Charlotte Supermarkets

[KJHburg]

My friend went to a new Lidl today in Greenville NC and she liked it. She mainly shops at Harris Teeter.  They opened 10 of their stores yesterday all over eastern NC and I think one in Winston.  The very competitive Charlotte market will be a huge showdown between Kroger owned Harris Teeter, Food Lion, Lidl, Aldi, Walmart, Whole Foods/Amazon, Earthfare, Trader Joes, and yes Sprouts coming to Ballantyne area. Not to mention small players BiLo which I think might be squeezed out of this market. 

[jednc]

3 hours ago, KJHburg said:

My friend went to a new Lidl today in Greenville NC and she liked it. She mainly shops at Harris Teeter.  They opened 10 of their stores yesterday all over eastern NC and I think one in Winston.  The very competitive Charlotte market will be a huge showdown between Kroger owned Harris Teeter, Food Lion, Lidl, Aldi, Walmart, Whole Foods/Amazon, Earthfare, Trader Joes, and yes Sprouts coming to Ballantyne area. Not to mention small players BiLo which I think might be squeezed out of this market. 

Lowe's Foods is still in this market as well with a store in Mooresville and one over in Harrisburg I think? I wish they had never left Huntersville personally.

[KJHburg]

31 minutes ago, jednc said:

Lowe's Foods is still in this market as well with a store in Mooresville and one over in Harrisburg I think? I wish they had never left Huntersville personally.

Lowes is in Mooresville and in Harrisburg still (Harris Teeter didnt want these stores because they had gas stations) and Ingles is in Gaston county. Now of course Kroger owned Harris Teeter is building gas stations as fast as they can. 

[jednc]

4 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

Lowes is in Mooresville and in Harrisburg still (Harris Teeter didnt want these stores because they had gas stations) and Ingles is in Gaston county. Now of course Kroger owned Harris Teeter is building gas stations as fast as they can. 

I forgot about Ingles in Dallas (maybe other locations I don't know about).

[KJHburg]

Ingles and Lowes are happy to play in the outer suburbs of Charlotte and when I am in western NC Ingles is my go to store. In my list above I forgot to mention Publix. Charlotte is one of the most competitive grocery markets in the country. Wegmans is looking around too. 

[Third Strike]

8 hours ago, CLT2014 said:

Amazon will now have a backdoor to execute a hybrid model of physical grocery stores and rapid home delivery from stores in wealthy areas of large metro areas. It will certainly disrupt the market. I am curious if they will bring Whole Foods prices down though to compete with Lidl or Aldi, or if they will go for the convenience / quality combination to justify keeping the price premium. At current Whole Foods pricing, it will always be a niche for more affluent shoppers and Walmarts / Aldi / etc... for the majority of the population. 

This could open the door for AmazonFresh to the entire city of Charlotte. Not to mention every other major city in America. Online grocery shopping has been a thing for awhile, but this could propel it into the mainstream. And there's an article that speaks about how this acquisition could lead to lower prices at Whole Foods:

Amazon buying Whole Foods in bold move into brick and mortar

[Matthew.Brendan]

https://stratechery.com/2017/amazons-new-customer/

[LKN704]

I will say that the Lowes store in Mooresville is pretty cool/unique. While the service is on par with Harris Teeter (but lower than Publix) and their stores aren't as clean/bright as Publix, they have some pretty cool features like a wine/beer bar, in-store smokehouse and sausage factory, a coffee/chocolate bar, a cut-your-own herbs station, a cherry tomato bar, and a really, really nice in-store bakery and cake shop.

I think they have the best selection of Vegan/Vegetarian foods (tofu, vegan cheese, meat analogues) of any grocery store in town, sans Whole Foods/Earth Fare.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again, but with Publix/Whole Foods/Sprouts expanding here, and Harris Teeter making improvements, I wonder if Food Lion regrets closing the Bloom banner. I hate Food Lion with a passion. The one near my house just isn't well stocked, and is dark and dingy. The produce is sad too, and they don't have a good selection of vegan/vegetarian foods. In my Food Lion, I HATE how you have to enter into that separate, closed off refrigerated area to pick up produce-it honestly reminds me of C-TOWN in NYC or the Cross-Island Food Market in Long Island. I avoid the Sh*tty Kitty at all costs. I'll only go in if I need to pick up one item, like a bunch of bananas.

