Hills Snack Bar sets grand opening in Hopewell; serves food inspired by Hills stores

Scott Tady, Beaver County Times
Updated ·2 min read

HOPEWELL TWP. ― Here's good news if you savored the food from the snack bar at Hills discount department stores.

A Beaver County man has created a mobile food trailer reprising Hills' cuisine, and you'll be able to taste it Saturday in Hopewell Township.

From noon to 3 p.m. at Green Garden Plaza, site of a former Hills, the Hills Snack Bar trailer will serve customers.

Hills Snack Bar's logo. Visit the new food trailer Saturday at Green Garden Plaza.
Hills Snack Bar's logo. Visit the new food trailer Saturday at Green Garden Plaza.

"We'll be setting up at Miller and Sons, across the parking lot," Hills Snack Bar mastermind Jason Powell said.

A taste of Hills: Beaver County man plans mobile food trailer inspired by Hills department stores

He will sell "a good portion of the original Hills menu," Powell said. "Hotdogs, pretzels, nachos, popcorn, candied nuts, cotton candy, assortment of chips, cookies, bottled and canned drinks and ICEE drinks."

Hills stores ceased western Pennsylvania operations in 1999.

Steeped in nostalgia, Hills Snack Bar should be a hit judging by Facebook comments and the in-person reaction the food trailer garnered at this past Saturday's soft opening at the Independence Township Community Day.

Three former Hills Department Store buggies are part of Jason Powell's plan for a mobile food trailer inspired by a Hills-themed snack bar.
Three former Hills Department Store buggies are part of Jason Powell's plan for a mobile food trailer inspired by a Hills-themed snack bar.

Powell even purchased three of the last known Hills shopping carts, which the Independence resident intends to bring along with his trailer for added visual appeal as he sets up in shopping plazas that formerly housed Hills stores.

Someday he will visit Northern Lights Shopping Center in Economy, which also housed a Hills store.

Powell wanted Green Garden Plaza to be the official grand opening site since that was the Hills he regularly attended.

Founded in Youngstown in 1957, Hills operated stores throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Indiana and West Virginia, eventually expanding into Michigan and Tennessee. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1991 and in 1998-99 was taken over by Ames, becoming what was at that time the nation's fourth-largest discount chain. Ames declared bankruptcy and closed all its stores in 2002.

Scott Tady is entertainment editor at The Times and easy to reach at stady@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Hills Snack Bar sets grand opening in Hopewell; serves Hills-like food