0:00 Hi, thanks for shopping Hilltop Camper and RV. We want to give you a quick idea what it's like to shop with us and maybe to buy with us as well. We're consumers, too. We've been on lots before where we get attacked as soon as you get to the lot. We don't like that experience. We know you don't either. We don't want to give you that experience. So,

0:17 here's what you can expect when you walk through the doors at Hilltop Camper and RV. The first thing that's going to happen is you're going to walk through the door and be greeted by a friendly salesperson at Hilltop who is looking out for your needs. Next, you'll have a seat at their desk to have a conversation about what you're looking for

0:33 in your new RV. Can you just look around on your own? Of course, you can. In fact, weather permitting, we have the doors unlocked and the doors wide open. But here's why that conversation is so important for you. There can be up to a couple of hundred RVs to look at. So, explaining your needs can make it less confusing. Because if you look at more than three or four,

0:54 trust me, you'll just leave here confused. Not helped at all. It saves time. You don't have all day to look at these things. And they all kind of look the same from the outside, let's be honest. And that Hilltop employee is going to know about campers that maybe haven't been on the lot yet, maybe haven't even seen the website yet, and it might be the perfect camper for you. And the next

1:14 step is the fun part. You go shopping. They're going to take you around to those units you determine might be the best for you within your budget. Let's say you found the camper of your dreams. Maybe you have a trade in. It's at that point that you would do a trade evaluation form. Find out how much we could give you for it. If you don't have a trade, that's fine, too. Either way,

1:32 the next step will be to put a modest deposit down to get that camper in your name so nobody else can grab it and start the rest of the process in motion. Once we say goodbye, that process begins. Hilltop Camper and RV has been owned by the same family for almost 75 years. And we'd like to think that the difference you get at Hilltop is the service after the sale. We're going to inspect it,

1:56 detail it, and demonstrate it to you for up to a couple of hours if you need it. Plus, we'll get you fresh propane and a new battery, all at no additional fee. Once the demonstration is complete and you are satisfied with your purchase, you'll complete paperwork and the RV is yours. You may want to take a look through our part store, especially if you're a first-time camper,

2:16 to see what you'll need on that first camping trip. Otherwise, you're on the road to family fun like we've been doing it since 1951. Thanks for shopping Hilltop Camper and RV.

0:15 I'm Jerry Pearo. I started working with my father when I was probably 12 or 14 years old and retired from Hilltop in 2012. I'm Dick Pearo, kind of the same M.O. I started working when I was young, maybe 10 or 12 years old, and we did just a few odd jobs—sweeping and washing and working around the sales lot. And I'm still currently working at Hilltop Camper Sales, not as hard, and working with my four sons. After my father got married, he worked at a grocery store on University Ave. in St. Paul, and I think he worked nights over there. And of course we had a large family, so he worked quite a few hours. He got

1:03 his start in the mobile home trailer business early on with a company down by the Basilica, right downtown Minneapolis, basically. And that's where he kind of cut his teeth in the trade. Yes, my father was working, as Jerry was talking about working downtown Minneapolis—actually, where 94 is right now. They sold mobile homes down there. And my uncle who lived out in Colorado wanted to start a dealership. So he called my father and asked him if he'd move out there and sell mobile homes for them in Colorado. So then he moved out there and didn't stay real long, probably about a year or so, before he came back to Minneapolis. When he came back from Colorado, he was out there probably in '49 or '50. And then he came back

1:49 and he started Hilltop in the city of Columbia Heights, actually. Well, it's actually the city of Hilltop. That's where the name came from. But it's surrounded by Columbia Heights. And so that was on Central Ave. and that's where he started. And we remained there for 50 years at that location. When Roy started in business, he had enough money to buy one trailer. So for a second trailer, he relied on his father-in-law, who was in the insurance business and worked at the bank to vouch for him. So once he sold a trailer, he could get money again to go drive back to Indiana and buy another trailer and bring it back. And it became a family affair. He would take the station wagon; Mom and the kids would go back, get one more trailer and bring it back to sell it. In the beginning, when Roy

2:37 started out, travel trailers were really not quite the thing yet. And mobile homes weren't what they were years later either. They kind of melded together at that point. They were like 8 feet wide and up to maybe 30 feet long. So that's what he sold. In the beginning. It was kind of a... but people used them, people used them to live in because after the war there was such a shortage of housing. The mobile homes started to fit the bill and then they started improving them and, you know, making them larger and better built and that type of thing. So then it kind of went strictly to mobile homes, but he always liked the travel trailer portion. So by then there were manufacturers building travel trailers. So he actually sold both mobile homes and travel trailers in the

3:25 beginning. So Roy started with very few employees. It was usually just himself and a handyman, so to say. And then he went up to one salesman and the same handyman, but without a shop. Everything was done outside. And he really started basically with himself and a fellow that could do anything, a guy named Al Hargraves. He was just—you could do anything. The location on Central Ave. was difficult from the beginning because of the lay of the land. Central Ave. was built up and the land fell off to the back of the lot. And it was challenging because of sight lines.