Even if Bloom was essentially the same, their stores were brighter, cleaner, and had a decent selection of natural food items as a reasonable price.

Edited June 22, 2017 by LKN704

[tozmervo]

Food Lion still wipes the floor with HT and Publix on prices, which will keep them my primary grocery store. Did your location get one of the recent renovations?

[nonillogical]

I grew up in Cary/Apex, where Food Lions are barely a step down from HT and Lowes and on par with Kroger. It was always our primary grocery store. I always thought people must be stuck up here for them to be so reviled, until I went in the one on Park Rd. like 8 years ago. Even though its a very nice area, it was just as LKN704 said; dark, dingy and poorly stocked. Then it changed to Bloom and was very nice. Then changed back to Food Lion and they went to the trouble of removing all the improvements and making it crappy again. 

[LKN704]

4 hours ago, tozmervo said:

Food Lion still wipes the floor with HT and Publix on prices, which will keep them my primary grocery store. Did your location get one of the recent renovations?

No-the only change they made like I said was separating the produce department into a chilled boxed in room that is separate from the rest of the store, and adding new paint and wall finishing.

Honestly, I have tried shopping at Food Lion and have compared my receipts at FL vs. Publix vs. HT vs. Lowes. For what I buy, they are really equally the same price. Publix was actually the cheapest, FL and Lowes together had identical pricing and came out as being the second cheapest and HT was the most expensive.

[videtur quam contuor]

Several years ago I went to ALdi and filled the pantry with staples, canned goods, flour butter and so on. No frivolous impetuous purchases just straight from my list. I then took my list that included items not available at ALdi to HT. As I was completing my list I also checked the LOWEST possible price for each of the items bought at ALdi. Using the store brand/on sale/discount price I calculated that HT was 40% higher price, overall, for same item/size/wt. This is for commodity foods. If one accepts that canned beans are equal and frozen wild caught salmon are equal that is an impressive saving. It does require a second shopping trip and the convenience/assistance/location/selection issues have value, but 40%?

[CLT2014]

50 minutes ago, tarhoosier said:

 If one accepts that canned beans are equal and frozen wild caught salmon are equal that is an impressive saving. It does require a second shopping trip and the convenience/assistance/location/selection issues have value, but 40%?

Aldi's frozen wild caught salmon isn't equal to HT. You'll see on the back of the bag "Wild Caught in USA, Processed in China, Product of China." This fish is Grade B or below salmon geared towards price sensitive supermarkets (Aldi, Walmart, etc...). The fish is caught wild and brought to US shores frozen. They thaw and sort the fish and the Grade A fish stays on US soil and is sent either fresh on ice beds or re-frozen to restaurants and higher end supermarkets. The lower quality fish is sent to China where it is 75% cheaper to de-bone the fish, so it is loaded back on an ice bed. It is then packaged and sealed at the production floor in China, making it a "Product of China." They then deep freeze it and ship it back to the USA.

The HT Fisherman's Market frozen wild sockeye salmon is "Product of USA" and was not shipped to China for de-boning and packaging, hence the higher price point. If you don't care where your fish is de-boned and packaged though, the Aldi salmon is indeed cheaper. Just not 100% apples to apples. 

Edited June 22, 2017 by CLT2014

[jednc]

On 6/22/2017 at 1:23 PM, CLT2014 said:

Aldi's frozen wild caught salmon isn't equal to HT. You'll see on the back of the bag "Wild Caught in USA, Processed in China, Product of China." This fish is Grade B or below salmon geared towards price sensitive supermarkets (Aldi, Walmart, etc...). The fish is caught wild and brought to US shores frozen. They thaw and sort the fish and the Grade A fish stays on US soil and is sent either fresh on ice beds or re-frozen to restaurants and higher end supermarkets. The lower quality fish is sent to China where it is 75% cheaper to de-bone the fish, so it is loaded back on an ice bed. It is then packaged and sealed at the production floor in China, making it a "Product of China." They then deep freeze it and ship it back to the USA.

The HT Fisherman's Market frozen wild sockeye salmon is "Product of USA" and was not shipped to China for de-boning and packaging, hence the higher price point. If you don't care where your fish is de-boned and packaged though, the Aldi salmon is indeed cheaper. Just not 100% apples to apples. 

