Charlotte Supermarkets

[carolinaboy]

I'm still surprised Virginia Beach had a Wegmans before Charlotte. A city of a population around 500k (metro 1.7 million or so). The only things in Virginia Beach are people, roads, sprawl, sand and waves.

[CLT2014]

17 minutes ago, carolinaboy said:

I'm still surprised Virginia Beach had a Wegmans before Charlotte. A city of a population around 500k (metro 1.7 million or so). The only things in Virginia Beach are people, roads, sprawl, sand and waves.

Geographically closer to their core markets, distribution center, and grocery stores have smaller catchment areas  in general so you don't need to be a huge city to be viable. Wegmans origins are in mid size and smaller metros anyhow. 

[turbocraig]

From today’s Biz Journal.  Wegmans likely to have two or even three stores here eventually.  Says their first store won’t deliver till late 2026.

“But the search is already on for its second location — and possibly a third, says Dan Aken, the company's vice president of real estate.

"Given the size of the market, there's definitely multiple opportunities for us and we are already having some conversations with other developers in the area and just trying to understand what would make the most sense for us," he says.

Aken says a second store in Charlotte wouldn't likely happen for two to three years after it enters the market.”

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2024/04/16/wegmans-grocery-store-ballantyne-expansion-plans.html

[HRVT]

2 hours ago, CLT2014 said:

Geographically closer to their core markets, distribution center, and grocery stores have smaller catchment areas  in general so you don't need to be a huge city to be viable. Wegmans origins are in mid size and smaller metros anyhow. 

Exactly. Wegmans had recently expanded into Richmond too (after previously going as far south as Loudon I believe). Virginia Beach and then Raleigh were natural expansion points before getting all the way to Charlotte. Honestly, considering their origins, I'm actually a little surprised they went to Charlotte before breaking into the Triad. Hopefully they don't "skip" the Triad in the longer run... and I don't think they will. 

As for Charlotte, they've announced their first location... but it won't be anywhere near the last. It wouldn't surprise me if they have 3-4 locations before the end of the decade in the Charlotte area.

[KJHburg]

Yes I predict at least 4 stores in the Charlotte area as Raleigh Cary Chapel Hill Wake Forest and soon Holly Springs make 5 in the Triangle alone. 

I think they will build a store north somewhere from Huntersville to Mooresville, one in the Concord Mills University area, one in the Matthews Indian Trail area and maybe one in Fort Mill but that would be much later. 

Raleigh was the furthest south they could expand without that new Richmond distribution center as they were distributing from a central PA warehouse. 

Edited April 16 by KJHburg

[DonkeyKong]

1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

Yes I predict at least 4 stores in the Charlotte area as Raleigh Cary Chapel Hill Wake Forest and soon Holly Springs make 5 in the Triangle alone. 

I think they will build a store north somewhere from Huntersville to Mooresville, one in the Concord Mills University area, one in the Matthews Indian Trail area and maybe one in Fort Mill but that would be much later. 

Raleigh was the furthest south they could expand without that new Richmond distribution center as they were distributing from a central PA warehouse. 

i'd say 5-6 stores.  In the clt metro.

Edited April 16 by DonkeyKong

[KJHburg]

1 minute ago, DonkeyKong said:

i'd say 5-6 stores.  In the clt metreo.

you are probably right and I forgot to include on in town store somewhere. 

[kayman]

Considering this region's layout and economics, Wegman's will likely open 6-7 locations here including 1 in the South Carolina suburbs.  There will likely be the 2 intown urban-layout locations considering the demographics and the growth of our intown population.

[nicholas]

On 4/14/2023 at 6:19 PM, jednc said:

There was also a Kroger in Hickory back in the 1980's. It probably made it into the 90's, but I'm not sure when it closed.

Late response but Kroger had a presence around Raleigh even into the late 2010s.  The Triangle never really had any notable homegrown grocers survive the suburban era, and the biggest players from what I remember in the early 2000s were Food Lion, Harris Teeter, and Kroger.  When I was a child my parents mostly shopped at Food Lion and Kroger, which at the time were the two closest grocery stores to our house.  There were actually still a couple of Winn-Dixie stores still scattered around as well (the main one that comes to mind was located where Hendrick Toyota Apex is now on US 64).

From the early 2000s, Harris Teeter and Walmart expanded pretty rapidly (with Aldi, Trader Joe's Lidl, Lowe's Foods, Publix, Wegmans, and Whole Foods all rapidly growing their presences by the late 2010s), while Kroger was much more modest.  It was rare to see a new or even updated existing Kroger store, and by the mid-2000s most of Kroger's stores were starting to feel outdated, and many of those were located in moderately neglected shopping centers in less desirable parts of town.  By comparison Harris Teeter's stores were substantially nicer.  The only newer Kroger I can recall was at the intersection of Raleigh Blvd and MLK Jr Blvd; it must have opened sometime in the mid-2000s and had a fuel center at the corner of the lot, which was the first grocery store gas station I remember noticing as a kid.  That store did not survive long and closed sometime in 2012 or 2013, and the gas station was demolished as well.  That space is now a Rose's.

