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Charlotte Supermarkets


monsoon

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On the WalMart vs HT comparison, I have noted in talking with my neighbors here that they will go to WalMart once a month and stock up on canned, packaged, and frozen products. But for fresh items they will go to the Lowes Foods or Harris Teeter store due to selection and quality concerns, even though they do note there is a price difference.

I wonder if WalMart's grocery sales mix vs full service supermarkets (HT, Lowes, Bi-Lo, Bloom, etc.) would show if that's a widespread concept? :dontknow:

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Some specialty items are the same though. Take packaged luncheon meat, or what's the difference if you get a bag of potatoes from HT or Wal Mart...there still just bagged potatoes. Bagged salad from HT or Wal Mart are the same quality. Dairy produts are the same quality. I have seen out of date products on the shelf at HT and at Wal Mart. I think fresh produce and sliced/fresh meat are the two biggest things that people might go to a upper class supermarket to purchase. The breads that these supermarket chains pass off as fresh are a joke. Most of it is shipped in frozen, then baked at store level. How can they advertise that as fresh baked bread? For that you have to go to Nova's or somewhere like that.

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^I have to agree. The "fresh" produce at Harris Teeter is often old by the time they get it into the store and it is very expensive to boot. I give them a C in this department only because they are cleaner than most. No chain grocer in Charlotte really does a good job in this area because they all, for the most part, have taken to buying stuff from factory farms and don't put any preference on getting stuff locally if they could.

Walmart does have significantly lower prices than Harris Teeter and they also don't require the use of a tracking card to get those prices. Harris Teeter and others that have these cards (VIC, Bonus, etc) require you to sign an agreement that allows them to sell your purchase lists to marketeers (or anyone else who wants to know) so they can direct market junk mail to you.

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Harris Teeter and others that have these cards (VIC, Bonus, etc) require you to sign an agreement that allows them to sell your purchase lists to marketeers (or anyone else who wants to know) so they can direct market junk mail to you.

Yes, funny you mention that. I often wonder, if all chain supermarkets (HT, Lowes, Food Lion, Bi-Lo) have these special cards you have to get, then why don't all four chains just dispense with them at the same time and give the deals to everybody. It really isn't helping the supermarket anyways because the cashier will believe any BS story you give them about forgetting or losing your card and will just scan their own for you. Supermarket shopping was so much easier back before cards. You'd go to the store, say, "Hey look, it's on sale" you'd buy it at the sale price, and that was the end of the story!

(of course I suppose then you couldn't get a free cheap as* beach chair after spending over $600 in groceries)

Edited by mediamongrel
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Bloom, even though owned by Food Lion, doesn't require a Loyalty Card.

That's because they track everything you purchase once you logon to use the hand held scanner. When you signup you also agree to let them sell this information. It's and even worse situation if you ask me.

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That's because they track everything you purchase once you logon to use the hand held scanner. When you signup you also agree to let them sell this information. It's and even worse situation if you ask me.

You are not required to use the hand held scanner. When I lived in University we would typically head over to the Bloom to buy our groceries and I never once touched one of those scanners.

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You are not required to use the hand held scanner. When I lived in University we would typically head over to the Bloom to buy our groceries and I never once touched one of those scanners.

Understood, but that is the entire premise of that concept. They get so many people that do, they don't need to issue tracking cards.

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Does anyone have information on the progress of the 2 Super Bi-Lo's that were in the process of being constructed? I know they were both within 25 miles of Charlotte (one in Matthews near Union County, and one in Rock Hill near the old mall)

Drove by the Matthews Bi-Lo site, they have not started constructing the structure yet.

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Yes, another reason the theory is messed up, is because the store at Rt. 51 and Lawyers Rd. does the least business than any HT, but they keep that one open because there is a Lowe's Foods about 1000 ft. from it.

This Harris Teeter store which I was referring to in October has now closed quietly as of April 3rd, which leaves this plaza in Mint Hill almost totally empty now.

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yes there is, but that was supposedly the "replacement" store for both the Eastland Mall location and the Independence Boulevard Location.

East side HT business isn't that good these days. Though its killer in South Charlotte (Matthews, Ballantyne, South Park) Go figure. 25 years ago the east side HT was the busiest part like Eastland, Central Ave, and the old HT on Albemarle near the Blue Wave car wash which is now an Auto Zone or something.

Edited by mediamongrel
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Well now that the most underperforming HT in the chain has closed, what is the 2nd most underperfoming? BTW, I've chronicled the story of the Mint Hill grocers in my blog

I'll have to check on the exact numbers, but my guess (for the Charlotte area) is the Monroe store. However, in North Carolina the Shelby store and the Hendersonville store are fairly low volume. Keep in mind that I am not including the HT express store at Providence/Queens because for the size of that store in proportion to sales, it actually does a good amount of business.

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I'll have to check on the exact numbers, but my guess (for the Charlotte area) is the Monroe store. However, in North Carolina the Shelby store and the Hendersonville store are fairly low volume. Keep in mind that I am not including the HT express store at Providence/Queens because for the size of that store in proportion to sales, it actually does a good amount of business.

