Buffalo in the ’80s: Holiday shopping at Hills

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

If you were getting ready for Christmas in 1985, one place you were likely to turn to figure out what you wanted or what you wanted to buy was the weekly Hills ad.

There were eleven Hills location around Western New York in 1984, making the discount retailer just about ubiquitous — and a likely stop for most Western New York shoppers over the 20 years the company operated here.

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By the time the local Hills stores were bought out by Ames in 1999, there were 10 Hills locations. With a combined 20 stores, Ames closed its local outlets in 2002.