Food Lion divisions

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ajsanjua
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Food Lion divisions

Post by ajsanjua »

I'm interested in how divisions Food Lion currently has and if anyone knows when they branched off from the current "Food Lion" format.
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Groceteria
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Re: Food Lion divisions

Post by Groceteria »

It's all fairly well detailed here:

http://www.delhaizegroup.com/divclassdg ... fault.aspx

Food Lion is itself a division of Delhaize, although it constituted pretty much all of the company's US operation for many years. Bloom and Bottom Dollar were launched a couple of years ago and are connected to Food Lion, although I'm not sure if they're operated as separate divisions now or as part of Food Lion. Many of them are located in former Food Lions.

Hannaford and Harvey's were standalone chains absorbed by Delhaize.

New England's Hannaford entered the NC market, Food Lion's home turf in 1994-1995 with its purchase of Wilson's Supermarkets, and the NC Hannaford stores were divested when Delhaize purchased Hannaford in 1999-2000.

Kash n' Karry was owned by Lucky Stores during the 1980s, I think, and was divested during the Albertsons merger in 1999. Delhaize subsequently purchased it and is rebranding it as Sweetbay.
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Re: Food Lion divisions

Post by rich »

Delhaize also used the "Food Lion" name and logo for stores in Thailand. These appeared around 2001 and have disappeared in the last couple years. I think most of them were bought by Tops (formerly co-owned by Ahold, now completely owned by Central Department Stores, a Thai retailer).
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Re: Food Lion divisions

Post by ajsanjua »

I am also particularly interested in Food Lion's new upscale and budget tiers, the latter of which appears to little online information describing them. As I understand it, the lower divisions of Bottom Dollar and in SC, Reid's, seems to simply convert existing FL stores in rural or low-income urban markets to these stores, probably to offer lower prices and selection without directly negatively impacting the chain's namesake division. Maybe to compete with Aldi?

As for the higher-end Bloom, might this be an attempt to compete with places like Harris Teeter and even specialty niche chains like Trader Joe's?

I'm surprised that Food Lion has not launched a warehouse chain, but then again, those chains that have done so have repeatedly failed.
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Re: Food Lion divisions

Post by Groceteria »

With respect to the last post, as always, let's please keep this focused on the history of the chains rather than on Delhaize/FL's current and/or future operations.

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Re: Food Lion divisions

Post by krogerclerk »

Food Lion has traditionally been centralized out of Salisbury, NC. I believe the defunct Texas, Louisana, and Oklahoma stores were operated as the Southwest division, understandable since there was no geographic continuity between those stores and the eastern stores. I know Harvey's is a seperate division within Food Lion, and Kash-n-Karry, was a division of Food Lion, but as Sweetbay, is a divison of Hannaford. As to the status of Bloom, Bottom Dollar and Reid's in the current Food Lion hierarchy, I'm not sure they are full fledged divisions.

The status of Harvey's appears to be both use of a local name over Food Lion as well as contractual. The private label at Harvey's appears to be SuperValu and the website is still reflective of a small rural chain.

A Delhaize partnership with SuperValu, from 1979 to 2001, Super Discount Foods, acquired the retail operations of Atlanta-based Alterman's, then the operator of Food Giant and Big Apple supermarket chains. SDF slowly closed Big Apple/Food Giant by the end of 89, and focused on being a Cub Food operator in the Southeast as well as the partner in Kmart's hypermarket experiment, replacing Bruno's in the mid-90's, at American Fare.
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Re: Food Lion divisions

Post by Edric Floyd »

krogerclerk wrote: The status of Harvey's appears to be both use of a local name over Food Lion as well as contractual. The private label at Harvey's appears to be SuperValu and the website is still reflective of a small rural chain.
Living close to Harvey's home territory I can tell you that in recent years, there was a Harvey's private label and its appearance is simular to the Food Lion Private label. But you also see Food Lion private label products and even promotional sinage in Harvey's branded stores. They seem to be doing a lot of joint promotion even though few areas have both nameplates in town.

"History": Since Delhaize acquired the Nashville Georgia based Harvey's, Most Food Lion Stores in Georgia were converted to Harvey's. Some of these were Food Lion stores next to smaller Wal-Marts where the Wal-Mart eventually moved to a Supercenter in town. Almost like clockwork, the Food Lion's were converted within days of the neighboring Wal-Mart closing. They were closed to have the interior decor completely changed to the Harvey's standard Green and White then reopened.

