394 replies to this topic

[mediamongrel]

cantnot, on Nov 8 2006, 11:12 PM, said:

Thanks for those images mediamongrel.

If anyone's interested, here is a pic of that shopping center's enterance in its heyday.  This is from the River Hills Plantation's website history section, and I believe the pic was taken around 1979. They said the store was there til the mid 90s when it moved to Steele Creek and Hwy 49.

Makes you wonder why they closed it if they are now going to open it up again not a mile from there at The Palisades.

[DigitalSky]

If anyone's interested - heres a pic of the new HT @ Cotswold



You can see the old pic and a before & after comparison on my blog (link below)

[A2]

Article about Trader Joe's in UC in the Charlotte O today:

http://www.charlotte...te/16050729.htm

A2

[bigboxstore]

There is a story today (in the Union Observer) about a petition to get Lowes Foods to go into the former Winn-Dixie space at Potters Square in Stallings.  The petition is located at Crossroads Grill in Potters Square.

http://www.charlotte...te/16050772.htm

Edited by bigboxstore, 19 November 2006 - 05:05 PM.

[atownrocks]

I heard recently that Harris Teeter is planning to build a new store in Indian Trail. It's supposed to be at the corner at Secrest Shortcut and Unionville-Indian Trail Rd. Does anyone have any information about this?

[mediamongrel]

atownrocks, on Nov 19 2006, 08:14 PM, said:

I heard recently that Harris Teeter is planning to build a new store in Indian Trail. It's supposed to be at the corner at Secrest Shortcut and Unionville-Indian Trail Rd. Does anyone have any information about this?

I don't have any info. on this, but I think it's "old" news that HT wants to build stores anywhere south of 485.  I mean they already have a monopoly (45+ stores in Meck county) so it shouldn't be surprising that they are planning yet another one.  They will be pretty dissapointed though in 25 years when another grocer is in Charlotte and competition takes hold of the city.  HT will be left with 4 or 5 dozen understaffed stores that do average business, rather than 20 fully staffed stores that do killer business.  It will take time, but eventually there will be competition for HT.  Relatively speaking, they are a smaller size grocer.  Look at the amount of stores Kroger, Publix, and Piggly Wiggly have in comparison to HT's ~200 or so stores.

[mediamongrel]

bigboxstore, on Nov 19 2006, 07:04 PM, said:

There is a story today (in the Union Observer) about a petition to get Lowes Foods to go into the former Winn-Dixie space at Potters Square in Stallings.  The petition is located at Crossroads Grill in Potters Square.

http://www.charlotte...te/16050772.htm

This article is interesting as they seem to be anti HT...they say the closest grocer is the Food Lion, but the Plantation Market HT is less than two miles from the Crossroads Grill.  No doubt they dont want to pay HTs prices if they were used to Winn Dixie.  Why don't they petition for Go Grocery or another Food Lion instead of Lowe's?

[DigitalSky]

All I Can say is that what happens at Potter Square will be interesting.  I initally thought Food Lion would move in, since the demos are fitting, but that didn't occur...then hearing about Lowes' interest.... I believe that Lowes didn't want the store for 2 reasons... demographics/income and store size.... their new "Freshsmart" stores are avg 48k square feet (like all the new HTs).  

As far as HT locations south of I-485.. I don't know, based on sales at their Sun Valley location, how much HT will invest in new stores in the Monroe area.  There's the possibility of the Unionville-Indian Trail & Secrest Shortcut store as well as one at Rocky River Rd and Hwy 84 Weddington Rd (in the future)....  Now, the Weddington/Waxhaw area is a different story.

[bigboxstore]

Food Lion is less than 2 miles from Potter Square.  I realize the demographics wouldn't fit for Lowes in the immediate area, but if you took it in a 2 mile radius of Potter Square, then Lowes Foods would have a lot of potential customers.

mediamongrel, on Nov 19 2006, 10:11 PM, said:

This article is interesting as they seem to be anti HT...they say the closest grocer is the Food Lion, but the Plantation Market HT is less than two miles from the Crossroads Grill.  No doubt they dont want to pay HTs prices if they were used to Winn Dixie.  Why don't they petition for Go Grocery or another Food Lion instead of Lowe's?

I don't see them putting two Food Lions that close together

[DigitalSky]

you do make some good points, bigboxstore.  Welcome to Urban Planet.

[mediamongrel]

bigboxstore, on Nov 20 2006, 07:45 PM, said:

Food Lion is less than 2 miles from Potter Square.  I realize the demographics wouldn't fit for Lowes in the immediate area, but if you took it in a 2 mile radius of Potter Square, then Lowes Foods would have a lot of potential customers.
I don't see them putting two Food Lions that close together

At least that scenario would involve more competition.  That way, you would have a Lowe's Foods, Food Lion, and Harris Teeter (2 in 2008), and a Super Bi-Lo (Plantation Market), all within 3 miles!!!  WOW, talk about that area suddenly exploding.

