Charlotte Supermarkets

[videtur quam contuor]

I enjoy waiting for the banal conversation starter from the Trader Joe cashier. It is like the contestant discussions on Jeopardy(!). Vapid and forgettable. "Oooh, your choice of instant ramen is my favorite."

[kermit]

^ I agree. I was left cold after my first couple of visits to Wegmans. Unless you are shopping for prepared food (which did look pretty good) their aggressive store branding left me feeling like the massive store lacked selection.  Wegmans is a solid meh from me as well.

[videtur quam contuor]

delete. repeat

Edited March 16, 2022 by tarhoosier

[LKN704]

5 hours ago, tarhoosier said:

I enjoy waiting for the banal conversation starter from the Trader Joe cashier. It is like the contestant discussions on Jeopardy(!). Vapid and forgettable. "Oooh, your choice of instant ramen is my favorite."

I've never had a problem with TJs in Charlotte, but the cashiers at the one near me in DC are intrusive...basically subjecting you to a security interview every time you check out. It's exactly the reason why I avoid going there for grocery shopping, although I do stop in to buy wine as I like their selection and pricing. I live a 5 minute walking from one, but I gladly walk an extra 7 minutes or so to go to Safeway instead. 

I actually just came back from TJs..I stopped in to buy wine and also happened to get a couple of pantry staples I needed...I only had maybe 6 things total so the scanning process didn't take long.  The cashier's line of questioning went as followed:

We have a late August Virgo boy! (After seeing my ID for the wine) Are you from DC? No? Where are you original from? Let me guess, NY? What city? How long have you lived here? Oh you are buying a lot of canned tomatoes and pasta, are you having a pasta party at your place? When's the party? How far do you have to walk to get home? 

I don't smoke cigarettes, don't condone smoking cigarettes, but boy did I want a cigarette after that rapid fire line of questioning (I went home and opened the wine instead). 

I totally get that they want their cashiers to seem friendly and down to earth, but the questioning is intrusive and borderline inappropriate IMO. 

[KJHburg]

To each his own on grocery stores.  I dont like Aldi's and Lidls and think really like Whole Foods but do like Harris Teeter and Wegmans.  Just up in Raleigh and took my cousin over there as she just moved to the area.  She loved it.  I personally like the huge in store dining area and variety of prepared foods at reasonable prices.  Sure they have lots of Wegmans brands, So does Teeter. So does Walmart.  Competition makes the world go around and is good for all stores in the market.  I am not not from upstate NY and never went into a Wegmans until I was an adult first in the Philly suburbs, then in DC and Richmond suburbs.    Still firmly think Wegmans will be in this market sooner rather than later due to our demographics and their 4 opened stores in the Triangle are all doing well. 

I find the Charlotte Trader Joes extremely crowded and it sometimes hard to find something unless you shop the store regularly.  

[Cadi40]

Charlotte could benefit from about 2-5 more Trader Joes locations. I still find it shocking that a city of our side has only 3 (I think?) 

Edited March 18, 2022 by Cadi40

[LKN704]

43 minutes ago, Cadi40 said:

Charlotte could benefit from about 2-5 more Trader Joes locations. I still find it shocking that a city of our side has only 3 (I think?) 

I've often wondered this myself, but other cities really don't have that many either. Atlanta only has two within the 285 beltway. Charlotte has three within essentially the same geographic area. 

I don't know for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if Trader Joes was slower to expand into the South because of more restrictive laws regarding the sale of alcohol. I know Trader Joes was slow to expand in New York State outside of the city due to their ban on grocery stores selling wine and their attempts to finagle around the wine ban. I don't have the specific statistics in front of me, but I recall reading that wine sales make up a specific percentage of each store's profit. Obviously this isn't the case for Charlotte as grocery stores in NC can legally sell wine. 

There are large swaths of people in Charlotte I have encountered that have either never heard or never been to Trader Joes either, and remember the company doesn't advertise in traditional marketing mediums. 

Another thing I can think of is that in the Northeast, for example, grocery stores generally suck. Trader Joes is like an oasis in the city compared to a rat infested bodega. Even outside NYC, grocery stores were always kinda nasty and old. Growing up in Albany we had Price Chopper (which my mom for some reason thought was gross) or Hannaford (a Maine company that is now owned by Food Lion, or as my parents call it, the Sh*tty Kitty). That's it. My mother would frequently drag the whole family on day trips in the early 2000s to the Boston suburbs (that was the closest Trader Joes to Albany at the time) just to get her Trader Joes fix. 

Harris Teeter and Lowes Foods are so much nicer and put together than any other option we had in NY, so I guess the competition in Charlotte is a little more challenging.  

I've also noticed that some of their locations in the Northeast/West Coast tend to be larger than ones in the South...some in those regions are almost as large as a conventional grocery store. 

 

[InSouthPark]

You find it hard to find things in a 25k sf Trader Joes but are OK with 125k sf Wegmans?   It takes longer to walk to the milk aisle in the back than it does to walk the entire Trader Joes store, check out and get back to the car.

 

[KJHburg]

1 hour ago, InSouthPark said:

You find it hard to find things in a 25k sf Trader Joes but are OK with 125k sf Wegmans?   It takes longer to walk to the milk aisle in the back than it does to walk the entire Trader Joes store, check out and get back to the car.

