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Food Lion

Coordinates: 35°40′58″N 80°30′42″W / 35.682678°N 80.511744°W / 35.682678; -80.511744
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35°40′58″N 80°30′42″W / 35.682678°N 80.511744°W / 35.682678; -80.511744

Food Lion LLC
FormerlyFood Town (1957–1983)
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryRetail
FoundedDecember 12, 1957 (66 years ago) (1957-12-12)
FounderWilson Smith, Ralph Ketner, and Brown Ketner
HeadquartersSalisbury, North Carolina, United States
Number of locations
1,029
Area served
Mid Atlantic, South Atlantic
Key people
Meg Ham, President
Greg Finchum, Sr. Vice President
Karen Fernald, Sr. Vice President,
ProductsGrocery, Produce, Meat, Seafood, Dairy, Deli, Bakery, Health and Beauty, Pharmacy, Drive-Thru Grocery Pickup, Beer, Wine
Number of employees
65,300
ParentAhold Delhaize
Websitewww.foodlion.com

Food Lion is an American grocery store chain headquartered in Salisbury, North Carolina,[1][2] that operates over 1000 supermarkets in 10 states of the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States, employing over 63,000 people.[3] It was founded in 1957 as Food Town, a single grocery store in Salisbury. It later expanded to many locations across North Carolina. It was independently operated until it was acquired by the Belgium-based conglomerate Delhaize Group in 1974.[4][5]. In 1983, the company changed its name and branding to Food Lion to allow it to expand into regions where Food Town was already in use by unrelated stores. Following further mergers and acquisitions, Food Lion, LLC. is currently owned by Ahold Delhaize.

History

Food Lion was founded in 1972 in Salisbury, North Carolina, as Food Town by Wilson Smith, Ralph Ketner, and Brown Ketner. The Food Town chain was acquired by the Belgium-based Delhaize Group grocery company in 1974.[5] In June 2015, it was announced that Food Lion's parent company, the Delhaize Group, and Ahold would merge into Ahold Delhaize. This merger was completed in July 2016.[6]

Dairy section of a Food Lion in Hampton, Virginia

The Food Lion name was adopted in 1983; as Food Town expanded into Virginia, the chain encountered several stores called Foodtown in the Richmond area. Expansion into Maryland would have been a bigger problem since about 100 independent, but affiliated, stores were called Food Town. Because Delhaize had a lion in its logo, Food Town had asked to use it on product labels and new store signs. Ralph Ketner realized "lion" needed only two new letters and the movement of another in the chain's signs. On December 12, 1982, Ketner announced the name change to "Food Lion," and by the end of March 1983, all stores had been rebranded.[7] The name change, while puzzling for American customers, made economic and historic sense, as Delhaize was once known as "Delhaize Le Lion."

Throughout the 1980s, Food Lion expanded throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States. The company continued their expansion throughout the late 1980s, opening hundreds of stores in existing markets such as the Carolinas and the Virginias, and entering new markets such as Georgia and Maryland.

In the early 1990s, Food Lion stores appeared in new markets such as Delaware and southern Pennsylvania; Orlando, Florida; Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma; Shreveport, Louisiana; Dallas/Fort Worth; and Houston, Texas. (Of these 8 markets Food Lion penetrated in the 1990s, the only ones that still have stores are Delaware and parts of southern Pennsylvania, such as Hanover). During this time, the chain was the fastest-growing supermarket company in the U.S., as they opened over 100 new stores each year.[8] In November 1992, a critical PrimeTime Live report that showed unsanitary handling of meat and seafood hurt the chain as they attempted to enter new markets in the Northeast and Southwest.[9][10] (See ABC PrimeTime Live section, below.)

