Greenville, South Carolina supermarkets and grocery stores (Columbia, Spartanburg: for sale, 2014)

[Carolina Knight]

This thread is for the discussion of supermarkets and grocery stores in the Greenville, South Carolina area, specifically within Greenville County.

Options

• Aldi: discount grocer
  
• Bi-Lo: traditional/conventional supermarket
  
• Costco: wholesale warehouse
  
• Earth Fare: specialty grocer operating as a healthy supermarket
  
• The Fresh Market: gourmet supermarket
  
• Ingle's: traditional/conventional supermarket
  
• Publix: traditional/conventional supermarket
  
• Sav-A-Lot: discount grocer. Several Rite Aid locations in Greenville and Pickens counties feature a Sav-A-Lot section.
  
• Walmart: operates traditional/supermarkets in supercenters and Neighborhood Market; operates wholesale warehouse in Sam's Club
  
• Whole Foods: specialty grocer

Areas underserved

Articles in the The Greenville News and Upstate Business Journal highlighted specific areas in need of grocery stores. West Greenville has been featured. (West Greenville grocery store) Other areas mentioned are Augusta Street/Road and Stone Avenue.

Several affluent areas throughout the county are food deserts. They are notably Pelham-Batesville and southern Greer.

Future

The year 2013 was a big year for supermarkets in North Carolina and South Carolina. Piggly Wiggly Carolina divested 29 locations to Bi-Lo and Harris Teeter. Bi-Lo acquired Harvey's, Reid's and Sweetbay from Delhaize, parent of Food Lion, and divested seven Charlotte, North Carolina area stores to Publix. Kroger acquired Harris Teeter and opened the first Kroger Marketplace store in South Carolina in Hilton Head Island. Publix started their Charlotte Division, their fifth, and opened their first North Carolina store in February.

Are there any chains who may consider coming to Greenville? Are any existing chains likely to be acquired or close? Is anyone opening new stores?

Recommended reading and sources

Lee, Anna. "Greenville sees opportunities for grocery stores in urban neighborhoods." The Greenville News. 2014-04-10. GreenvilleOnline.com. 2014-04-10. <http://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/greenville/downtown/2014/04/10/greenville-sees-opportunities-grocery-stores-urban-neighborhoods/7539269/>

Toppe, John. "Westside study shows need for grocery store." Upstate Business Journal. 2014-03-14. Upstate Business Journal. 2014-04-10. <http://upstatebusinessjournal.com/news/westside-study-shows-need-grocery-store/>

[drfranklin]

Downtown Greenville could certainly benefit from an additional, specialty/organic grocer.

Green Life co-founder opened Katuah Market in Asheville in 2013 (Green Life sold off it's Asheville/Chattanooga stores to Whole Foods) - I'd love a Katuah location here - it would compliment the McBee Publix/Pleasantburg Fresh Market quite well.

[Carolina Knight]

Originally Posted by drfranklin

Downtown Greenville could certainly benefit from an additional, specialty/organic grocer.

Green Life co-founder opened Katuah Market in Asheville in 2013 (Green Life sold off it's Asheville/Chattanooga stores to Whole Foods) - I'd love a Katuah location here - it would compliment the McBee Publix/Pleasantburg Fresh Market quite well.

I have avoided organic food options; however, I would like to consider organic meat options for steaks, chicken and seafood. Downtown does need an option. I wish Earth Fare would consider returning with a larger convenient location than going over to Pelham Road.

[tylerSC]

For staples and snack foods, I make Aldi and Walmart my first choice due to better pricing. Unless Publix has a good sale on their store brands. In fact, I mostly purchase the private label store brands at all of these stores and they are mostly very good to me. At Publix, I enjoy their fried chicken, deli sandwiches, and bakery. And the Publix brand ice cream is very good. If I have a need for high quality or upscale, I will choose Publix or Whole Foods. Whole Foods is very nice, but arguably overpriced and expensive. So unnecessary for the most part for me. That is why they call it "whole wallet." But it is very nice for what it is if you have money to spend. But on the high end, I would also like to see Harris-Teeter return to Greenville.

[tylerSC]

I believe this discussion should also include Spartanburg and possibly Anderson counties, as they are part of the Upstate SC market along with Greenville. And most corporate chains would normally establish a presence in the greater total market rather than just one isolated city. Food Lion has tried this, but for the most part failed. Although I think they still have one store in Greenville County, and a few in Spartanburg. So Food Lion should also be included in this topic as well.

[vistatiger]

Originally Posted by tylerSC

I believe this discussion should also include Spartanburg and possibly Anderson counties, as they are part of the Upstate SC market along with Greenville. And most corporate chains would normally establish a presence in the greater total market rather than just one isolated city. Food Lion has tried this, but for the most part failed. Although I think they still have one store in Greenville County, and a few in Spartanburg. So Food Lion should also be included in this topic as well.

Food Lion has two stores left in Greenville Co (W Georgia Rd Simpsonville and Hwy25 Moonville/Piedmont) one or two in Anderson, one in Clemson and 2 in Greenwood, one on Hwy 29 near Lyman. Those are the ones I know of. I like them. They have done a great job lowering their everyday prices especially on their product lines and remodeling their older stores chain wide.

The lion (griffin style) logo is my favorite in all of retail.

