Groceteria.com

Jared, can you explain what a U-Boat is? (Pardon my ignorance.) And can you tell us what store it is you're referring to now? I'm a bit confused by your description of "The Hills" marking, because I don't recall Hill's Supermarkets ever being referred to as "The Hills".

Wow -- that building was a Great Eastern after it was Billy Blakes? That is some history! I can still remember when Great Eastern was called Great Eastern Mills. I definitely recall one in New Jersey, and possibly one in Brooklyn -- though I may have that confused with Bargain Town USA -- or western...

Do you really care if they consider you a wacko? More to the point, if a newspaper owns it, they have undoubtedly dealt with a lot more genuine wackos. On the other hand, it's more likely that the local Buildings Department would have information in their files -- possibly documents showing previous...

That was a clear case of dementia, Dave. Sad but quite common; reminds me of both my mother-in-law and, to a lesser extent, my mother (both are now gone). Sounds like she was relocated by her son -- probably because she's no longer competent to live on her own -- and is remembering things from years...

Great pics, turbo. Pretty scary looking place actually, with the huge empty lot and gray skies! Wish I could decipher what it used to say on that sign, but my connect-the-dots skills have slipped...
Thanks!

I don't know for certain, but I'm fairly sure there is no connection between the Hill's Supermarkets chain and Hill's Department Stores. The supermarkets were based on Long Island. I'm not aware of any Hill's Department Stores that were in the NYC area; I had never even heard of them until years aft...

I'm 100% certain there was no connection at all, and I wasn't trying to suggest that there was. Nor was I suggesting that you were suggesting that there was. Just wanted to clarify that there wasn't. I worked for Mammoth Mart in '77-'78, when they were taken over by King's. (Further adding to the c...

I don't know if they were all like this, but in the 60s the NY-area chain Times Square Stores opened a multi-level location on Linden Blvd. in Brooklyn that I recall having a supermarket on one level and discount store on another. This sticks out in my mind because they had a unique escalator to get...

When you say Hill's bought Penn Fruit, I assume you mean they acquired selected locations or the stores in the NY area, since I don't think there was any mention of Hill's buying the chain in the article on the history of Penn Fruit. This is the first time I've ever heard of a connection between Hil...

I'm kind of curious about this too -- does JCPenney STILL own Eckerd's, or did they sell it? In Ridgefield, CT, there was a Genovese Drugs. That was, as far as I know, a regional chain based on Long Island. Genovese was bought by Eckerd's -- or so I thought -- and at one point they introduced a larg...

When we moved to Junction Blvd. in Queens in 1963, on the dividing line between Elmhurst, Corona and Rego Park, there was a Penn Fruit supermarket on the ground floor of the Lefrak City housing development. (The store must have been only a couple of years old, because I think that first section of L...

When I first moved to Queens, NY in 1963, there was a large, whitewashed building off of Queens Boulevard at about 60th Drive in the Elmhurst/Rego Park area. I remember it being an odd mix of general merchandise and food in a warehouse-type atmosphere (very high unadorned ceiling, hanging flourescen...

Really interesting article. Reminds me of the book about the rise and fall of Korvettes (author was named Barash, I think)... Retail history is always a good read!