Food City Acquiring Bi-Lo Stores in Chattanooga, Tennessee Area (Knoxville: sales, coupons)

[Carolina Knight]

Southeastern Grocers, parent company of Bi-Lo, and K-VA-T Food Stores, parent of Food City, have agreed to transfer 29 Bi-Lo stores in the Chattanooga, Tennessee and northwest Georgia areas.

Further reading:
"Southeastern Grocers to Transfer 29 Chattanooga-area BI-LO Stores to K-VA-T Food Stores Incorporated." Jacksonville, Florida: Southeastern Grocers. 2015-07-23.

[Creekcat]

Not had any experience with Food City, looks like I will have plenty in the future. Pros and cons, since most of my grocery needs were met by Bi-Lo?

[Carolina Knight]

Bi-Lo propelled into Tennessee through the acquisition of Red Food Stores in 1994, and had many stores in the Chattanooga and Knoxville areas. It exited Knoxville because it could not compete with Food City.

Food City's quick entrance into Chattanooga will shakeup the competition with Walmart and Publix. It remains to be seen if Kroger may attempt to re-enter the area.

[Trevor92]

Originally Posted by Creekcat

Not had any experience with Food City, looks like I will have plenty in the future. Pros and cons, since most of my grocery needs were met by Bi-Lo?

They always struck me as very similar chains. Both carried many store brands made by Topco like Valutime and Topcare and had stores decorated in a similar way.

For us, food city was better though had several pros compared to BI-LO, though we were most familiar with BI-LO in South Carolina and I'm not sure if there were differences in the Chattanooga market. We thought food city was less expensive. Part of this was because food city carried more items in a store brand. We could buy Topcare diapers for $15 a box, rather than spending $25 for a box of Pampers at BI-LO because it was the cheapest option. They also had good sales and a monthly midnight madness sale with many BOGOs usually the last Friday of the month from 4pm-Midnight. Food City has also been adding new meat smokers and pizza ovens to their newer stores which we enjoyed in the Johnson City area when we lived there. I think the new Johnson City store being built is planned to even have a growler station which they also have in Sevierville. They also had great programs buying produce from local farms in East Tennessee. Hopefully that's something they can continue for the new stores. They also had much better meats than the national chains. In the times we've been to BI-LO the meat and produce didn't strike us as bad though. They've also won several awards for community service and donating to the community.

An interesting quirk is that Food City has acquired the rights to several older Tennessee brands. They still sell Kay's ice cream, Lay's meats, Kern's bread and a few others that use to be popular around Knoxville several decades ago but have probably been gone from Chattanooga for a while.

The negatives that I've read about on other sites is that Food City doesn't double coupons, unless they make an exception for the new stores. They also don't seem to have as good of a gas discount program. You're limited to 1 or 2 gas visits for 15 or 30 cents off, depending on the day. When we went to BI-LO we could keep collecting them and get even more off. The trade-off is Food City will often run promotions and you can trade 2 gas visits for 5% off or 3 gas visits for 10% off your grocery bill up to a $5 or $10 max discount.

So some things that some people will probably like more and other things some people will complain about. Overall I would say if you liked BI-LO, you'll probably like Food City, though they will do some things a little differently. It is a store I miss now living outside of their footprint.

[Carolina Knight]

Food City plans to add fuel stations at most Bi-Lo stores being acquired.

Further reading:
Pare, Mike. "Food City to buy, upgrade local Bi-Lo stores with gas stations, sharper pricing." Chattanooga Times Free Press. 2015-07-24.

[An Einnseanair]

So if you have a Bi-Lo Fuel Perks balance I'd suggest using it fairly quickly.

[Carolina Knight]

Originally Posted by jwkilgore

So if you have a Bi-Lo Fuel Perks balance I'd suggest using it fairly quickly.

Food City has a Fuel Bucks ValuPoints program in place. It is similar to one at Ingle's Markets, which also has fuel stations at select stores.

Another major change will be the transfer of ownership of Bi-Lo pharmacies to Food City. Pharmacy permits with state and federal agencies will change. Food City will use a different pharmacy system than Southeastern Grocers.

[Serious Conversation]

Other than Food City's local produce, I was never a big fan of them.

First, they have gone from carrying mostly name brand merchandise to mostly the private label "Food Club" brand. Food Club isn't a private label (there is a grocery store here in Indy that carries it), but I've always found it to be inferior to name brand stuff.

Food City's meat has also gone downhill in recent years. Better cuts are often not available. Back in the Tri-Cities, we'd always go to Sam's for our meat. Produce can be good at the newer stores in the main cities, but the Food City's farther out have far fewer healthy options, are smaller, and contain mostly cheaper/unhealthy stuff. It ends up going from a mid-market grocer to a low end one, but without the low prices. Food City also has a budget chain in KY/VA called Super Dollar for the low end stuff.

My biggest complaint is that they have basically crowded out every grocer other than Walmart in the main grocery market in the Tri-Cities, and food prices have risen more quickly the larger market share Food City seemed to get. We used to have Oakwood, Winn-Dixie, Food Lion, Whites, A&P, Kroger, Ingles and Food Country in Kingsport. While A&P and Food Lion had larger national problems, Whites, Winn-Dixie, and Oakwood either left the area or closed completely and in their places we got more Food Cities. We also have a few budget grocers like Priceless Foods. I'd hate to see Food City gobble up another market and crowd everyone else out.

[Trevor92]

Originally Posted by Carolina Knight

Food City's quick entrance into Chattanooga will shakeup the competition with Walmart and Publix. It remains to be seen if Kroger may attempt to re-enter the area.

I found one news article that was an interesting reference to market share here:
KVAT to buy BiLo in Chattanooga | Retail & Financial content from Supermarket News

Walmart leads with 36.7% and plans to build additional Neighborhood Market Stores. BI-LO gets 28.3% of the grocery business and Publix is in 3rd with 7.3% with only 4 stores. It'll be interesting to see if this changes over time as Walmart opens up more stores and BI-LO is replaced.

[Carolina Knight]

Originally Posted by Trevor92

I found one news article that was an interesting reference to market share here:
KVAT to buy BiLo in Chattanooga | Retail & Financial content from Supermarket News

Walmart leads with 36.7% and plans to build additional Neighborhood Market Stores. BI-LO gets 28.3% of the grocery business and Publix is in 3rd with 7.3% with only 4 stores. It'll be interesting to see if this changes over time as Walmart opens up more stores and BI-LO is replaced.

Walmart and Publix have contributed to Bi-Lo's decline in other markets.

Food City will look to infill between Chattanooga and Knoxville. I wonder if they may open additional stores in cities Bi-Lo previously had stores prior to closing them.

I do not know what Publix's plans are for additional stores in the Chattanooga market. It does not have any stores in north Georgia.

Is there room for additional participants in the market? Kroger withdrew plans for a store in Ringgold, Georgia four years ago. Bi-Lo #5305, soon to be Food City #705, Willow Plaza, 1600 East 23rd Street, Chattanooga, Tennessee 37404-5707, is the last former Kroger remaining in operation. If Kroger re-enters Chattanooga, it will likely open its Marketplace hypermarket stores to compete against Walmart Supercenter stores. Ingle's Markets is another chain that has stores outside the Chattanooga market, but has not entered the market. Its stores are similar to Food City in food, pharmacy, fuel, and some discount grocery stores.