Hills Department Store are going gaga over a new candle designed to smell like the defunct retailer’s snack bar.
Pennsylvania-based Sugar Creek Candle Company, with its proprietary blend of scents, has created a candle that evokes notes of popcorn, hot pretzel and cherry ICEE.
It’s called Pittsburgh Dad’s Hills Snack Bar after local comedian and actor Curt Wootton, whose YouTube channel has 84,000 subscribers. In one of Wootton’s most popular videos, he fantasizes about traveling back to 1989 in a DeLorean time machine in order to shop at Hills. The label bears the Hills logo and a picture of Wootton clutching snack bar foods.
Pittsburgh Dad posted about the new product on Facebook Tuesday night. Within 15 minutes, the post had garned 1,000 likes. By Wednesday afternoon it had registered 11,000 likes and had been shared nearly 4,000 times.
In less than 24 hours, Sugar Creek said it had filled orders in 15 states and as far as Alaska, with callers ordering as many as five candles at a time.
“Everybody has a story about Hills. Everybody misses it,†said Anthony Barravecchio, a Sugar Creek partner with his wife Karen and Jennifer Esposto. “The whole Hills thing really hits home with everyone.â€
The 16-ounce soy candle retails for $14.99 plus shipping and handling. It can only be ordered by phone right now, as the website is being overhauled until Friday.
OMG, I am going to have to order a case of these!
I left Hills in 1998 and I can still smell that snack bar in my sleep!
^^I can smell the Hills snack bar from just reading this post about Pittsburgh Dad releasing a candle with the snack bar scent!
Stopped by my local thrift store to look around. Noticed a familiar cart.
(https://s15.postimg.org/h96yn3vy3/IMG_2297_14297.jpg)
if anybody wants to see an original Hills sign there is a company called Hills stationary in Troy NY they seem to use the hills logo on all their internal paperwork too
Quote from: buzz86us on June 27, 2017, 12:30:38 PM
if anybody wants to see an original Hills sign there is a company called Hills stationary in Troy NY they seem to use the hills logo on all their internal paperwork too
Or was:
http://www.twcnews.com/nys/capital-region/news/2016/11/5/hill-stationary-in-troy-closed-after-96-years-in-business.html
So, since this opened in 1920, who copied off of who ;)
Im wondering if maybe that store might have bought the trademark when Ames bought it out the one sign they show twords the end looks as though it was removed from a Hills store .
it was removed from a hills store..wow i applied for a job there a long time ago..
Quote from: buzz86us on June 29, 2017, 08:40:04 AM
it was removed from a hills store..wow i applied for a job there a long time ago..
I hope at least you passed the drug test! As a manager there I was amazed at
how many people would apply for a job and then fail the drug test.
So I recently learned that there was a Hills in Dayton on Woodman Dr. It didn't make it into the Ames days, I'm sure. I'd love to find out more about it. All I know is that it once was a Rinks. How do I know?
http://www.daytonhistorybooks.com/board/board_topic/1550893/5470803.htm
Map of the location:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Goodwill+Outlet/@39.7293818,-84.12044,18.79z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x88408341c41658a1:0xaaaa49757cd2eb39!8m2!3d39.729425!4d-84.12065
Quote from: busman_49 on November 21, 2017, 10:31:54 AM
So I recently learned that there was a Hills in Dayton on Woodman Dr. It didn't make it into the Ames days, I'm sure. I'd love to find out more about it. All I know is that it once was a Rinks. How do I know?
http://www.daytonhistorybooks.com/board/board_topic/1550893/5470803.htm
Map of the location:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Goodwill+Outlet/@39.7293818,-84.12044,18.79z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x88408341c41658a1:0xaaaa49757cd2eb39!8m2!3d39.729425!4d-84.12065
Is it the building behind Goodwill?
Quote from: JJBers on November 21, 2017, 10:50:43 AM
Quote from: busman_49 on November 21, 2017, 10:31:54 AM
So I recently learned that there was a Hills in Dayton on Woodman Dr. It didn't make it into the Ames days, I'm sure. I'd love to find out more about it. All I know is that it once was a Rinks. How do I know?
http://www.daytonhistorybooks.com/board/board_topic/1550893/5470803.htm
Map of the location:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Goodwill+Outlet/@39.7293818,-84.12044,18.79z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x88408341c41658a1:0xaaaa49757cd2eb39!8m2!3d39.729425!4d-84.12065
Is it the building behind Goodwill?