I say just stop eating salmon...Yuck!

[KJHburg]

I went by the new Teeter at Sedgefield today. My opinion much nicer store and layout than the Publix up the street.  Liked all the bar buffets, the actual wine bar had lots of customers around 1 pm and the general layout and brightness of the store. Really nice and I will make a point of eating there in the future. 

[KJHburg]

New Earthfare opens near Concord Mills and this is their new prototype store. http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2017/06/28/photos-earth-fare-unveils-new-store-prototype-in.html

[KJHburg]

It is really war in the supermarket industry Harris Teeter owner Kroger is suing Lidl the new German chain coming to Charlotte (already in NC with some opened stores) for trademark infringement. http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2017/07/05/kroger-sues-lidl-for-trademark-infringement.html   This is going to be a food fight literally and figuratively 

[kermit]

Any gossip on a prospective site for Sprouts?

[KJHburg]

24 minutes ago, kermit said:

Any gossip on a prospective site for Sprouts?

Sprouts is supposed to be going in at Colinayre which is just south of Publix on 521 south of Ballantyne. The rest of the development is in full swing but a vacant pad site sits in the middle. There is a hotel Holiday Inn Express and Bank of NC building being built now. 

[kermit]

On 7/12/2017 at 5:19 PM, KJHburg said:

Sprouts is supposed to be going in at Colinayre which is just south of Publix on 521 south of Ballantyne. The rest of the development is in full swing but a vacant pad site sits in the middle. There is a hotel Holiday Inn Express and Bank of NC building being built now. 

any chance of Sprouts buying Healthy Home? I would think their Davidson and PM stores would be a good fit for them in terms of size and location.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2017/08/17/healthy-home-market-exec-on-whats-driving-grocer.html?ana=e_du_prem

Edited August 17, 2017 by kermit

[KJHburg]

that would be a great way to instantly build up Sprouts in the market not sure if that is in their past. They have a store opened in Raleigh one opening in Fayetteville already 

[kermit]

I am getting a feeling that HT produce quality has declined slightly in the Kroger era. Lots more OOS and kinda limp and brown peppers, okra and celery. Its certainly not anywhere near Food Lion quality but HT was such a gold standard before I am sorta bummed.

[kermit]

While the new South blvd Teeter does have its flaws (e.g. the parking lot) they  did get a couple of things right. First, the checkout at the South blvd exit (on the deli side of the store) has always been staffed and ready to go. Second the bike parking is good (not great, but far better than the Publix), there is a nice sheltered rack on the Sedgefield side of the store and another well located one towards the South blvd corner near the main entrance. The only flaw is that there is no rack on the South blvd side (near the neighborhood exit / Starbucks) -- several people had locked theirs up to the banister of one of the stairways.

As much as I hate on it, the parking lot does appear to be appropriately sized for the store, so that means its gonna get crowded when the outparcels open. On the plus side, parking problems at the East blvd Teeter appear to be resolved by the expanded lot and the new store. Honestly the lot extension on east feels like it is overkill now that the Sedgefield store has opened.

While I give them props for the side entrance the store does not feel particularly pedestrian friendly. The entrances are a bit of a hoof from the crosswalk and South is at its most car sewerish there -- you really gotta want to walk over to Colonial Reserve. Hopefully it will be more pleasant when the weather gets cooler.

The store is certainly more crowded than it was a month ago, but I am still POed that you can't get a beer at the bar and take it with you shopping.

EDIT: Passed by a Lidl under construction in Shelby (74 "by-pass") yesterday. It had a very nice steel two story-sail entryway design. It looked impressive for Shelby and even more impressive for a discount grocer. I hope they continue to build decent stuff here.

 

 

Edited August 23, 2017 by kermit

[go_vertical]

Speaking of Lidl, what is the hold up there? The lot is getting a healthy lawn now.

[CLT2014]

27 minutes ago, go_vertical said:

Speaking of Lidl, what is the hold up there? The lot is getting a healthy lawn now.

The property is a brownfield site with contamination. Likely several loopholes Lidl has to jump through as they re-mediate the site and get approval from the state to build. 

Edited August 23, 2017 by CLT2014