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monsoon

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It sounds like Publix is poised to enter the Charlotte market. They are building a store just over the border in Tega Cay, SC. Various real estate experts are speculating that Charlotte is next. The good news is that the nearest distribution center is about 200 miles away in Lawerenceville, GA. So that means they would likely also build another warehouse in the Charlotte area (which means more jobs!). Time will tell, but this is definitely a positive sign towards getting a Publix (or 2 or 3) in the area.

http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2010/09/20/story1.html?b=1284955200^3955371

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It sounds like Publix is poised to enter the Charlotte market. They are building a store just over the border in Tega Cay, SC. Various real estate experts are speculating that Charlotte is next. The good news is that the nearest distribution center is about 200 miles away in Lawerenceville, GA. So that means they would likely also build another warehouse in the Charlotte area (which means more jobs!). Time will tell, but this is definitely a positive sign towards getting a Publix (or 2 or 3) in the area.

http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2010/09/20/story1.html?b=1284955200^3955371

Publix is one of the few things I miss about living in Florida.:)

One bit of advice for everyone: if you are on a diet, or are trying to lose weight, you might want to avoid Publix. The moment you open that door, the heavenly aroma of their bakery will knock you for a loop-lol

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I'm not trying to discount the opinions of those of you who like Publix, but I've been in several and....it's a grocery store. I really don't see the big deal. With that said...the big deal I DO see is that they will compete most directly with home-grown Harris Teeter. I would think people here would be more concerned with the success of a local company than whether or not they could go to bed at night knowing a Publix had opened near-by. Now, I don't think this is going to be any sort of real problem for HT...but why be excited about tempting fate?

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Now, I don't think this is going to be any sort of real problem for HT...

I don't know. HT has been concerned about publix since they began to move beyond Florida in the early 1990s. This led to an ill fated HT expansion into Atlanta and North Georgia which failed due to poor site selection and a hesitance to saturate Atlanta (which Publix did within 2 years). HT made its retreat from Georgia in the late 1990s and build a fortress around Charlotte in an effort to prevent Publix from moving beyond the range of its Georgia distribution center. If Publix can grab enough good sites in Charlotte they are a major threat to HT based on both service and price. Fear of Publix is why HT is so overstored in South Charlotte.

While I disagreed with the HT decision to leave Georgia at the time they did find some success with their expansion into Virginia and DC which would have been difficult if they did not abandon Georgia.

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At a time when grocery stores seem to be having difficulty combating supercenters (WalMart, Target specifically) is it really wise to introduce an upscale grocery chain to NC during a recession? Is Publix the kind of store that will mainly try to compete in the ur/suburban areas of the state or do they locate in smaller towns also (like Food Lion). I have a feeling if they do enter NC they will probably test the waters in Charlotte before heading towards Raleigh, but here they'd have to compete with Food Lion, Lowes Foods, Harris Teeter, Kroger, not including WalMart Supercenters and Super Targets. Doesn't Charlotte pretty much have the same grocery environment as the Triangle minus Kroger, plus BiLo with about a dozen more Harris Teeters thrown in?

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^ I don't think HT or Publix considers WalMart (or Target) to be direct competitors (Food Lion is battling WalMart). Publix so well financed they are unconcerned about the short-term effects of recession. Based on Publix recent behavior they will stick to the upscale portions of cities larger than 75,000 (or so). In Charlotte Publix will only compete with HT, Lowes and the 'healthy' places (Earth Fare, Fresh Market).

I think Publix would bypass Charlotte if they could (the HT battle will be very expensive) since the Triangle is a more attractive market (no single chain has a stranglehold on the high end market like HT does here). However, they may feel that fighting teeter on more than one front will increase their chances.

The only opportunities I see in the Charlotte grocery market is for in-town stores -- however I think Publix is even more biased to the suburban stripcenter model than HT.

The good news (unless you work for HT) is that HT prepared food prices are likely to be lower soon....

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With HT's successful northward march, I've always wondered if the HQ would seriously move from Matthews to Cary, so as to better serve its new geography of stores. Fairfax outside DC is now a northern division office. Charlotte (or Matthews) doubles as the southern division office. The Raleigh area has the central division office.

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They have a lot of ties to Charlotte, being founded here and being near parent company Ruddick so I doubt they would leave this region.