Harvey's had a long standing tradition of opening in former supermarket space abandoned by other chains. You see Harvey's operating in former Winn-Dixie, Big Star/Colonial, Piggly Wiggly (Southern) and A&P stores. They even occupied Food Lion stores that were shuttered for many years. The Food Lion in the town of Cochran Georgia was closed in 1995 and remained vacant for 12 years until it reopened as a Harvey's. Only recently have there ever been any completely brand new Harvey's stores built to replace extremely older structures. (Americus & Brunswick) And those stores have new "retro" sinage that include the slogan "trading since 1926".

There are four Food Lion branded stores in my immediate area (near Macon GA) that were never converted to Harvey's. And you see both Food Lion and Harvey's marked trucks at any of the stores. The closest Harvey's to my home is in a neighboring town 15 miles to my South. Itself a former Pggly Wiggly which was a former Big Star.
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Re: Food Lion divisions

Post by MikeRa »

krogerclerk wrote:The status of Harvey's appears to be both use of a local name over Food Lion as well as contractual. The private label at Harvey's appears to be SuperValu and the website is still reflective of a small rural chain.
The same packaging design is used for the Food Lion, Harvey's, and Hannaford brands.

The Hannaford brand is sold at the Bottom Dollar Food stores in PA and NJ.
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Re: Food Lion divisions

Post by Edric Floyd »

I should update from my previous post of 2 years ago.

There are more Harvey's locations in the Middle Georgia area as there is a new store in Macon (the first of the Harvey's brand) on Shurling Drive. They renovated the interior of a former Piggly Wiggly/Foodmax/Bi-LO. The Piggly Wiggly closed in the summer of 2009 and Harvey's renovated and opened in the space 2 months later.

The Harvey's in Perry Georgia closed around the same time, a casualty of the town's new Publix opening a couple months earlier. That location (a former Piggly Wiggly southern) sits vacant.

And as I mentioned in a previous post where Harvey's would occupy a long vacant Food Lion in Cochran Georgia. That one was vacant for 12 years. Well the former Food Lion in GRAY Georgia has been vacant for nearly a decade. It is currently being prepared to reopen as a Harvey's.

There are a few Harvey's stores built new from the ground up. They each replaced older stores.
1- Ocilla Georgia, totally newly built store built a few blocks from a VERY VERY small store just slightly larger than the average convienences store.

2- Americus Georgia, One newly built store replaced the TWO older stores in town. The older stores were located in a former Food Lion on the east side of town and a former Piggly Wiggly (southern) located downtown. The new store was built on the former site of an A&P in the Downtown area,itself a block from a classic centennial A&P building were a Salvation Army is located.

The former Harveys on the east side of Americus was heavily damaged in a 2007 tornado that destroyed a Winn Dixie. The store remained open during repairs but they built the new Harvey's within a year while it took 2 years before the Winn Dixie was rebuilt. As I mentioned above, the two Harvey's in East and Downtown Americus closed when the new Downtown store opened in 2008 nearly a year before the Winn Dixie reopened. Net loss of 1 supermarket in Americus Georgia between 2007 and 2011.
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Re: Food Lion divisions

Post by krogerclerk »

The Food Lion in Richmond Hill, GA was converted to Harvey's several years back, Food Lion had opened in the early 90's as the first supermarket in Richmond Hill. Last February, the Harvey's was replaced with a new Food Lion, closer to the I-95 exit, making Richmond Hill consistent with the Savannah/Chatham Co. banners. Food Lion has stated that Harvey's does better in rural areas than Food Lion, but as Richmond Hill has suburbanized and gained Kroger and Publix, the Food Lion banner is a better demographic fit.

Food Lion's carry more pre-packaged meat and less hot Deli foods than a typical Harvey's which does more in store meat cutting and has a full hot food bar. Food Lion's carry a bigger variety of sub sandwiches in the Deli.

Much of Food Lion's recent expansion in Georgia has focused on expanding in the outer suburbs of Atlanta, with a Marietta location being the closest in location. Food Lion had previously planned to expand into the Atlanta area in the mid-90's, opening a location in Snellville which only lasted about 2 years before closing.
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