According to some industry sources, the new stores in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma were already operating 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 which operated larger stores with more features, but the effects of the devastating ABC report could not be denied, and sales and revenue plummeted.[9] In the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, widespread reports were given of stores sending half of their staff home early due to lack of business and of other stores with "virtually zero meat sales". In the fiscal quarter that included the Thanksgiving holiday of 1992, Delhaize America reported company-wide same-store sales declines of 9.5%.[11] As a result, Food Lion was forced to greatly scale back its expansion plans in Texas and Oklahoma, as well as delay, then cancel its planned entry into new markets in Missouri, Kansas, and Illinois.

Interior of a store in Southern Shores, North Carolina. The interior has since been updated to the Ahold Delhaize look in mid-2018.

In 1993, Food Lion agreed to pay $16.2 million to settle claims that they violated federal laws regulating unpaid overtime, minimum wage, and child labor, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In the agreement, which at the time was the largest settlement ever from a private employer accused of violating the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the grocery chain agreed to ensure that all employees would be well-informed about their rights. Additionally, the Labor Department said Food Lion top management provided assurances that no retaliatory action would be taken against employees who filed complaints about unpaid overtime or other potential FLSA violations.[12] On January 7, 1994, Delhaize announced the first major round of store closings in what would become a yearly event. The stores to be closed included 47 of its brand-new stores in Texas and Oklahoma, as well as stores in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia.[13]

Throughout the mid-1990s, the company canceled leases for new stores and closed scores of its newly built outlets in recently established markets such as Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, and Oklahoma City.[14][15] Citing double-digit same-store sales declines for the quarter ending in September 1997, Delhaize announced that it was canceling its Midwest expansion, exiting all markets in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, and closing its 6-year-old distribution center in Roanoke, Texas.[16] A bruised and battered Food Lion was forced to recede back to the East Coast, where it faced increasing competition from competitors with larger stores, better customer service, and more variety and amenities; these included regional winners such as Ingles, Harris Teeter, and Publix; newcomers such as specialty retailer Whole Foods Market; and expanding national chains such as Kroger, Target, and Wal-Mart.

Beginning in 2003, Food Lion became 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. That same year, Food Lion remodeled 68 stores in the Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina market, followed by 65 stores in the Charlotte area in 2004. In 2006, Food Lion advanced their market renewals program by using demographic and geographic data to figure out whether certain stores should be branded as Food Lion, Bloom, or Bottom Dollar. If the data supported that an already existing Food Lion was adequate for a certain community, the location would simply be remodeled. Should the data support otherwise, the Food Lion store would be remodeled and rebranded as either Bloom or Bottom Dollar.[17] In early 2012, Food Lion closed 113 stores. These were in Georgia, North and South Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee as well as all the stores in Florida.[18]

New look, acquirements, and mergings

In late 2013, Food Lion introduced their new design. The new design introduced some improvements with most of the notable ones were the produce which was given a cooler for some of their products which was to keep the certain products "fresher." In May 2014, a new logo was also introduced. The new design was given to 76 of their stores in the greater Wilmington and Greenville North Carolina markets shortly after. The cooler in the produce was not featured at all of the remodeled locations. In March 2015, plans were announced for remodeling of its 162 locations in the Raleigh, North Carolina market. The Raleigh market remodels were expected to be completed in stores on a rolling basis between April and October 2015. This remodeling introduced a new design with photos being used with the signs at the departments. One other major change was the new butcher shop which was at some locations. In March 2016, the company announced that they would make a $215 million investment in its greater Charlotte-area stores and western NC stores. This included remodeling 142 stores, additional price investments, and investments in associates and the community through its Food Lion Feeds initiatives.[19][20] In July 2016, as part of the corporate merger between Delhaize and Ahold, Food Lion was required to divest 61 locations to a variety of competitors including Supervalu and Weis Markets in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia to satisfy Federal Trade Commission's review of the two parent companies merger.[21] In early 2017, Food Lion announced that they will remodel 93 of their stores in Piedmont Triad with three of them already finished at the time. In August 2017, a Food Lion location in Washington, NC was closed and was moved to a larger location that introduced a new look. On March 14, 2018, Supervalu announced that Food Lion was purchasing three Farm Fresh locations in Elizabeth City, North Carolina and Hampton and Virginia Beach, Virginia as part of a larger deal to close down the Farm Fresh brand.[22] On April 27, 2018, Food Lion announced plans to acquire four BI-LO locations in Florence, Myrtle Beach, Surfside Beach, and Columbia, South Carolina.[23] On June 3, 2020, Food Lion announced the purchase of 62 Southeastern Grocers stores in North and South Carolina and Georgia. These will be rebranded from Harveys and BI-LO in 2021.[24]

