Hills

[d_fife]

it says eastern hills. that may be the wrong hills. Hills has a unique logo!

[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..

[storehistoryguy]

Revived Hills.

[amesman]

Originally 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.

[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.

[dayville81]

Hills is open!
(No just an old Williamsburg, PA Hills when it was open and had cars in the parking lot!)

[storehistoryguy]

Originally 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:

[StarSage]

Originally posted by shakethis1234
remember Hills Snack bar

I have many fond memories of the snack bar.. especially those warm pretzels after school shopping!

[ameskmart1]

Hills president

[beachgal26]

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?

;)

[XISMZERO]

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).

[ameskmart1]

Altoona, PA

[ameskmart1]

Bloomsburg, PA

[ameskmart1]

Cumberland, MD

[ameskmart1]

Morgantown, WV

[ameskmart1]

State College, PA

[ameskmart1]

Uniontown, PA

[ameskmart1]

Some Hills brand products

[ameskmart1]

A Hills ad

[Ameskid]

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

[Caldor1999]

hears a pic of a hills that clsoed in 1997

[d_fife]

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.

[beachgal26]

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.

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

[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.

[d_fife]

Originally 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

[tokensafari]

beautiful store! :)

[jameswayizdashiz]

you couldn't go 5 miles in PA without running into a Hills.
it was great..

[d_fife]

Originally 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.

[d_fife]

Originally 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

[HatTrick]

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.