If Publix really tries to infiltrate this market something will have to give. There are simply too many grocery options out there today with Costco, BJ's, Sam's, Aldi, Fresh market, Trader Joes, BiLo WalMart, Target, Harris Teeter, Food Lion Lowes etc etc....

Bilo is probably still the weakest link in the local grocery wars. Aldi is going head to head with wal mart and food lion, they are expanding like crazy.

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  • 1 month later...

great news, and i'm glad something is going in that prime spot, but i really wish it were going into a neighborhood where it would help spur more development rather than just being another bonus to the residents. the Elizabeth plan was a lot more exciting in that regard.

Well hopefully one store will be the stepping stone to more.

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  • 3 weeks later...

When I went back home this past July to vist family in Buffalo, I needed to stop in Wegmans to pick up some cold cuts. I struck up a conversation with the store manager and asked him if they were looking at North Carlolina in their next expansion move. I told him I moved to Charlotte about 15 years ago and he stated that he had been here a few times and had some nice things to say about the city, he then started snickering, I asked what was so funny...He asked me if I shop at HT and I told him I do, he claims that they have HT on their radar screen but did not say when they planned on making any moves. Wegmans is a great store, I can only hope they commit in the next few years.....

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^Yep, HT is easily an acquisition target for other major grocers wanting to enter or expand in the "Upper Southeast" (DC-VA-NC) market. HT has stores in other states, but they have the most saturation in affluent sections of Charlotte, Raleigh, and Northern Virginia.

And ever since HT became Ruddick, I'd say there's a lot less Charlotte-based loyalty among the corporate decision-makers.

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I wonder if the coveted Wegman's will wage war on HT by expanding into NC and southern VA.

I would think they would need to build a distribution center before opening stores (thus signaling their intentions ahead of individual site selections).

Are they sufficiently capitalized to finance such an expansion?

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Out of curiousity I did a search of grocers in the NC metros. The following list is from a 411.com search and only includes locations with the city address--didn't go through trying to figure out which suburb is a suburb of which city and tried to weed out any that showed as results but were not actually a store. Please note that alot of these chains seem to be better located in the suburban towns vs the core city, but I didnt want to get all caught up in going through the endless list of suburbs:

HARRIS TEETER:

Charlotte: 29 Raleigh: 15 Greensboro: 13 Durham: 6 Winston Salem: 9 Wilmington: 10 Asheville: 1

FOOD LION:

Charlotte: 31 Raleigh: 23 Greensboro: 16 Durham: 15 Winston Salem: 15 Wilmington: 10 Asheville: 3

LOWES FOODS:

Charlotte: 4 Raleigh: 7 Greensboro: 4 Durham: 1 Winston Salem: 5 Wilmington: 6

KROGER:

Raleigh: 8 Durham: 7

BI LO:

Charlotte: 11

INGLES:

Asheville: 15

Edited by NCMike1981
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I am no expert on corporate takeovers / mergers but I'll make a couple of observations anyway.

1) It does not appear (to me) that Ruddick is looking to sell Teeter (mostly based on recent store expansions and a healthy stock price keeps shareholders happy)

2) While Wegman's is a private company some estimates of their financials are available (http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/40/40526.html) This shows there revenue to be about equal to that of Ruddick. Since Ruddick is a public company and its stock has performed well over the recent past I would think they have more options to acquire additional capital than Wegman's would

3) Some reports suggest that Wegmans is focused on expanding into New England rather than the South.http://rocnow.com/article/business/2009911040355 Its distribution network supports this expectation (it appears that they serve the DC area stores from a Pennsylvania center)

4) While not a huge deal there are some cultural barriers for a New York grocery chain operating in the South (which may make new Southern stores less profitable in the short term)

5) On the other hand, Publix sniffing around North Carolina may be making HT nervous and looking for a partner (but I would think the partner would need more cash than Wegman's appears to have). At aa glance it appears that Publix has more than 5 times the revenue of either Ruddick or Wegmans (http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/financials/financials.asp?ticker=PUSH:US) -- this may do more to scare Wegmans away from the NC market than anything else.

Like I said, I am clearly not an expert, but a Wegman's acquisition of HT looks like a long shot to me. I have been wrong many times before.....

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