I believe one of the final Kroger stores in North Carolina was in Garner where the Lidl and Harbor Freight Tools stores are now.  It was open until late 2018.  There was also one at the intersection of Falls of Neuse Rd and Strickland Rd in North Raleigh.   It closed sometime in 2017 or early 2018.  Surprisingly (given the wealth of the surrounding area) Food Lion took over that spot a couple years later.

Edited April 17 by nicholas

[LKN704]

I've said this before here but I just want someone to help me understand the hype.  I've gone a couple of times to their new store in DC when it first opened...they were sending out pretty good mailers offering discounts like $20 off a $75 purchase. 

Produce looked the same as Safeway - they might have had a few more "exotic" options (I remember seeing organic star fruit) but that's really the only difference I saw. They had a ton of prepared food and a hot bar that looked nice, but I don't really buy prepared food outside of hummus and the occasional rotisserie chicken. 

Employees seemed nice, but I don't want supermarket employees saying hi to me or asking if I need help...frankly the less people I have to talk to throughout my day the better. 

I hated how basically every other general merchandise item was their own brand. I remember they had one brand of canned whole tomatoes, and then a bunch of different varieties of the Wegman's brand. Even the tiny "Soviet" Safeway near my house that is less than 10,000 square feet and the size of a Walgreens has a wider selection of general merchandise. 

To each their own, I guess...I have a friend from Western NY whose sister got engaged in a Wegmans...the whole family would probably murder me if they saw this post. 

[KJHburg]

7 hours ago, nicholas said:

Late response but Kroger had a presence around Raleigh even into the late 2010s.  The Triangle never really had any notable homegrown grocers survive the suburban era, and the biggest players from what I remember in the early 2000s were Food Lion, Harris Teeter, and Kroger.  When I was a child my parents mostly shopped at Food Lion and Kroger, which at the time were the two closest grocery stores to our house.  There were actually still a couple of Winn-Dixie stores still scattered around as well (the main one that comes to mind was located where Hendrick Toyota Apex is now on US 64).

From the early 2000s, Harris Teeter and Walmart expanded pretty rapidly (with Aldi, Trader Joe's Lidl, Lowe's Foods, Publix, Wegmans, and Whole Foods all rapidly growing their presences by the late 2010s), while Kroger was much more modest.  It was rare to see a new or even updated existing Kroger store, and by the mid-2000s most of Kroger's stores were starting to feel outdated, and many of those were located in moderately neglected shopping centers in less desirable parts of town.  By comparison Harris Teeter's stores were substantially nicer.  The only newer Kroger I can recall was at the intersection of Raleigh Blvd and MLK Jr Blvd; it must have opened sometime in the mid-2000s and had a fuel center at the corner of the lot, which was the first grocery store gas station I remember noticing as a kid.  That store did not survive long and closed sometime in 2012 or 2013, and the gas station was demolished as well.  That space is now a Rose's.

I believe one of the final Kroger stores in North Carolina was in Garner where the Lidl and Harbor Freight Tools stores are now.  It was open until late 2018.  There was also one at the intersection of Falls of Neuse Rd and Strickland Rd in North Raleigh.   It closed sometime in 2017 or early 2018.  Surprisingly (given the wealth of the surrounding area) Food Lion took over that spot a couple years later.

Kroger closed those Raleigh Durham stores in 2018

Kroger closing all 14 stores in Raleigh, Durham - ABC11 Raleigh-Durham

Kroger only likes to compete if it is in the top 2 or 3 in the market like they are in Atlanta.  Notice 8 of these Krogers in the Triangle were sold to Harris Teeter another part of the same corporate family who was always stronger there. 

Kroger has 3 fairly new stores in the Hilton Head Bluffton market all averaging about 90,000 sq ft.   I like Kroger there but there are still 2 Harris Teeters on the island that do very well too.   There is an old Kroger in North Myrtle Beach and I think a few other stores there but they are completely out of NC.  

To me Kroger stores are inconsistent some are big and bright and nice and some are just dumps.  I have seen great ones in Little Rock and terrible ones in parts of Atlanta. The ones in the Hilton Head market are all very nice and run out of their Atlanta division.  

Wegmans has seen and competed with every competitor in the Charlotte market as they have seen all of them up in Raleigh Cary Chapel Hill.  And Wegmans will do very well here for sure and it is not just northern people who like them.  I do and I was born here.  

[DCMetroRaleigh]

No grocery store comes close to providing the amount and diversity of prepared foods and international cuisine Wegmans does. I don’t cook and have an international palate, and Wegmans is indispensable to satisfying my appetite. Moreover, the store has impeccable baked goods. The gold cake is superior.

[videtur quam contuor]

They deliver?