 

It is the way they organize things in Trader Joes they put sea salt brownie minis over the frozen food area.  It is just the way they cram things in their stores.  At wegmans and any other bigger store they let you know what is on the aisle and there are not many surprises.  Plus 1/3 of a Wegmans or more is prepared foods and seating for the dining area. 

[kermit]

The bird app says that Wegmans is going into DeDe's hole (Park and Gleneagles)

(shrug)

Edited April 7, 2022 by kermit

[KJHburg]

14 minutes ago, kermit said:

The bird app says that Wegmans is going into DeDe's hole (Park and Gleneagles)

(shrug)

I sure hope this is true for lots of reasons.  they will need the big hole for an underground parking deck. 

[Madison Parkitect]

I'm just glad something is going to (maybe) fill Dee-Dee's hole.

[DonkeyKong]

If true this will create a traffic nightmare.

[davidclt]

1 hour ago, DonkeyKong said:

If true this will create a traffic nightmare.

They should retrofit the intersection of Park/Gleneagles/SRW with a roundabout and let G*d sort it out (that's not in blue type!)

[InSouthPark]

15 hours ago, kermit said:

The bird app says that Wegmans is going into DeDe's hole (Park and Gleneagles)

(shrug)

Where are you seeing that at?  Couldn't find anything on the tweeters...

Geographically and demographically it makes sense.   Can't wait to shop here in 15 years when it gets built out!

[kermit]

1 hour ago, InSouthPark said:

Where are you seeing that at?  Couldn't find anything on the tweeters...

Geographically and demographically it makes sense.   Can't wait to shop here in 15 years when it gets built out!

My apologies for not screenshooting, I usually do. A significant amount of searching in my timeline revealed nothing (search terms of “teeter, quail, wegmans” revealed a bunch about quail egg availability and the January snowstorm but little else). It was from dude I did not recognize, the vibe of the post was ‘neighborhood rumor mill’, nothing substantive to support the statement. I only took notice because it seemed like a plausible use for the site and the timing makes sense.

Edit: here is the screenshot thanks to KJHburg’s eagle eye! (and the full tweet did not end up in his post)

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by kermit

[KJHburg]

21 minutes ago, kermit said:

My apologies for not screenshooting, I usually do. A significant amount of searching in my timeline revealed nothing (search terms of “teeter, quail, wegmans” revealed a bunch about quail egg availability and the January snowstorm but little else). It was from dude I did not recognize, the vibe of the post was ‘neighborhood rumor mill’, nothing substantive to support the statement. I only took notice because it seemed like a plausible use for the site and the timing makes sense.

I saw the tweet found it on my Bring Wegmans to Charlotte facebook group.  Basically does not say where he heard it  he says in his tweeter profile that he tweets about beer in Charlotte a lot. 

The location is good for sure but I think a better first store location is the retail site that the Ballantyne Reimagined has on N Community House Road.  However maybe Dee Dee Harris is willing to make a deal as she has owned that land for decades.    Someone on the group said they had worked on store site up in Huntersville too.  Their current hang up is their new distribution center outside of Richmond has been delayed by years from opposition, then construction delays etc but it is finally under way.  They even paused their 5th Raleigh area store by a year or two so they can get this DC up and running. 

 

Matt McKenzie

 

@Matt_McKenzie1

 

If this is indeed where the Wegman’s is going as is rumored, Quail Hollow and the surrounding neighborhoods (Cameron Wood, etc.) are abt to get a big boost-not that they need it. Will also be interesting competition w/ the HT at Quail Corners across the street.

[InSouthPark]

Matt has written for some of the local publications in town so he has some connections.  

[KJHburg]

The genius of the DD Hole site is that is probably the closest in location a Wegmans could get.  So it would serve the Southpark area as well as the areas south which are all very affluent.  Wegmans has big stores averaging 100K sq ft and you can't plop these suckers down just anywhere.  I do think they are looking for sites now and plan store openings in 3-4 years which is what it took in the Raleigh market. I see Charlotte as a 4 store minimum market for Wegmans when they choose to enter this market.  

Edited April 11, 2022 by KJHburg

[KJHburg]

story on the new Super G international supermarket in Pineville.  at 108,000 sq ft it is the size of a Wegmans. 

https://charlotte.axios.com/294082/massive-new-super-g-mart-to-open-in-pineville-this-summer/

and this is right by one of my favorite greenways in Charlotte the LSCG with the Marsh Park in the Centrum shopping center off I-485 at Hwy 51. 

[CLT>]

On 4/8/2022 at 11:59 AM, KJHburg said:

 

 

If this is indeed where the Wegman’s is going as is rumored, Quail Hollow and the surrounding neighborhoods (Cameron Wood, etc.) are abt to get a big boost-not that they need it. Will also be interesting competition w/ the HT at Quail Corners across the street.

That QC HT is  already doing a major renovation, expanding their Prepared foods area...

[KJHburg]

Competition is good for the Charlotte market.  Wegmans entry to the market will cause others to improve their stores.  And Wegmans is big in prepared foods as their in store dining area is the size of many restaurants.  

[CLT2014]

I'm so excited for the huge Super G!

[KJHburg]

and a new Publix so says Axios by Cresswind an age restricted community in east Charlotte.  this one would be at Hwy 24/27 and Lower Rocky River Rd near the Mint Hill Novant hospital. 

[704Dimitri]