4:12 It was all wrong, but he was able to persuade some of the highway workers to put some fill in so he could get the land raised. Thus, when you look at the land today, it's at two different levels. That's because Roy wanted his product to be seen rather than looking down in a hole at it. Yeah, it was a difficult property to work in because of the two levels. We were constantly dealing with that hill and, you know, we made it work. We built the buildings in a way that we could kind of work with it. And he started out with just a small little corner that he was renting, then he purchased it and then he purchased more and over the years just kept buying land.

4:54 And of course, we never had enough. We always ran out of land. And then we had to deal with that difficult property, but it all worked, and we were there for quite a long time. And it was about two and a half acres, if I remember, total, where we were when he finally bought some homes behind and expanded. He started off with a wooden single-axle trailer as an office that had—I remember—it had a wood interior. And he gutted it, left the kitchen in there, but had a little office in the front and a little office in the back. And it was probably no more than 20 feet, I would say. Roy's philosophy from day one on customer service has always been that the customer is right, and you take care of the customer and that's how you build

5:42 the business. It's much easier not to try to go find that new customer all the time if you can keep your previous customers and treat them well. He used to tell Jerry and me all the time. He says, you know, this isn't complicated being in business, you guys. He says, if you have a fair profit margin and treat the customer right, everything else takes care of itself. And, you know, we found it to be very true. So numerous times he would walk with a customer, let's say, that came in with something out of warranty, back to the parts store, give it to him. Just plain give it to him. The person on the way back is almost apologizing because they're not buying another unit from Roy again. So he had a really nice rapport with people. He was gentle. Everybody

6:30 liked him. He was you know, real approachable, really good as far as customer relations and he understood that customer, if you keep him happy, they're going to bring you more business than trying to make a little bit extra on, on a problem or something that really wasn't their fault. You know, it's always been important for us to take care of the customer. You know, our dad instilled that in us, and, you know, it works. You could see it, and we had happy people, and our customers were almost like a family after a while, you know. They keep coming back, they bring their family back. And so as the business grew, we just couldn't do it any different. We just kept the same M.O. going, and it worked well and it worked for us. We go home at

7:16 night, put our head on the pillow, and we could sleep good. So, you know, it's, it's big. It's an important thing. One of my favorite memories growing up I'd have to look back and say it was on Central Ave. and I was probably 12 years old. My dad had to take me up there on a Saturday because with seven kids in the family, you know, my mom would like to get rid of as many as she could. So, you know, I'd go up there, and we weren't using all the land. It probably wasn't even ours, but we had an old military Jeep that they used to move trailers with. And so on Saturday he'd say, well, go down, you can drive that around. So I'd spend the whole day driving this old Jeep around and, you know, probably a, I don't know, you know, half block square area. But I thought that was the greatest thing. And at 12 years old, driving with nobody around, it was the

8:03 best. I think one of my favorite memories from being around the business is it was just really fun to work with your dad and your brother and also to spend time with them. We'd go out to lunch together, meet together about where the business was going, and it was just a lot of fun to have that kind of quality time. Most people don't have that much time with their mother or dad, you know, and working day in and day out with them was a real treat from that aspect. I think when I was growing up, I can't say for sure that I knew I was going to work at Hilltop. I always enjoyed it. Like, you know, we'd all hang around, you know, it would be nice, like Jerry was saying, to be hanging around with your dad

8:49 and your brother. And so it was just a lot of fun and enjoyed the work and it just kind of evolved. I don't think that I was organized enough to be able to say that, but that's where I always worked and I always enjoyed it. And I'd say I didn't know for sure in the beginning I would work in the business. But with interruptions for military service and school and so forth, I always seemed to come back. And I think with encouragement from my dad, he just thought, hey, you know, it's really nice to work with blood. Why don't you know—why don't you come and help me? So I think that's how it started later on for me, probably in my 20s. My father was a real good mentor. I mean, an excellent mentor because he was very even- keeled. He didn't get excited, you know,

9:36 and he told you what he wanted, and you did it. But what I always remember about him is, you know, when Jerry and I started taking over the business more and we'd want to try something and he, you know. We were pretty young and inexperienced. We'd say, gee, we think this is a great idea. And he'd say, you know, you guys, I don't know that that's such a great idea, but if you want to try it, if you're really serious, you go ahead. So he let us do things that he knew was probably going to be a failure, but he let us learn on our own. And that was huge. So I would agree with that. I think my memories are, he would always put me with maybe a shop person to work with, and then on weekends try sales as you got a little bit

10:24 older. But we did probably everything in the beginning, sweeping, washing the units, doing service calls, everything. But he would always put us with somebody that he knew that, be it a driver or mechanic or another salesperson, to learn from. And he really didn't—I guess he taught by example. You listened to him, how he sold or how he treated people, and after so many times it sinks in.