Food Lion stores can currently be found in Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.[25]

Food Lion's sister chains include Giant-Carlisle, Giant-Landover, Hannaford Brothers, Martin's Food Markets and Stop & Shop.

Food Lion featuring new signage in Nags Head, North Carolina

International stores

Food Lion spent seven years attempting to establish a presence in Bangkok, Thailand, starting in 1997. Operated locally by Bel-Thai Supermarket Co, in 2004 it withdrew from the country, selling all branches to Tops Supermarkets.[26]

Former banners

Food Lion in Durham, North Carolina. The store has since remodeled to the new signage in 2015.

Bloom

Main article: Bloom (store)
Bloom store in Accokeek, Maryland. The store is now a Weis Markets supermarket since 2016.

Bloom was Food Lion's upscale grocery model that opened on May 26, 2004.

As of December 2009, 65 Bloom stores were in North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, and Virginia.[27]

On March 14, 2011, Delhaize announced that all Bloom supermarkets in North and South Carolina would close or be converted to the Food Lion banner.[28]

On January 11, 2012, Delhaize announced that the Bloom brand would be discontinued and that all Bloom supermarkets will either convert to Food Lion or permanently close.[29]

Bottom Dollar Food

Main article: Bottom Dollar Food

Bottom Dollar Food was Food Lion's discount grocery model that focused on offering a limited selection of both national brands and private label products. These stores had no bakeries or delis and more items were packaged. Customers bought the bags used to sack their own groceries at Bottom Dollar Food. Stores also used alternative display and stocking techniques such as cut cases on shelves, and 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 December 2009, Bottom Dollar Food had 28 stores in North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.[30] In January 2012, Delhaize announced that it would close six Bottom Dollar stores and convert 22 others to Food Lion supermarkets as part of a restructuring.[31][32] In August 2014, it was reported that Delhaize was putting the entire portfolio of Bottom Dollar Food locations up for sale.[33] Ultimately Bottom Dollar Food was shuttered and the stores sold to Aldi in early 2015.

Harveys Supermarket

Main article: Harveys Supermarket

Harveys stores are mainly located in rural markets within the Deep South. In May 2013, all Harveys stores were sold to BI-LO LLC.

Reid's

Reid's was a small chain of stores located in various rural South Carolina communities. The chain's history can trace back to 1972, when its namesake founder Reid Boylston opened his first store in Barnwell, South Carolina.[34] Most of these stores were all formerly branded as Food Lion stores and continue to carry Food Lion branded goods and use the Food Lion infrastructure. In May 2013, Reid's was sold along with its sister supermarket chains Harveys and Sweetbay to BI-LO LLC for $265 million.[35] BI-LO subsequently retired the Reid's name, rebranding the Reid's stores as BI-LO.

Store brand

Delhaize America stores use common private brands called Home 360, Nature's Place, CHA-CHING, and Taste of Inspirations. Sister supermarkets Hannaford and Sweetbay were the last two stores to make the switch, doing so in 2010 and 2011. The move is designed to simplify the company's store-brand products line.[36] Food Lion stores have the My Essentials brand, as well as the Hannaford brand. At the end of 2014, the My Essentials, as well as the Home 360 names, were retired and the more traditional Food Lion brand name was used as a replacement.