Yes, I believe it is. It doesn't look like much anymore, and it's a real pain to try to get to for any decent shots.
Quote from: busman_49 on November 21, 2017, 10:31:54 AM
So I recently learned that there was a Hills in Dayton on Woodman Dr. It didn't make it into the Ames days, I'm sure. I'd love to find out more about it. All I know is that it once was a Rinks. How do I know?
http://www.daytonhistorybooks.com/board/board_topic/1550893/5470803.htm
Map of the location:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Goodwill+Outlet/@39.7293818,-84.12044,18.79z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x88408341c41658a1:0xaaaa49757cd2eb39!8m2!3d39.729425!4d-84.12065
I need to do some research on the Ontario chain - I keep hearing about all the different locations around the Cincinnati/Dayton area, but I don't know much about the chain itself.
How similiar was Hills to Ames?
I think you have asked this question before.
I worked for both Hills and Ames. They were quite similar aside from a few minor variances.
Hills stores tended to be slightly larger. Hills had a larger toy department whereas Ames devoted
more floor space to domestics. Hills had a snack bar, which Ames did not (until the merger when
many of the converted Hills locations opted to keep one). Hills initially operated with a larger
in-store management team but it had been whittled down to Ames-size by the late 1990's.
Quote from: TheFugitive on January 15, 2018, 09:10:49 AM
I think you have asked this question before.
I worked for both Hills and Ames. They were quite similar aside from a few minor variances.
Hills stores tended to be slightly larger. Hills had a larger toy department whereas Ames devoted
more floor space to domestics. Hills had a snack bar, which Ames did not (until the merger when
many of the converted Hills locations opted to keep one). Hills initially operated with a larger
in-store management team but it had been whittled down to Ames-size by the late 1990's.
I agree about Ames and Hills being a lot more similar than Ames and Zayre. When Ames started converting Hills stores over to Ames they went with a new concept, lots of green and black. A couple of years before they had started converting Zayre stores to the green Ames concept, but the Hills conversion was a whole different look altogether. Before the conversion, many Hills stores looked like a larger version of Ames (lots of red and white), except with the aforementioned different balance in departments. Hills was known at Christmas time with “Hills is where the toys are!†jingle. I seem to remember Hills would have a lot of prices ending in “.97†as well. All greeting cards at Hills were 10% off, department 11. There was a special key on the register for greeting cards.
When Ames converted Hills over they replaced Hills’ system with IBM registers, which were a newer version of what Hills was using at the time, and didn’t match what Ames was using at the time (Siemens Nixdorf). I can’t remember the name of the software package but it’s the same as what Barnes and Noble is running today.
Working at Hills as a cashier you had a different operator number every day, depending on what bag they handed you in the back office at the start of your shift. At Ames you used your social security number for everything. Hills didn’t lease out jewelry or sound and video but I think Ames did (though Ames called it Sight ‘n Sound).
I remember when Ames used your Social Security number as the login for everything.
I also worked for Service Merchandise where they did the same thing. I once had to fire
an associate who had memorized my SSN (she racked up so many voids she had probably
watched me key it 300 times) and I caught her using it to do unauthorized returns.
Scary how oblivious we were to identity theft back then.
Ames did not lease out sound or video, at least when I worked for them (we did use Bertelsmann as a
jobber for cassettes). When I joined the only leased department was shoes, which was J. Baker.
During my time there they "created" a company called JBA (Jewelry Boutique Associates) and leased
out the jewelry departments to them. In hindsight this was merely a sleazy way to isolate all of the
gold and diamond inventory from the bankruptcy.
I was there during the Ames-Zayre merger and Ames' color scheme at the time was still red.
They switched to green in the 90's, not long after I had left the company.
Traveled about an hour to Dave & Buster's for my son's birthday in Brandon Florida today and saw an old Hills semi trailer with a faded but still visual logo on it at a used tire shop, it looed as if it was being loaded with old used tires. Unfortunately I could not snap a pic because I was driving and we all know cell phones and driving don't mix. I will make it out that way again soon to see if it is there and snap a pic.
