Charlotte Supermarkets

[monsoon]

Indeed. 10 years ago at the lake (Davidson, Cornelius, Huntersville) there were these stores

• Winn Dixie - 1
  
• Food Lion - 3
  
• Bilo - 1
  
• Lowes Foods- 1
  
• Harris Teeter - 2
  

Now the mix is this

• Foodlion - 3
  
• Bilo -1
  
• Lowes Foods - 1
  
• Harris Teeter - 6
  
• Home Economist
  

I really don't care that much for the stuffy atmosphere inside Harris Teeters and they are anything but environmentally correct but unfortunately they are saturating many parts of the area.

[rjp212]

I always found it amusing that there were 5 supermarkets within a 1.5 mile radius from where I grew up in Mooresville

SuperTarget

Walmart SuperCenter

Lowe's Food

Harris Teeter (another one is coming soon)

Bloom

[grodney]

For fun, I plotted the groceries I could find/remember within 5 miles of Stonecrest (which is pretty much the center of 28277).

I don't know that I like embedding more than just linking, but here are both. Hopefully at least 1 will work.

Embed:

Link:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&m...p;z=12&om=1

Edit: Since it's not obvious in the embedded, blue=HT, red=Food Lion, green=Bi-Lo, yellow=Lowe's, purple=other.

Edited August 28, 2007 by grodney

[DigitalSky]

that's really cool!! i need to update my mappoint map.. I've got all the grocery stores in both carolinas plotted on there so far with a few in some other states.

[JerseyBoy]

It's really no different than the monopoly Publix has on Atlanta and South Florida (actually all of Florida for that matter). It's expected Harris Teeter is going to be #1 in the Charlotte area since it is sort of their "home-turf," but I'm not a fan of a store every 1-2 miles on the same road like they've done.

[Larryfla]

I always found it amusing that there were 5 supermarkets within a 1.5 mile radius from where I grew up in Mooresville

I was in Cornelius a month or so ago and a clerk in the smaller of the two Harris Teeters told me that they were being replaced by Trader Joe's. Any news on that? That would be a nice addition.

SuperTarget

Walmart SuperCenter

Lowe's Food

Harris Teeter (another one is coming soon)

Bloom

[StevenRocks]

It is HT's way of controlling (in every sense of the word) the Charlotte market, at least northern and southern Meck County. It's not bordering on ridiculous, it is ridiculous- it's one of those things "Only in Charlotte"

By erecting so many stores so close to one another, they're not allowing for any sales growth for the individual locations. In a few years, the strongest stores will cannibalize sales from the weakest stores and leave at least a half-dozen empty boxes nobody wants in their wake.

Companies like Starbucks can open every 10 feet because they're small, easily replaceable boxes, but you just don't do that with 60,000 square foot supermarkets.

[mediamongrel]

It's really no different than the monopoly Publix has on Atlanta and South Florida (actually all of Florida for that matter). It's expected that since Harris Teeter is going to be #1 in the Charlotte area since it is sort of their "home-turf," but I'm not a fan of a store every 1-2 miles on the same road like they've done.

Their only problem is, in my opinion, that they ONLY concentrate on Charlotte, Raleigh and Washington, D.C. Their stores is Winston Salem are slowly dwindling in sales, they have been eaten up by Ingles in the mountains of NC, and they have been forced to vacate many areas such as Atlanta, Georgia, and parts of Tennessee over the last five years. I don't know if anyone can call HT a great retailer when their only stronghold is basically two areas (Raleigh & Charlotte). Plus they only pick areas where the median income is over $100,000 and that doesn't include very many people.

[DigitalSky]

their only stronghold is basically two areas (Raleigh & Charlotte).

and northwest Greensboro, where they are growing just as rapidly.

[mediamongrel]

and northwest Greensboro, where they are growing just as rapidly.

True, but the rest of Greensboro is far from HT clientel. (Nothing against Greensboro, used to live there)

[StevenRocks]

I don't know if anyone can call HT a great retailer when their only stronghold is basically two areas (Raleigh & Charlotte). Plus they only pick areas where the median income is over $100,000 and that doesn't include very many people.

They're not a great retailer. They're good at serving a narrow demographic of shoppers, but compared to Whole Foods, Wegman's and other 'premium' grocery retailers, they're average at best.

[DigitalSky]

True, but the rest of Greensboro is far from HT clientel. (Nothing against Greensboro, used to live there)

The same can be argued about east and west Charlotte and southeast and east Raleigh where HT isn't virtually there

[Guest]

Found this listing for a sign designer for trader joes in N. Charlotte, while looking for freelance positions. This was the first I have heard of the Trader Joes at the Arbors in N. Charlotte, I had actually forgotten about its existance.

http://charlotte.craigslist.org/med/446558194.html

Hopefully this is a good sign that the store is progressing and is getting closer to completion.

Edited October 15, 2007 by Guest

[Skyybutter]

I am IN LOVE with Harris Teeter. Im living in DC for my job for a while and theres a HT about 5 mins from my home. Having grown up in Salisbury it has always been Food Lion for me. I cant imagine shopping at Food Lion in the future. I do like Bloom though. HT is amazing. The starff is so helpful. Workers actually took time out of what they were doing and asked me if I was finding everything I needed. I almost didnt know what to say. Customer service is mostly non-existant in todays society but the HT I shop at has got it together. Are most HTs like this?