Interesting, condsidering the Hendersonville Store wants to build a larger store in the former Bi-Lo across the street.

http://www.hendersonvillenews.com/apps/pbc...00327/1042/NEWS

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I know this is going to sound like one of those "I know a guy who knows a guy who said" kind of things...

I was at a Super Wal-Mart with my dad today. He chatted up a guy who was working in the grocery side I think giving away samples (I was on the other side of the store for this entire conversation).

The guy is retired from Publix and has moved to NC...guess the Wal-Mart gig is just something part time to pass the time. Anyway, he told my dad that Publix had just secured some sort of license for business in NC. Now, my dad doesn't live in Charlotte and he doesn't care one way or the other if Publix comes here or not. But, he is familiar with the company, so I know he understood what the guy was saying.

With that said...I don't know if they are planning to construct immediately...and I don't know where. They could be entering NC in Wilmington, Asheville, The Triangle, The Triad...or it could be here in Charlotte. I wasn't there to ask any questions or to even verify any of this info.

So, bottom line...take it for what it's worth. :dontknow:

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I know this is going to sound like one of those "I know a guy who knows a guy who said" kind of things...

I was at a Super Wal-Mart with my dad today. He chatted up a guy who was working in the grocery side I think giving away samples (I was on the other side of the store for this entire conversation).

The guy is retired from Publix and has moved to NC...guess the Wal-Mart gig is just something part time to pass the time. Anyway, he told my dad that Publix had just secured some sort of license for business in NC. Now, my dad doesn't live in Charlotte and he doesn't care one way or the other if Publix comes here or not. But, he is familiar with the company, so I know he understood what the guy was saying.

With that said...I don't know if they are planning to construct immediately...and I don't know where. They could be entering NC in Wilmington, Asheville, The Triangle, The Triad...or it could be here in Charlotte. I wasn't there to ask any questions or to even verify any of this info.

So, bottom line...take it for what it's worth. :dontknow:

That is so interesting. I know many people want to see Publix in NC, their wish may potentially come true now. As far as Charlotte, we know HT's got all the good locations so it'll be a nasty battle... plus with Lowes Foods - that's 3 mid-to-upscale chain grocers in the city then.

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Yeah...I've heard for years that Publix just wasn't interested in the fight they'd have to undertake to gain a foothold in the Charlotte market. So, I was surprised by this news. That's what made me start thinking that just because they enter NC doesn't mean Charlotte (at least not immediately). But, who knows. They are a big chain and should be able to withstand some price/ad wars for a while if they really thought Charlotte was worth the trouble.

Personally, I'm pretty happy with HT and Lowes. I've been to Publix, no big deal to me. Then again, most of the things I've read people tout on this board are not things I'd notice at a grocery store anyway. In other words...I keep the restaurant industry in business here in Charlotte!

Also, I'm pretty loyal to local companies...even if that means an NC company. I always choose Lowe's over HD, and I'd always choose HT or Lowes Foods over some chain out of Florida...but that's just me.

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That's what made me start thinking that just because they enter NC doesn't mean Charlotte (at least not immediately)

Yeah, it's very possible that Charlotte is not the area they are looking at. I mean look at Kroger, they've got stores in select markets of certain states - here in North Carolina we have Kroger stores all over Raleigh and Durham, but no where else in the state (with the exception of Greenville) do we find Kroger stores.

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Well guys, BI-LO may be PUBLIX's golden ticket into the Charlotte market... Lone Star funds (owner of Bi-Lo) might have to split up the stores in different markets and make sales. But honestly, the way things are looking, I would not be surprised if they experience the Winn Dixie effect and we see stores sold off to existing chains (HT and Food Lion, really.. Lowes in CLT seems to build only brand new stores) or independents like Compare Foods. http://charlotte.com/122/story/82470.html

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This is from Charleston's newspaper

Q: Am I crazy or did Thursday's Harris Teeter ad insert - the one advertising strawberries - actually smell like strawberries? Trip.

A: You have a good sniffer.

The ad, provided by Harris Teeter's advertising agency, was printed with strawberry-scented ink.

talk about subliminal.

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Yes, funny you mention that. I often wonder, if all chain supermarkets (HT, Lowes, Food Lion, Bi-Lo) have these special cards you have to get, then why don't all four chains just dispense with them at the same time and give the deals to everybody. It really isn't helping the supermarket anyways because the cashier will believe any BS story you give them about forgetting or losing your card and will just scan their own for you. Supermarket shopping was so much easier back before cards. You'd go to the store, say, "Hey look, it's on sale" you'd buy it at the sale price, and that was the end of the story!

(of course I suppose then you couldn't get a free cheap as* beach chair after spending over $600 in groceries)

I know for a fact that Lowes Foods policy doesn't allow employees to scan their card for a customer when the customer "forgets" their rewards card. They actually monitor activity on their employees cards and will remove points from their cards and will "write the employee up." They also can be terminated if this is a constant offense. No if the store manager follows thru on this is a different question all together.

Edited by suburban george3
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