Slogans

  • "LFPINC (LFPISC or LFPIVA)": During the Food Town era, the slogan stood for "Lowest Food Prices In North Carolina". Also, it was used in South Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia stores.
  • "6800 Low Prices": late 1970s-1985
  • "Extra Low Prices": 1985–2004
  • "Good Neighbors, Great Prices": 2004–2011
  • "Get Your Lion's Share": 2011-2014[37]
  • "Easy, fresh and affordable... You can count on Food Lion... Every day": 2014–2015
  • "Life's Better with the Lion": 2015–2016
  • "How Refreshing": 2016–2019
  • "This is Our Home. That's Our Food Lion": 2019–present

Primetime Live controversy

In the 1990s, Food Lion gained a degree of notoriety when it was the subject of an ABC News investigation. ABC had received a tip about unsanitary practices at Food Lion. Two ABC reporters had posed as Food Lion employees, and witnessed the unsanitary practices at Food Lion. Much of what they had seen was videotaped with cameras hidden in wigs that they were wearing. The footage was then featured in a segment on the news magazine Primetime Live, in which Food Lion employees described unsanitary practices, which included bleaching discolored, expired pork with Clorox and repackaging expired meats with new expiration dates, and the use of nail polish remover to remove the expiration dates from dairy item packages.

The company responded by suing ABC for fraud, claiming that the ABC employees misrepresented themselves; for trespassing, because the ABC employees came on to Food Lion property without permission; and for breach of duty of loyalty, the ABC employees videotaped nonpublic areas of the store and revealed internal company information. During the court battles between Food Lion and ABC, over 40 hours of unused footage were released that helped Food Lion's case. In the unused footage, two undercover producers are seen trying to encourage violations of company policy; however, employees resisted and correctly followed sanitary practices.[38]