With Halloween coming I am reminded of one of my favorite Hills stories.
Hills had a unique practice in that they used to pay their employees IN CASH. We'd hold back a few bank deposits heading into pay day and make up pay envelopes for each of them with pay stubs and cash. These would go into a lockbox and either a manager or one of the office associates would set-up at a table in the employee lounge. Employees would then come in, sign for their pay, and be handed their envelope with the cash and the stub.
This practice was actually genius because after being paid the employees would have to go all the way back to the front of the store to exit, and few would without spending at least some of their pay.
Like many retail businesses Hills would allow employees to dress-up in costumes on Halloween. This practice ended one year when pay day fell on Halloween. Employees were all lining-up to get their pay in costume. In one of the stores some guy who was NOT an employee got into the line wearing a Grim Reaper costume and a mask. When he got to the front of the line he pulled a gun, took the box full of cash and fled out the door.
From then on you weren't allowed to have your face covered when picking-up your pay.
People blame Ames as the main to reason why Hills went out of business (which it mostly is) but Hills filed for bankruptcy in 1991 while the Ames buyout didn't happen until 1998
If Ames never bought them out they probably would've went out of business and bankruptcy anyway
At most I can see them lasting about as long as Ames did until 2002
I worked for Ames during their first bankruptcy and for Hills up until just before Ames acquired them. In my opinion the things leading to the bankruptcies in each case were somewhat different.
In the case of Ames first bankruptcy it was hands-down the Zayre acquisition. Zayre was headed to the ash heap until our president, Peter Hollis (himself a former Zayre CEO) threw his buddies over there a lifeline and took their crap off their hands for them. Zayre Corp. is still around as TJX (Marshalls and T.J. Maxx) so things did work out for them in that regard.
Zayre had a bunch of dirty, broken down, high-shrink stores, most of them in urban areas. A lot of those in bad areas. Ames was mostly small-town and rural. Overnight we went from being a 300 store chain with a well-defined market to an 800 store chain that was all over the board. The logistics were not in place to manage a company that had more than doubled in size in one fell swoop. You had stupid things happening such as country goose pattern bedding and kitchen accessories being shipped to stores in inner-city Chicago. Or aluminum can crushers being shipped to Michigan where every can had a ten cent deposit on it and got returned to the store anyway. When the merger was complete the sales did not justify the added debt service and down we went. We had a lot of managers at Ames who had come from Zayre and were dead-set against the merger because they knew first-hand how bad things were over there. Ames reaction was to aggressively tell them to shut-up so that none of these remarks would make it into the press and scuttle the deal.
In the case of Hills they had been in a slow state of decline throughout the 90's and were facing increasing pressure from Walmart. As an Operations Manager I saw this first-hand as stores which had 7 or 8 managers at the start of the decade were cut to 3 (and most of the responsibilities of the ones who went away got rolled into my job description). Hills also had the reputation for catering to their associates, which is nice, but when facing a death match against Sam Walton this came back to bite them as it became impossible to motivate staff to do the sorts of tough things that were necessary to compete and survive.
For example, they brought in some high-end consultants to drastically revamp our freight unloading and restocking process. It wasn't working. The reason (and many associates would come up and tell me this to my face) was that if it worked and the store became more efficient their hours would be cut as a result. And they did not want their hours to be cut. So they actively undermined the program.
When Hills started talking merger with Ames my thoughts were "my knees hurt, my feet hurt, this neighborhood is full of thugs who may come and take a shot at me, and I'm not going back to work for those idiots who screwed me out of nearly seven grand in bonuses through their bankruptcy". I got out of the business and never looked back.
A Hills superfan in the Pittsburgh area is going to be bringing the Hills Snack Bar
back to life, as a food truck.
https://www.wtae.com/article/hills-snack-bar-pittsburgh-western-pennsylvania/42259311
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Hills_department_store_sign.jpg)
This image of a Hills road sign in Hermitage, Tennessee and I've been trying to find the location on Google Maps to see how it's changed but have had no luck.
Edit: I think I found the store. The front of the building which currently houses the Altitude Trampoline Park is shaped in a very similar way to what many Hills stores had.