hillards supermarkets

[stuckinthepast77]

thought it would be cool for people to put up their memories of hillards supermarkets.they were a yorkshire based firm that got took over in 1987 by tescos.we had 2 near me-1 in pontefract on cornmarket (its now tescos) and one in wakefield (next to the old bus station)and the site is now a car park sadly:cry:
if anyone has pics of particularly the ones in wakefield or pontefract it would be great to see them again,or any hillards pics or advertising in general that would be fab!
andy

[catflap]

Re: hillards supermarkets

thought it would be cool for people to put up their memories of hillards supermarkets.they were a yorkshire based firm that got took over in 1987 by tescos.we had 2 near me-1 in pontefract on cornmarket (its now tescos) and one in wakefield (next to the old bus station)and the site is now a car park sadly:cry:
if anyone has pics of particularly the ones in wakefield or pontefract it would be great to see them again,or any hillards pics or advertising in general that would be fab!
andy

I used to live in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire and we had one there for a while.

I remember taking shopping home in cardboard boxes they had at the back of the shops - no carrier bags in sight. This is also when you had people manually entering the prices of goods instead of just scanning them

They always had a sign up in there saying 'Ladies - Beware of the Handbag Thief' - I imagine lots of places had that though...

Sorry - turning into a general 70s memoried of supermarkets rather than Hillards specifically!

[stuckinthepast77]

Re: hillards supermarkets

thanks for your reply catflap,any memories of hillards are welcome!oh and they must have issued carrier bags at some point as i have one-well part of one anyway-found it on a long since forgotten tip near me!
please keep your memories coming everyone

[darren]

Re: hillards supermarkets

i dont remember these supermarkets.

perhaps they where just in certain regions i never seen them here in N.I.

[catflap]

Re: hillards supermarkets

i dont remember these supermarkets.

perhaps they where just in certain regions i never seen them here in N.I.

I only remember the one. Nothing like as widespread as the Big 4 are now.

[jason h]

Re: hillards supermarkets

Yes, Hillards! Through-out most of the 80s we had one about half a mile from my house. It was used for our main weekly shop. We had no car back then so we had to walk the shopping back ourselves (or wait for a bus). I remember a bingo promotion they were running where each time you did your shopping, they would give you a stirp of bingo numbers/stickers. You had to fill in the bingo sheets with your numbers untill you had a full house. I remember my Mum telling the next-door neighbour that we would do our bingo together to stand a better chance of winning, then share the money; I can't remember what the jackpot was.

I also remeber the Save Our Hillards campaign they were running up to the time when they were taken over by Tesco. They had this 'Save Our Hillards' written on the shopping trolleys.

Here is the very Hillards supermarket we used to shop at.

[catflap]

Re: hillards supermarkets

Nice memories and picture there Jason.

Just tried to find a pic of my old Hillards online - but no joy alas....

[stuckinthepast77]

Re: hillards supermarkets

yes what a great pic and story Jason,thankscatflap ive tried researching my local ones at pontefract and wakefield,and not one picture!not one item!even been into our local museum who have a research centre and have old pictures and documents-plenty on the gt smiths near us at the time but nothing on hillards-how wierd!

[Jedi Knight]

Re: hillards supermarkets

You can see a little bit of the Wakey one at this link:

http://www.twixtaireandcalder.org.uk...spx?k=hillards

[80sChav]

Re: hillards supermarkets

thought it would be cool for people to put up their memories of hillards supermarkets.they were a yorkshire based firm that got took over in 1987 by tescos.we had 2 near me-1 in pontefract on cornmarket (its now tescos) and one in wakefield (next to the old bus station)and the site is now a car park sadly:cry:
if anyone has pics of particularly the ones in wakefield or pontefract it would be great to see them again,or any hillards pics or advertising in general that would be fab!
andy

Hi stuckinthepast1977,
I was born in 1977 too andrecall recall Hillards well from the 1980s. What an amazing mis-match of a store it was too. It was like a Freezer Store (aka Heron)-Supermarket-Warehose (like Costco ) I think is it's name all merged into one. Being such a random place made it so great I think - more so after from the 1960s until the 1980s the co-op finally found competition. Hillards certainly (in many way) sent the trends and ideas that Kwick Save and Netto etc gained years after

Though neither are going now (though Asda has some kind ownership of Nett I heard recently) the likes of Kwick Save, Netto and latterly Aldi and Lidl owe a great thanks I think to Hillards and their great whacky ideas - no doubts!!

80sChav

[catflap]

Re: hillards supermarkets

Another memory of 'my' Hillards - it had one of those cartoon booths you would sit inside and watch.

The cartoon I remember being on featured a chap flying around in what looked like a big bucket with controls at waist-height.

Weird!

[stuckinthepast77]

Re: hillards supermarkets

hi again jedi,alas the twixt aire and calder site is stuffed at the moment and you cant access it correctlythis was my first port of call originally to find pics-hey 80schav,good to speak to you buddy-back in the day from my parents point of view it was a battle for them wether to shop at tesco or hillards-in the end theyd shop at tesco wakefield one week then hillards pontefract the other-and your right,hillards stores were funnily laid out-a tad like jack fultons today too i guess-my memory of them isnt great as i was only 10 when they went under (as were you of course)but i vaguely remember them,moreso the ponty one-if things were still done like that now i think supermarkets would be a better place to be-bring back the prices too i say

[Jedi Knight]

Re: hillards supermarkets

Shame that, I would post the actual photo but it has copyright by Wakefield Libraries.

[stuckinthepast77]

Re: hillards supermarkets

seen the pidcs now jedi,and the main ones of the ossett branch,but the one further down just takes in the one on providence street in wakefield that eventually became mad harrys.another name to conjer with,but for a different thread maybe

[Big Tim]

Re: hillards supermarkets

There was a branch of Hillard's on Hull Road, in York. Prior to that it was another independent regional (possibly York only) supermarket called (Frank) Dee's. Hillards in York had groceries downstairs, and hardwares/toys etc in a smaller upstairs area. It later was bought out by Grandways, and changed hands several times; becoming a Kwik Save and more recently a Somerfield, and now a Co-op.

Hillard's was popular until the mid 1980's, when ASDA, Tesco and Sainsbury's began getting a stranglehold in York (strangely, it was not until 2008 that Morrison's built a store in East York), and they could no longer compete on price; and the store disappeared, at a guess around about 1985/86.