Food Lion was awarded US$5.5 million by a jury in 1997. The award was later reduced by a judge to $316,000. The verdict was then largely overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia. According to the court: even though ABC was wrong to do what they had done, Food Lion was not suing for defamation, but rather for tort as a way to get around the strict First Amendment standards for defamation. Food Lion did this because the company was not contesting the truth of anything ABC reported in the broadcast.[39] However, the appellate court upheld the finding that the producers involved breached their duty of loyalty as employees to Food Lion, and had trespassed, including a nominal $2 fine.[40]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Customer Service". Food Lion. Retrieved on May 17, 2012. "CORPORATE ADDRESS Food Lion, LLC. P.O. Box 1330 Salisbury, NC 28145-1330"
  2. ^ "Contacts Archived May 22, 2012, at the Wayback Machine". Delhaize Group. Retrieved on May 17, 2012. "DELHAIZE GROUP U.S. P.O. Box 1330, 2110 Executive Drive Salisbury NC 28145-1330 United States" and "FOOD LION, BLOOM & BOTTOM DOLLAR FOOD P.O. Box 1330, 2110 Executive Drive Salisbury NC 28145-1330 - U.S.A. "
  3. ^ Fast Facts Archived July 16, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Food Lion, Last accessed May 14, 2007.
  4. ^ 2007 Top 75 North American Food Retailers, Supermarket News, Last accessed February 24, 2007.
  5. ^ a b Collet, Emmanuel, editor (2003). Delhaize "Le Lion", Grocers Since 1867. Delhaize Group. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ Ahold, Delhaize Complete Merger, Progressive Grocer, Last accessed July 23, 2016.
  7. ^ Wineka, Mark; Lesley, Jason (1991). Lion's Share. Asheboro, North Carolina: Down Home Press. pp. 148–150. ISBN 1-878086-07-3.
  8. ^ Tulsa World. Fallout Continues After TV Report Criticizing Food Lion, November 7, 1992. Retrieved on 2016-05-31
  9. ^ a b Daily Press. Food Lion Sales Sliding, May 28, 1993. Retrieved on 2016-05-31
  10. ^ Daily Press. Food Lion Halves Its Expansion, July 16, 1993. Retrieved on 2016-05-31
  11. ^ Tulsa World. Food Lion Sales Hit Hard In November, December 04, 1992. Retrieved on 2016-05-31
  12. ^ Dept. of Labor and Food Lion enter into $16M wage-hour settlement, Jet, August 30, 1993.
  13. ^ "Delhaize America, Inc, Form 10-K, Annual Report, Filing Date Mar 31, 1994". secdatabase.com. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  14. ^ Daily Press. Food Lion To Pull The Plug On 88 Stores, January 08, 1994. Retrieved on 2016-05-31
  15. ^ The Oklahoman. Food Lion Closing 11 State Stores, January 8, 1994. Retrieved on 2016-05-31
  16. ^ The Freelance-Star. Food Lion to pull out of Southwest, September 19, 1997. Retrieved on 2016-05-31
  17. ^ Delhaize Group 2006 Annual Results Archived September 28, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Delhaize Group, Last accessed April 1, 2007.
  18. ^ "Food Lion closing all Florida stores". Bizjournals.com. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
  19. ^ Food Lion Announces Plans to Remodel Stores in Raleigh, N.C., Market in 2015, Food Lion, Last accessed July 24, 2016.
  20. ^ Food Lion to Remodel Stores in Greater Charlotte, N.C., Market in 2016; Invests $1.5 Million in Second Harvest Food Bank Warehouse Expansion, Food Lion, Last accessed July 24, 2016.
  21. ^ Delhaize Group And Ahold Reach Agreements With Buyers To Divest 86 U.S. Stores, Subject To Ftc Merger Clearance, Delhaize Group, Last accessed April 1, 2007.
  22. ^ "Farm Fresh selling 21 stores to Kroger, Harris Teeter and Food Lion". The Virginian-Pilot. March 14, 2018. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  23. ^ "Food Lion buys Bi-Lo stores in South Carolina". Supermarket News. April 27, 2018. Retrieved April 27, 2018.
  24. ^ "Food Lion will buy 62 supermarket stores in three states". Salisbury Post. June 3, 2020. Retrieved June 3, 2020.
  25. ^ "StoreData". About Us. Food Lion.
  26. ^ The Bangkok Post. Food Lion pulls out of Thailand, August 6, 2004. Retrieved on 2009-03-28[dead link]
  27. ^ Bloom Store Finder, ShopBloom.com, May 14, 2007.
  28. ^ Delhaize to Convert Carolina Bloom Stores archived copy, Supermarket News, March 15, 2011
  29. ^ "Bloom Grocery Store". Shopbloom.com. April 24, 2013. Retrieved December 5, 2013.
  30. ^ Bottom Dollar Website, BottomDollarFood.com, May 14, 2007.
  31. ^ Food Lion’s owner closing 126 stores, retiring Bloom banner, Washington Post, January 12, 2012
  32. ^ List of Food Lion and other stores to be shuttered by Belgian supermarket chain Delhaize Group archived copy[dead link], Washington Post, January 12, 2012
  33. ^ Delhaize America Reportedly Mulling Sale Of Bottom Dollar Food Trade News, August 2014
  34. ^ "Reid's founder: Store will live on". Aiken Standard. Retrieved February 26, 2019.
  35. ^ [1][permanent dead link]
  36. ^ "Hannaford Heads to Home 360". Supermarketnews.com. October 29, 2010. Retrieved December 5, 2013.
  37. ^ "Get Your Lion's Share". Foodlion.com. January 29, 2013. Archived from the original on July 22, 2012. Retrieved August 18, 2013.
  38. ^ Goulden, Joseph C. (1997). "ABC's Food Lion Lies: A Study in TV Deception". aim.org. Accuracy in Media. Archived from the original on October 17, 2008. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
  39. ^ "Food Lion case". Courses.psu.edu. Retrieved December 5, 2013.
  40. ^ "Food Lion fraud award against ABC thrown out". The News Media & The Law. Fall 1999. p. 3.
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