In early June, Hiller’s Market in Arborland had a ghostly look. Only a few canned goods stood on once-packed shelves, empty coolers gaped, and signs at the checkout lanes cautioned, “We no longer accept Hiller’s courtesy cards.” The store, one of seven in a Detroit-area chain, was due to close June 30 and reopen on July 22 as a Kroger.

The Cincinnati-based grocery giant already has a huge store nearby on Carpenter Rd. What could it possibly see in Hiller’s, whose smaller stores were known for their international and kosher groceries, fresh perishable items, and customer service?

The Hiller’s stores “are going to be new models for us; they’re going to look different from a traditional Kroger,” answers Ken McClure, consumer communications manager for Kroger of Michigan.

“We aim to incorporate Hiller’s upscale, diverse product line and highly customer-focused culture into the chain and develop a hybrid that can be scaled across the grocery division,” he adds. “We certainly knew there were things Hiller’s did very well, and we wanted to incorporate that into our model. We’re looking at a hybrid that takes advantage of the best of both worlds.”

What does Kroger bring to the mix? Longer hours, for one thing. “I believe [the former Hiller’s stores] will follow our traditional hours of operation, 6 a.m. to midnight,” says McClure, “and one of the biggest advantages consumers are going to find is our everyday low prices. Cheerios taste the same regardless of where you purchase them.”

“I think it was kind of a merger of values,” CEO Jim Hiller told WWJ radio. “As I looked to the future of the supermarket business, I think it belongs more to Kroger than it does to companies of my size. And as we evaluated potential acquisitions, or even mergers, what we found is that the fundamental values that Kroger embraces are identical to ours. At every possible point they matched up.”

McClure is uniquely placed to comment on the transaction: he worked for Hiller’s for more than twenty years, including six managing the Ann Arbor store, and was Hiller’s chief operating officer before joining Kroger a year and a half ago. And though it’s rare for a one-size-fits-all chain to successfully absorb smaller, more specialized stores, there is a precedent: Kroger purchased a much larger regional chain, North Carolina-based Harris Teeter, in 2014.

In that case, though, Kroger kept the Harris Teeter name. “Harris Teeter had a very strong reputation for perishables and a great shopping experience,” says Meg Major, an editor with the national trade magazine Progressive Grocer. “By and large, observers would say Kroger has left Harris Teeter alone. Instead of reinventing that business model, Kroger seems to be coming in to learn all they can.”

U-M business professor Puneet Manchanda sees the acquisition as “a move by Kroger to start competing in the higher end of the market. You can see the level of customer services at Hiller’s; the assortment is much more diverse compared to a national player like Kroger. The trick is to leverage that while plugging in your efficiencies on the supply side. It’s very hard to do, so my guess is that they will end up making it more like a Kroger.”

Matt Sauber, a business professor at EMU, thinks not. “It will remain Hiller’s,” he predicts, “not in name but in flavor and ambience. They don’t want to make it another Kroger, and that makes sense in terms of positioning.”

Either way, says U-M’s Manchanda, “This can only help Kroger’s competitive position in the local area. Ann Arbor has way too many retail chains and too many formats at different price points for this population to support.”

More than 800 Hiller’s employees received layoff notices when the sale was announced. The hourly workers belonged to Local 876 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, which also represents Kroger employees. “Our HR people are working with the union to determine how to roll them into our contract and honor some components of their tenure,” says McClure. “As far as I know, all of the store managers have accepted offers and will be retained in the stores they have been working in. With hourly associates, I believe we’re well over 50 percent in having them accept offers.” In June, a cashier at Hiller’s said she’d already been hired by Kroger; she’ll be working at the South Maple Kroger this month while the conversion is completed.

Some industry analysts believe Kroger is in the early stages of a spending spree that will give it a foothold in the upscale end of the market. But “I don’t know that this is part of any larger strategy overall,” McClure says. “I think that the opportunity was here in this market, and our leadership reacted to it.”

And what would he say to Hiller’s former customers? “That we are excited to carry on Hiller’s legacy and we understand the components of Hiller’s business that made it so popular and are dedicated to keeping those elements intact,” McClure says. “We encourage people to come in and give us a chance.”