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HomeBusiness“Mom and Pop” Hilltop CB Foods Is Community Friendly

“Mom and Pop” Hilltop CB Foods Is Community Friendly

Hilltop SupermarketClarksville, TN – It’s a sad reality in our society. “Mom and Pop” stores of every kind are struggling to keep their doors open against their big box competitors. One store that is bucking this trend is the Hilltop CB Supermarket at 400 Highway 149. This locally owned and operated grocery store still has freshly butchered meat daily and runs sales that make it worth driving the extra few miles to take advantage of.

Wayne Hall opened the original Hilltop Supermarket, in a 5,000 square-feet building, across the street from its current location in 1967. In 1990, when the new store (then 12,000 square feet) opened where it now stands, Mr. Hall convinced his brother-in-law, Mike Jackson, to become store manager. Mike is still handling the day-to-day operations for the store which provides 50 jobs to the local economy.

In 1995, the building was expanded to 24,500 square feet with not only groceries and fresh meat, but a deli, bakery, and a country food hot bar. One of their specialties is farm fresh smoked sausage which is available from Thanksgiving to Easter—yum! They also sell whole country hams that they are willing to slice for you, if you wish.

The Deli at the Hilltop Supermarket
The Deli at the Hilltop Supermarket
Don is lowering Prices at Hilltop Market
Don is lowering Prices at Hilltop Market

You can shop at the Hilltop Supermarket Monday through Saturday from 6:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. and on Sunday from 7:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. They have a community bill payment center; where you can buy stamps, money orders, send a Western Union message, or pay your CEMC and Charter bills. The store also features a Cumberland Bank & Trust branch for all of your banking needs.  Their Deli offers a catering service, and can provide food for events ranging from 25 to 500 people.

The store is super clean grocery store that prides itself not only on the high quality of its offerings, but also serving the community in as many ways as possible.

A big supporter of education, at the front of the store are boxes where parents and friends of schools “on this side of the river” can place their receipts. At the end of the school year, all these receipts are counted. The Hilltop Supermarket partners with a company that provides the school with equipment (equal to the total amount of the receipts) like new computers, cameras, and all types of school supplies. They also host a Fall Festival to raise money for Montgomery Central’s sports programs. Each team including the cheerleaders and other groups can set up a booth on the grass lot in from of the store. All of the proceeds they raise go to the team or group holding the sale.

Hilltop Supermarket has community events throughout the year. Coming up soon will be the sixteenth annual Easter Egg Hunt for 350 to 400 kids. “We have everything furnished by our store and other local venders; there are 200 to 300 toy prizes,” Mike Jackson reports. “The grand prize is always something like a bicycle or basketball goal. It’s a big event and the kids have a great time.”

Over 400 kids attended Hilltop Market's 16th Annual Easter Egg Hunt.
Over 400 kids attended Hilltop Market's 16th Annual Easter Egg Hunt.

In May they play host to a KC-style Barbecue Cook-off. Now in its third year, it is being expanded to include not only chicken and ribs but beef brisket and pulled pork barbecue. A car show will begin on Friday night as the barbecue specialists arrive and get set up. On Friday night, the Bud Lite and Miller Lite folks are going to compete to see who has the best barbecue. Saturday features the other competitors and you can get in on the tasting! Local politicians, police officers, and even Mark Haynes, owner of Clarksville Online and Discover Clarksville—have served as judges for the barbecue offerings!

From April to October, either on Friday or Sunday (still in the decision process as of this writing), the Hilltop Car Shows will take place the first week of the month. Come on out and see that fabulous car you’ve been remembering since your teenage years!

Store manager Mike Jackson with one of Hilltop Supermarket's original sales paper
Store manager Mike Jackson with one of Hilltop Supermarket's original sales paper

Over the years, many changes have taken place in the grocery business. Keeping up with technology is one of their biggest challenges, Mike admits. Security cameras are everywhere, of course, but most customers are the same families who have made Hilltop the superb business it is today.

“We pride ourselves on our fresh meat and low prices,” Mike Jackson claims. “Very few groceries butcher their own meat any more. We feel that this is important to our customers so that they can have safe and delicious meals. We have many families who shop with us—first the grandmother, then the mother and now the daughter.”

Evidence of that is the fact that more than 400 people have signed up at the Hilltop Supermarket’s web site at www.hilltopsupermarket.com to receive email on Monday mornings from the store with the specials for the week. You too can sign up, find out the sale, load up your coolers and head on over to the Hilltop CB.

You’ll be glad you did.

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Map

400 Highway 149
Clarksville, TN 37040-7237
(931) 552-9668

hilltopsupermarket.com

Sue Freeman Culverhouse
Sue Freeman Culverhousehttp://culverhouseart.com/
Author of Tennessee Literary Luminaries: From Cormac McCarthy to Robert Penn Warren (The History Press, 2013) Sue Freeman Culverhouse has been a freelance writer for the past 36 years. Beginning in 1976, she published magazines articles in Americana, Historic Preservation, American Horticulturist, Flower and Garden, The Albemarle Magazine, and many others. Sue is the winner of two Virginia Press Awards in writing. She moved to Springfield, Tennessee in 2003 with her sculptor husband, Bill a retired attorney. Sue has one daughter,  Susan Leigh Miller who teaches poetry and creative writing at Rutgers University. Sue teaches music and writing at Watauga Elementary School in Ridgetop, Tennessee to approximately 500 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. She also publishes a literary magazine each year; all work in the magazine is written and illustrated by the students. Sue writes "Uncommon Sense," a column in the Robertson County Times, which also appears on Clarksville Online. She is the author of "Seven keys to a sucessful life", which is  available on amazon.com and pubishamerica.com; this is a self-help book for all ages.
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