HILLS
Herbert H. Goldberger was an executive at Boston's Clear Weave Hosiery Stores and -later- at Van's Stores, also of Boston. In 1957, he established Hills Department Stores, which was headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts. The first unit opened for business, on the outskirts of Youngstown, Ohio, on April 3, 1958.
The discount chain entered an expansion mode. There were seven Hills stores in 1964, when the company was sold to SCOA (Shoe Company of America) Industries, of Columbus, Ohio. By 1965, twelve stores were operating in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. These averaged 100,000 square feet.
Mr. Goldberger had remained president of Hills Department Stores after the SCOA take-over. He stepped down in 1981, when his son -Steven A. Goldberger- became president. By this time, there were ninety-nine Hills discount stores. This number had increased to 125 by 1985. With the help of Boston's Thomas H. Lee, Herbert Goldberger led a leveraged buyout of SCOA Industries. All its holdings were sold, except for Hills. The company went public in 1987, when it was established as the nation's eighth-largest discount retailer.
Thirty-three Gold Circle Stores in western New York were acquired -from Federated Department Stores- in 1989. There were 214 Hills stores by 1990. The rapid expansion of the chain over the past 2 years had not been a prudent move, as the national economy was in decline. Hills Department Stores filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 1991.
Hills' problems were exacerbated by competition from WalMart and Kmart. Michael Bozic, formerly of Sears, Roebuck & Company, was hired as the new president and CEO of Hills. Bozic closed sixty-three unprofitable stores and pulled completely out of Nashville, Georgia and Michigan. Some product lines were reduced and others, such as toys, expanded.
A revitalized -and renamed- Hills Stores Company emerged from bankruptcy in October 1993. In 1994, a Hills opened in Reading, Pennsylvania, which was the first newly-built store since 1990. There were now 151 Hills units. Fifteen new stores were dedicated in 1995. Ames Department Stores, Incorporated, of Rocky Hill, Connecticut, acquired the 155-unit Hills Stores Company in November 1998. By late 1999, all Hills stores had been rebranded by Ames.
HILLS ANCHORED SHOPPING MALLS:
*EASTBROOK MALL, Grand Rapids, MI [Hills opened 1986]
*RICHLAND MALL, Cambria County, PA [Hills opened 1993]
*LONG LEAF MALL, Wilmington, NC [Hills opened 1995]
TURNSTYLE / TURN*STYLE
This chain of discount department stores was introduced in Lynn, Massachusetts, in March 1957. A second Turnstyle store opened, in Brighton, Massachusetts, in August 1958. The third unit, built in Lawrence, Massachusetts, was dedicated in 1960. The fourth location, in Medford, Massachusetts, welcomed first shoppers in November 1961. Early Turnstyle stores averaged 70,000 square feet and carried general merchandise.
Chicago's Jewel Tea Company assumed operation of the four Greater Boston Turnstyle stores on February 28, 1962. A fifth store was already under construction in Racine, Wisconsin. It opened for business on March 28, 1962. Officially deemed a Turn*Style Family Center, it encompassed 100,000 square feet and included a Jewel supermarket.
Additional Family Centers were built, which encompassed between 57,000 and 121,000 square feet. Newer units included an Eisner Food Stores supermarket. In 1965, there were nine Turn*Style units. This number had increased to ten by 1968. In 1969, the store count was thirteen, with twenty-eight stores in operation in 1974.
A stagnant national economy, and competition from other discount stores, cut into Turn*Style profits. In 1975, the Greater Boston locations were shuttered, with the store count being reduced to twenty-four. 1977 was an especially difficult year for the chain.
On March 7, 1978, the Jewel company announced that nineteen of the remaining twenty-two Turn*Style stores were being sold to May Department Stores. The deal was finalized in June. The units acquired by May Stores were quickly rebranded as Venture operations. The few units retained by Jewel were converted to large Osco Drug stores.
TURN*STYLE ANCHORED SHOPPING MALLS:
*FORD CITY CENTER, Chicago, IL (1966)
*DIXIE SQUARE, Harvey, IL (1970)
*ROGERS PLAZA, Wyoming, MI (1971)