[monsoon]

I went into the recently remodeled Bilo on Gilead Rd. in Huntersville.  This is a fairly affluent area and it currently surrounded by a lot of new construction for new retail.    

This Bilo is a relatively new store and when it opened it was one of the top of the line stores with such things as a sushi bar, florest, bakery, sit down restaurant, etc etc.   I noted before a couple of months ago they were in the process of doing a lot of construction work in this place.  

Surprisingly the purpose of the remodeling was to remove much of the above and turn it back into something closer to a traditional grocery store.   Gone is the eating area, florest, sushi, most of the hot food service, the produce area is 1/2 the size it was before, the health food/organic section is gone as is high end cheeses, and similar items.  It's been replace by a more traditional meat counter, there are some baked goods, and there are a lot of shelves where there used to be junk like flower pots, yard art, etc.   The only new thing seems to be a revamped pharmacy.

Maybe Bilo, at least this Bilo, has decided its not going to try and compete in the higher end market with HT, Lowes, and even in some cases Foodlion/Bloome.   Sadly this store while being a nice change for what as become the ordinary in Charlotte still suffers from bad management as the store is filthy and the service is still bad.   If they are going to go back to the basics to revive sales, they ought to start with this first.

[DigitalSky]

I think this particular Bi-Lo store you speak of is trying to sabatoge itself.  First of all, it's located RIGHT NEXT to a Harris Teeter (Which came first though, the HT or the Bi-Lo)... and now they're becoming dumpier.  If it contiunes, its fate may be the same as the former Bi-Lo on Catawba Avenue in Cornelius.

[mediamongrel]

Personally, I can do without Sushi bars, sit down areas, and expanded florists in grocery stores.  The reasons being, I go to local authentic Japanese restaurants for good Sushi, if I want to relax and talk with friends I don't go to the grocery store to do it, and third I order 99.9% of flowers I purchase online.  Maybe this is the exception, but I still think traditional supermarket setups from the 60's-70's were a lot more laid back than the ones you see these days where they slam you with so many displays, coffee shops, and other items right at the entrance that you can't even enter a store without being overwhelmed.

[DigitalSky]

mediamongrel, on Nov 25 2006, 02:10 AM, said:

Personally, I can do without Sushi bars, sit down areas, and expanded florists in grocery stores.  The reasons being, I go to local authentic Japanese restaurants for good Sushi, if I want to relax and talk with friends I don't go to the grocery store to do it, and third I order 99.9% of flowers I purchase online.  Maybe this is the exception, but I still think traditional supermarket setups from the 60's-70's were a lot more laid back than the ones you see these days where they slam you with so many displays, coffee shops, and other items right at the entrance that you can't even enter a store without being overwhelmed.

haha yeah go  visit the new HT in Greensboro.  If you look up overwhelmed in the dictionary, you will see a picture of this store's entrance

[mediamongrel]

cantnot, on Nov 25 2006, 03:13 AM, said:

haha yeah go  visit the new HT in Greensboro.  If you look up overwhelmed in the dictionary, you will see a picture of this store's entrance

Haven't been there yet or heard of that one.  Do you happen to know which road it is on?

[mediamongrel]

Speaking of Greensboro, there used to be a local seafood/meat place down in the center of town near the south end out near Randleman Rd. but I can't remember the name of it for the life of me.  All I know is that it was like the old days where you would walk up to the counter and a butcher (not a teenager) would slice your meat or pack up your seafood.  I do not know if it is still there now though, because last time I went there was in 1999.

[monsoon]

mediamongrel, on Nov 25 2006, 02:10 AM, said:

Personally, I can do without Sushi bars, sit down areas, and expanded florists in grocery stores.  The reasons being, I go to local authentic Japanese restaurants for good Sushi, if I want to relax and talk with friends I don't go to the grocery store to do it, and third I order 99.9% of flowers I purchase online.  .....

Indeed.  That very location has two Japanese restaurants.  A very Americanized one called Yoshi's grill, and a very authentic one called Sekisui.   Both sell sushi as well as the HT that was mentioned above.

[JerseyBoy]

mediamongrel, on Nov 25 2006, 02:49 PM, said:

Haven't been there yet or heard of that one.  Do you happen to know which road it is on?

It's in Friendly Shopping Center off of Friendly Avenue.

[mediamongrel]

The Harris Teeter at Gaston Mall has no real economic value to keep it open.  Sales have not climbed over the years, and HT corp. is trying to stray away from stores outside the corridor.  Hence the closing of Kings Mountain, Taylorsville, one store in Boone, and Winthrop.  I think a Bi-Lo or Food Lion would serve that community much better.  Don't forget, there's still one other HT in Gastonia anyway.  It's not like there wont be one anymore.  The other HT is busier anyway.