Food Lion LLC is an American grocery store company headquartered in Salisbury, North Carolina that operates approximately 1,300 supermarkets in 11 Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states under the Food Lion, Harveys Supermarket, Bloom, Bottom Dollar Food, and Reid's banners. With approximately 73,000 associates, Food Lion LLC is the largest subsidiary of Delhaize Group. Delhaize Group is a food retailer headquartered in Belgium which operates in 7 countries. Delhaize Group was founded in Belgium in 1867. The principal activity of Delhaize Group is the operation of food supermarkets in North America, Europe and Southeast Asia. Supermarket News ranked Delhaize America No. 10 in the 2007 "Top 75 North American Food Retailers" based on 2006 fiscal year estimated sales of $17.3 billion.
History
Food Lion was founded in 1957 in Salisbury, North Carolina as Food Town by Wilson Smith, Ralph Ketner, and Brown Ketner. The Food Lion name was adopted in 1983, several years after Belgium-based grocer Delhaize acquired the Food Town company. The name change, while puzzling for American customers, made economic and historic sense for Delhaize. Once known as "Delhaize Le Lion," the Belgian company was able to re-brand its new American subsidiary by changing just two letters on the "Food Town" signage.
Banners
Food Lion
Food Lion is the namesake concept for Food Lion LLC and is centered around building a neighborly and convenient supermarket for its customers featuring "extra low prices" on name brand and private label merchandise. "Extra low prices" is an accurate claim as many items can be consistently found for 1 to 2 percent more at stores such as Wal-Mart. The MVP Loyalty Card is a staple of the Food Lion pricing strategy. With the MVP card a consumer is entitled to obtain selected items for 5 to 15 percent less than they cost at other stores, while consumers without cards will pay only slightly more. While at one time Food Lion's concept generally lacked the "bells and whistles" of its competitors, the company has been adding fresh seafood, deli and bakery departments, cheese, pharmacies and butcher departments over the last few years. Most Food Lion locations were renovated in 2007, removing the white and red storefronts and introducing a brown storefront with an upscale interior featuring a brick-sign designs inside. As of 2009, Food Lion has stores in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania.
Bloom
Main article: Bloom (store)Bloom is Food Lion's upscale grocery model that opened on May 26, 2004. The concept is based on the idea of using a slightly unconventional layout to maximize shopper convenience. When the stores first debuted, Bloom was dubbed with the phrase "A Food Lion Market". However, upon further market research, the company decided to remove the phrase and conceal the Food Lion connection altogether. The current service-mark was replaced with the slogan "A Different Kind of Grocery Store".
As of May 2007, there were 53 Bloom stores in North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Virginia. However, with the Food Lion "market renewal" in progress, this number is increasing as various Food Lion stores are converted to Bloom as needed.
Bottom Dollar Food
Main article: Bottom Dollar FoodBottom Dollar Food is Food Lion's discount grocery model that focuses on offering a limited-selection of both national brands and private label products at low prices in an "upbeat" shopping environment. These stores have no bakeries or delis and more items are prepackaged. Customers buy the bags used to sack their own groceries at Bottom Dollar Food. Stores also use alternative display and stocking techniques such as cut cases on shelves, using pallets and dump bins to reduce costs. Food Lion opened the first Bottom Dollar Food model in High Point, North Carolina on September 21, 2005.
As of October 2007, Bottom Dollar Food had 28 stores in North Carolina, Maryland, and Virginia. However, with the Food Lion "market renewal" in progress, this number is increasing as various Food Lion stores are converted to Bottom Dollar Food as needed.
Harveys Supermarket
Main article: Harveys SupermarketHarveys stores are mainly located in rural markets within the Deep South with a focus towards quality foods (primarily in meat and produce) and service. Since being acquired by Delhaize in 2003, over a dozen Food Lion stores in rural areas have been converted to Harveys. Unlike Bloom and Bottom Dollar however, which are merely extensions of the Food Lion brand, Harveys appears to operate separately within the Food Lion LLC structure and is seen more as a subsidiary.
As of October 2007, there were 68 Harveys stores in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.