[lv2trvl]

We get what we can at Aldi. The rest is a combination of Bi-Lo, Publix and Fresh Market(for sale items). We typically do not purchase meat from Aldi, and find most of the meat we purchase at Bi-Lo. Fresh Market will often run $2.99 Ground Chuck on Tuesdays along with boneless, skinless chicken breast for $2.99 a pound. We don't always get the chicken, but, the ground chuck price can not be beat. Also, the past two weeks, Tuesday only, they have offered gallon milk for $2.99. For eggs, we go where they are on sale. Walgreens had them for $1.29 a dozen a few weeks ago, and we got four dozen. We were at Aldi yesterday and they were $1.99 a dozen!! I am hoping someone will run them for 99cents a dozen now that we are close to Easter.

[Carolina Knight]

Originally Posted by tylerSC

For staples and snack foods, I make Aldi and Walmart my first choice due to better pricing. Unless Publix has a good sale on their store brands. In fact, I mostly purchase the private label store brands at all of these stores and they are mostly very good to me. At Publix, I enjoy their fried chicken, deli sandwiches, and bakery. And the Publix brand ice cream is very good. If I have a need for high quality or upscale, I will choose Publix or Whole Foods. Whole Foods is very nice, but arguably overpriced and expensive. So unnecessary for the most part for me. That is why they call it "whole wallet." But it is very nice for what it is if you have money to spend. But on the high end, I would also like to see Harris-Teeter return to Greenville.

Originally Posted by tylerSC

I believe this discussion should also include Spartanburg and possibly Anderson counties, as they are part of the Upstate SC market along with Greenville. And most corporate chains would normally establish a presence in the greater total market rather than just one isolated city. Food Lion has tried this, but for the most part failed. Although I think they still have one store in Greenville County, and a few in Spartanburg. So Food Lion should also be included in this topic as well.

I liked Harris Teeter when they were in Greenville and Spartanburg counties from 1989 to 2001. I think they underestimated their potential. What could have happened if Harris Teeter did not sell their stores to Bi-Lo in 2001 and leave the area? Store 260 (401 Roper Mountain Road, Greenville) would still be open. Stores on South Pleasantburg Drive, Greenville; and Old Spartanburg Road, Greer and both Spartanburg stores may have expanded or be replaced. Additional stores within Greenville County would open in now affluent areas of Pelham-Batesville, Five Forks, Simpsonville and Cherrydale.

It is interesting to see what happens with Kroger after the successful acquisition of Harris Teeter. First, Kroger is looking to add Kroger Marketplace stores throughout South Carolina. One in consideration is in Columbia on South Assembly Street on the site of the former baseball stadium.



Second, Kroger is looking to in-fill in markets previously having stores or completely new markets. Upstate South Carolina as a whole would be a previous market with Anderson having two Kroger stores and Greenville having the concept Welcome store at Haywood Road and Old Woodruff Road. I do not know if Kroger would want to organically grow through the additional of new stores or quickly through the acquisition of an existing chain. Kroger and Bi-Lo/Winn Dixie's footprints have little to no overlap.

I am afraid Food Lion is past the point of no return. They entered quickly with several stores lacking necessities and closed over half the stores it opened with two years ago. In the past two years, Food Lion has closed or divested over 250 stores. (Harvey's, Reid's and Sweetbay were sold to Bi-Lo Holdings.) It will be tough for them to operate in North Carolina with Publix opening stores. Though they remain an option, Food Lion has little impact and presence in the area.

Though Spartanburg and Anderson could be included in the discussion, I am focusing more on the specific Greenville area.

Originally Posted by vistatiger

Food Lion has two stores left in Greenville Co (W Georgia Rd Simpsonville and Hwy25 Moonville/Piedmont) one or two in Anderson, one in Clemson and 2 in Greenwood, one on Hwy 29 near Lyman. Those are the ones I know of. I like them. They have done a great job lowering their everyday prices especially on their product lines and remodeling their older stores chain wide.

The lion (griffin style) logo is my favorite in all of retail.

Food Lion presently operates 12 stores in Anderson, Cherokee, Greenville, Greenwood, Oconee and Spartanburg counties:
Anderson - 3750 Highway 81 North (Store 2208)
Blacksburg - 1130 West Cherokee Street (Store 2105)
Gaffney - 1405 East Fredrick Street (Store 63)
Greenwood - 1605 72 Bypass East (Store 1431) - only store in the area with a pharmacy department
Greenwood - 2551 Highway 25 South (Store 2145)
Lyman - 300 Spartanburg Highway (Store 2642)
Piedmont - 8024 Augusta Road (Store 2644)
Roebuck - 4825 Highway 221 (Store 2641)
Seneca - 1085-D Old Clemson Highway (Store 2209)
Simpsonville - 1004 West Georgia Road (Store 2212)
Spartanburg - 95 Garner Road (Store 2661)
Woodruff - 926 Woodruff Road (Store 2680)

Most Food Lion stores are operating in pharmacy deserts.

[mcatp]

You forgot Trader Joe's

[drfranklin]

Originally Posted by mcatp

You forgot Trader Joe's

There was a post recently on this forum stating the Greenville Trader Joe's is just meeting expectations (of course, take any forum information with a grain of salt - I imagine a sizable percentage of previous business was from Western NC residents - a new TJ's recently opened in Asheville) - based on this, I wouldn't expect TJ's to expand in the Upstate anytime in the future