Where I Shopped: Hills

As a young child growing up in the 80s in Lynchburg, Virginia, we didn’t have no stinkin’ Wal-Marts or Targets. No sir, the 80s were still the glory days of K-Mart, shopping malls, outlets and department stores. Corporate monopolies hadn’t fully taken over and WE LIKED IT THAT WAY…

Welcome to Where I Shopped, a truly engaging series of posts where I continue to take a look at those years gone by (the 1980s) and the stores that I have fond memories of my family shopping at. In this first issue collector’s edition: Hills Department Stores!

Not the actual Lynchburg, Virginia, store... but a very close facsimile!

Even though K-Mart was THE store when I was a kid, Hills was also a great place and it will always hold a close second place in my nostalgic heart for one-stop retailers. The complimentary fresh popped popcorn no doubt helped to win me over, but I just had a thing about going shopping as a kid. Blame it on my mother. But really, I only liked to go shopping long as there was a chance *I* was going to be getting some toys, and Hills had a great toy section (Hey, it was “Where the Toys Are” after all). I remember they would have G.I. Joe displays: vehicles and figures featuring Cobra battling it out with the Joes. Of course, it was all safely protected by a plastic display case, but man, I remember walking up to those sets and just being awe-struck wishing I could take the whole thing home.

Hills was never a national chain, only sticking to the east side (REPRESENT!) with most of their stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Virginia, Ohio and then some dipping further south (Tennessee, Kentucky) and to the mid west (Indiana). Unfortunately, Hills went bankrupt in 1991 and was eventually bought out and absorbed by Ames Department Stores in 1999 (that chain itself would go bankrupt, which some say was thanks to their acquisition of Hills, and closed *their* doors in 2002). The Hills in Lynchburg closed down around ’91 or ’92, I wanna say, and was replaced by Michael’s, a huge arts & craft store (yes, I would end up shopping there as well).

Enjoy these fine Hills commercials…

A special thanks goes out to Eric Fritch at HillsStores.com for providing the YouTube links and images!