[peaceloveunderstanding]

I am IN LOVE with Harris Teeter. Im living in DC for my job for a while and theres a HT about 5 mins from my home. Having grown up in Salisbury it has always been Food Lion for me. I cant imagine shopping at Food Lion in the future. I do like Bloom though. HT is amazing. The starff is so helpful. Workers actually took time out of what they were doing and asked me if I was finding everything I needed. I almost didnt know what to say. Customer service is mostly non-existant in todays society but the HT I shop at has got it together. Are most HTs like this?

The HTs I frequent are pretty good on that front. Some are better than others.

Edited November 16, 2007 by moonshield

[fulcrumsf]

Found this listing for a sign designer for trader joes in N. Charlotte, while looking for freelance positions. This was the first I have heard of the Trader Joes at the Arbors in N. Charlotte, I had actually forgotten about its existance.

<a href="http://charlotte.craigslist.org/med/446558194.html" target="_blank">http://charlotte.craigslist.org/med/446558194.html</a>

Hopefully this is a good sign that the store is progressing and is getting closer to completion.

Yeah I took this picture the other day as they have finished the parking lot, and looks like the store will open sometime soon.

Edited November 19, 2007 by fulcrumsf

[Neo]

Yeah I took this picture the other day as they have finished the parking lot, and looks like the store will open sometime soon.

My wife and I drove by there yesterday and I drove by the front door. They have a sign that says they're opening November 26th.

[PlazaMidwoodGuy]

To take the discussion of local supermarkets in a bit of a different direction, can anyone shed light on why some grocery stores now play pop music on their muzak? I can't speak to other chains, but I know that Harris-Teeter does this in pretty much every one of the stores I frequent in Charlotte. I even asked the manager of my neighborhood H-T about this one day and he didn't know the answer.

Call me an old fuddy duddy if you want, but I don't for the life of me see how Top-40 pop is conducive to grocery shopping for anyone over the age of 20-something. Whatever happened to just generic canned background music or something totally innocuous like jazz or classical? I go to the grocery store to buy groceries, not to listen to Kiss 95.1 (or the muzak equivalent of it). Nice, pleasing background music is fine. Christina Aguilara and Boyz II Men are not. Can this honestly be the result of market research?

[fulcrumsf]

^^^ I haven't experienced or noticed the music in my HT. I'll have to check the next time I'm in it.

On another note, I can't wait for the University Trader Joe's to open, well I guess I only have to wait a couple of hours, yah!!

[fulcrumsf]

Went to the new Trader Joe's last night. It was very crowded as expected. I surprisingly got a very good parking space.

[DigitalSky]

Exciting that Charlotte's second Trader Joe's has arrived. As far as being in Greensboro, I cannot wait for Chapel Hill's Trader Joe's to open. It will make my life much easier than having to commute back to Charlotte or go to Cary for my TJ's fix!

[Andyc545]

Just got back from the new Trader Joes. Parking lot was not the best designed, hard to navigate- very crowded. Inside, walked in expecting something much bigger to only find it being very small. Went in and got one of their signature wines. Nice atmosphere being all tropical and Californian, nice experience- don't know how much shopping I personally would do there though vs. HT or Lowes Foods. The one at the Metropolitian will make a brilliant addition, almost would seem a given. Seems small enough that they could also occupy some space on a 1st floor in uptown some time, too.

[Neo]

My wife and I went to the new Trader Joe's last night and purchased some seafood, bread, etc. I must say they have some tortilla chips that are quite tasty! My wife commented that she had imagined it would be a bigger store than it was which disappointed us both. I've honestly never been inside of a Trader Joe's but both of us had hopes that they had fresh prepared meals but this wasn't the case. Do all Trader Joe's simply offer mostly frozen goods and pre-packaged dry goods? Their produce section was almost non-existent.

[AuLukey]

I noticed that too Neo. My girlfriend and i went in there today to check it out and I was a little shocked by the size. I knew it would be smaller than your average HT or Bloom, but I didn't expect it to be THAT much smaller. It was about the size of a grocer I would expect to see in a more urban or market environment. They had some interesting selections. Their two buck chuck was three dollars (i'm assuming because of shipping costs) which we found pretty funny.

The parking lot is pretty small but we were able to get a spot right up front without a problem. Inside there were probably more people than in the University Blvd HT. And this was at 2pm on a Monday! I was a bit shocked at their dress code. While it doesn't bother me, it was a bit strange to see a guy wearing shorts and a t-shirt (that only had a flower print without any indication he worked there) running around helping people find items.

While I can't say I will be a patron of TJ's much due to their random selection, I was very satisfied with our experience there. I'm definitely buying avocados there from now on. Actually, a lot of their produce, albeit a smaller selection, was noticeably cheaper than HT and Bloom and looked to be the same quality.

Edited December 4, 2007 by aussie luke

[Jael]

My sister checked out Trader Joe's a couple of days after it opened and was very disappointed. She keeps hoping Fresh Market will come up to the University area.