After 52 years in business
local company still moving...
BY NICK KATZ STAFF WRITER - Pioneer Press Newspapers 12-22-05
In the early 1950s Richard Hillebrand Sr. was delivering groceries in Skokie and Evanston.
"I had three trucks," Hillebrand recalled last week. We delivered groceries for A&P National, Bob's Groceries."
Today Hillebrand along with his family are marking the 52nd anniversary of his Hillstrom Moving and Storage and the company is working to remain viable in a world of large corporations and chains of moving companies.
That means offering the kind of personal service a large company can't and working hard to make the company known, said Hillebrand's daughter, Kathy Scherrer-Cieplinski.
"We want to be part of the community," she said of the Morton Grove company.
Toward that end the company has joined the Morton Grove Chamber of Commerce and Industry, sent out holiday greeting cards, gotten its name on restaurant placemats and earlier this month held a kind of garage sale of items left in storage lockers by customers who did not pay their bills.
Proceeds to charity
Proceeds from the sale will go to the Salvation Army and other charities.
The company started in 1953 as Thrifty Moving and Storage. "We had a Scotch girl on the trucks," Hillebrand said.
"We started in Evanston. We are Evanstonians," Scherrer-Cieplinski added.
For a while in the 1970s the company was an agent for Red Ball Movers. About 20 years ago it joined with another moving company and Hillstrom was created.
Currently the company is located on Madison Court in a small Industrial area off of Austin Avenue.
The company has some moves to recommend it, Scherrer-Cieplinski said.
"We moved the City of Evanston. We moved the Elgin Clock Company," she said.
Moved pipe organ
The company also moved a pipe organ and pipes when The First Methodist Church in Evanston put in a new organ.
None of those are among the strangest moves, though, Hillebrand said.
That would go to the 1956 move.
"When I was first starting I had to transport a cow to the market," Hillebrand said.
He picked the animal up at a fair in Morton Grove and took it to a grocery. "I felt so sorry for the cow," he said.
Over the years Hillstrom also has moved some tough items, pianos and safes that had to be hoisted through windows.
"We sent a doll house to England last Christmas," Scherrer-Cieplinski said.
Despite its record, however, Scherrer-Cieplinski said the business has a hard time competing with large, better-known chains and even small companies that offer low prices with service to match.
'Complicated'
"I love the business, but it's gotten too complicated," Hillebrand said. "I like looking at the peoples' furniture, seeing how they live. I've gotten to see how millionaires live without having to know them."
But Scherrer-Cieplinski added, "people want price. They don't really want service anymore."
Hillstrom, she said, offers the personal service and creativity that other companies don't
"This is a creative business. We offer custom, quality service. That's what we're known for."
To help give themselves an edge, Hillstrom offers free boxes and color-coded labels to identify what room a box goes to. Unlike many companies that increase rates at certain times of the month, Hillstrom maintains the same rates throughout the month.
The company, she said, also can help make a normally stressful event a little easier.
"We give you a stress-free move," Scherrer-Cieplinski said. "Pick movers you're going to feel comfortable with. We're like your family, like your mom."
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