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GREENVILLE, N.C. — Food Lion is making a big bet that the best way to gratify customers is to give them a better shopping experience.
Food Lion is making a big bet that the best way to gratify customers is to give them a better shopping experience.
The supermarket chain opened 45 remodeled grocery stores in and around this eastern North Carolina town last month designed to deliver the conveniences and services customers told the company they want.
"We listened to our customers and turned their suggestions into an easy, fresh and affordable shopping experience that customers can count on every day," said William Williams, manager at one of the stores, during a ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the latest round of redesigns in the ongoing upgrade of the 1,100-store chain.
Among the changes in the stores are 3,000 new items, ubiquitous yellow signs identifying deals, a walk-in garden cooler for fresh produce, daily dinner deals promising hot meals for a family of four for $10, and faster checkouts, with additional employees dedicated to steering a shopper to a cashier in 45 seconds or less.
Food Lion, headquartered in Salisbury, N.C., since it was founded as Food Town in 1957, has stores in 10 states in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions catering to more than 9 million customers each week. The chain is part of Delhaize America Inc., a unit of the Brussels-based supermarket operator Delhaize Group. Food Lion executives estimate that at least 150, and possibly as many as 180 stores, will get remodels in 2015, at a cost of about $1.5 million per store.
"The common thread is that every change Food Lion has made has been made with our customers in mind," Williams remarked at the grand reopening of the 52,000-square-foot Food Lion store he manages on Turnbury Drive in Greenville, the hub of North Carolina’s Tidewater and Coastal Plain district that is home to 175,000 people.
Food Lion expects friendly service to give it an edge against such budget-minded big-box retailers as Walmart and deep discounters including Dollar Tree Inc. that also are doing business in the Greenville area. Even the Burger King at the edge of the parking lot of the store on Turnbury Drive might worry a bit about the expanded grab-and-go selection of fruit, salads, sandwiches, meat and cheese that Food Lion is presenting fresh each day.
One thing that came through loud and clear when Food Lion asked customers how it could improve the shopping experience was a more efficient checkout, according to Williams.
