Hills Supermarkets
{{Short description|Grocery store in New York, USA}}
Hills Supermarkets, owned by H. Frederick Hill, was a New York based grocery store chain which was popular in the 1960s.First National Stores Taps French to Follow O'Keefe As Chairman, Wall Street Journal, May 22, 1972, pg. 24. In May 1977 it was sold as a subdivision of Pueblo International Inc., to Pantry Pride.
Growth
In March 1955 Hills Supermarkets leased {{convert|12000|sqft|m2}} in the Pine Oaks Shopping Center at Boundary Avenue in North Massapequa, New York.Supermarkets Leased, New York Times, March 20, 1955, pg. R8. The following month Hills signed a fifteen-year lease for a store to be located at the Hub Shopping Center, approximately one mile north of Amityville, New York.Store Site Is Sold Near Amityville, New York Times, April 10, 1955, pg. R1.
In October 1961 Hills operated 23 stores with plans to open 7 more and expand an 8th within the next twelve months. Each planned store was to be {{convert|22000|sqft|m2}} except for one. The exception was a store in the Walt Whitman Shopping Center in Huntington, New York, which measured 29,000 square feet.Hill's Supermarket Expansion, Wall Street Journal, October 17, 1961, pg. 32.
By December 1972, the Hills chain had 75 locations.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/12/19/archives/hills-adding-li-markets.html | title=Hills Adding L.I. Markets | newspaper=The New York Times | date=December 19, 1972 | access-date=November 4, 2009}}("...will open five supermarkets on Long Island today. Including the store opened last week in Newburgh, N.Y., the latest openings bring the total number of stores in the Hill chain to 75.")
Demise of store chain
In the two years prior to November 1976, Pablo International, Inc., had closed 29 Hills stores as well as a distribution center in Brentwood, New York.Pueblo Sets Reserves Of About $14.1 Million For Its Store Closings, Wall Street Journal, November 29, 1976, pg. 17.{{cite news | url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0E13F93D5F137B93C2AA178AD95F428785F9 | title=Hills to Shut Down Eight Supermarkets| newspaper=The New York Times | date=November 30, 1976 | access-date=November 4, 2009}} (reporting that eight more stores would close next Saturday, including five in Suffolk and one in Nassau, including Northport, Commack, West Babylon, Hauppauge, East Setauket, Plainedge (Bronx), and Yonkers) The indebted 43 units of Hills Supermarkets sold for a sum of approximately $7 million in 1977,Pueblo International Says Food Fair Buys Supermarket Division, Wall Street Journal, May 10, 1977, pg. 20. to Food Fair. Food Fair filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 1978, and 42 Hills locations were closed shortly thereafter.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/11/15/archives/food-fair-cites-daily-losses-officers-resign.html | title=Food Fair Cites Daily Losses; Officers Resign | newspaper=The New York Times | date=November 15, 1978 | access-date=November 4, 2009 | first=Isadore | last=Barmash}} ("Since its bankruptcy petition, the company has closed 42 Hills Supermarkets...") In 1979, at the height of the roller disco era the Hills located at 1276 Hicksville Rd, Seaford, NY 11783 became a United Skates of America and is still in operation.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/04/01/archives/the-undoing-of-li-shopping-centers-the-undoing-of-li-shopping.html | title=The Undoing of L.I. Shopping Centers| newspaper=The New York Times | date=April 1, 1979 | access-date=September 6, 2023}}
References
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{{Supermarkets of the United States}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill's Supermarkets}}