Reid's
Reid's is a small chain of stores located in various rural South Carolina communities, specifically Barnwell, Orangeburg, Langley, New Ellenton, Batesburg, Walterboro, St. George, Aiken, Saluda, Cayce, and Hampton. These stores were all formerly branded as Food Lion stores and continue to carry Food Lion branded goods and use the Food Lion infrastructure. The common theme to these stores appears to be that they are all older stores which Food Lion has apparently determined are located in markets small enough to make enlarging or opening a new store unprofitable, but which with a different brand name to differentiate them from Food Lion so that the prices and selection can be different from a standard Food Lion store and can still be profitably run without remodeling. One exception to this standard is the Langley location, which was converted from a new Food Lion store which had been open for only a few months.
Reid's apparently has no Web presence and advertises mainly via newspaper ads with occasional television ads when a new store "opens." However, you can view the Reid's weekly ad on the website of The People-Sentinel , a newspaper serving Barnwell County, South Carolina. Reid's also runs sale advertisements on several radio stations in South Carolina, featuring the chain's namesake Reid Boylston reading the week's specials over the phone and closing with an exuberant recitation of the chain's slogan, "We can save you money!"
Market renewals
Since 2003, Food Lion has been active in "market renewals" in which every year Food Lion picks certain cities in their operating area where they remodel stores and update the product offerings. In 2006, Food Lion advanced their market renewals program by using in-depth demographic and geographic data to figure out whether certain stores should be branded as Food Lion, Bloom, or Bottom Dollar. Should the data support that an already existing Food Lion is adequate for a certain community, the location will simply be remodeled. Should the data support otherwise, the Food Lion store will be remodeled and re-branded as either Bloom or Bottom Dollar.
Expansion and retreat
Throughout the 1980s Food Lion expanded throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States, succeeding where many supermarket stalwarts weren't. When names such as A&P, Grand Union, Colonial/Big Star and Piggly Wiggly disappeared from Southern communities, Food Lion remained. The company continued its expansion throughout the late 1980s, opening hundreds of stores in existing markets such as the Carolinas and Virginia, and entering new states and markets such as Georgia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Maryland.
In the early 1990s, the stores appeared in more new markets such as Delaware and southern Pennsylvania; Orlando, Florida; Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma; Louisiana; the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and Houston. During this time, the chain was the fastest-growing supermarket company in the US as it opened over 100 new stores each year. In November 1992, a critical PrimeTime Live report which showed unsanitary handling of meat and seafood hurt the chain as it attempted to enter new markets in the Northeast and Southwest. (See ABC PrimeTime Live Section below)
According to some industry sources, the new stores in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma were already below sales projections. The small, lackluster Food Lion stores were beginning to compete with national retail leaders, such as Albertsons, Kroger, Tom Thumb and Jewel-Osco--all of which were already well-respected in the Southwest, and who operated larger stores with more features. But the effects of the devastating ABC report could not be denied and sales and revenue plummeted. In the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, there were widespread reports of stores sending half of their staff home early due to lack of business; and other stores with "virtually zero meat sales." In the fiscal quarter that included the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays of 1992, Delhaize America reported companywide same-store sales declines of 9.5%. As a result, Food Lion was forced to greatly scale back its expansion plans in Texas and Oklahoma, as well as delay its planned entry into new markets in Missouri, Kansas and Illinois.
In 1993 Food Lion agreed to pay $16.2 million to settle claims it violated federal
Food Lion | Facebook
Food Lion LLC operates approximately 1,300 supermarkets, either directly or through affiliated entities, under the names of Food Lion, Bloom, Bottom Dollar, Harveys and Reid's.
Food Lion Branding | Patrick Berkeley Web Design & Development
After recently relocating to Raleigh, North Carolina I’ve come to appreciate the Food Lion supermarket not just for their decent prices, but also for their awesome logo and ...
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RTRP: Food Lion
Food Lion is one of the largest supermarket chains in the United States, with 1,200 stores in 11 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states. The company maintains its low price ...
EPA recognizes Food Lion supermarkets - Charlotte Business Journal:
Food Lion says it owns more than half of the 1,300 grocery stores nationwide that have achieved an Energy Star rating by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Category:Food Lion - Wikimedia Commons
Media in category "Food Lion" This category contains only the following file. ... Companies by alphabet | Supermarkets in the United States
FOOD LION Supermarket
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