Posted on 01/11/2012 10:48:04 PM PST by SWAMPSNIPER
All Food Lion stores on the First Coast, including a dozen in Jacksonville, are closing, company officials announced Wednesday night.
The stores will be closed within 30 days, the company said.
Stores in Clay, St. Johns, Nassau, Baker and Alachua counties are also closing. In addition, the Food Lion in Waycross is among the Georgia stores slated to be closed.
The company will convert its Food Lion in Lake City to a Harveys store. All of the other stores in Florida are closing.
(Excerpt) Read more at jacksonville.com ...
Food Lion is headquartered in nearby Salisbury, NC, and I’ve not heard anything about their having difficulties as a whole. It would be big news. There’s a Food Lion in my small, outer suburban town that’s not two years old, that is the equal of any Harris-Teeter, and very popular.
There are still a lot of regular old country folks around here who were made millionaires by investing locally and putting their retirement in Food Lion and RJR stocks. Well, it wasn’t named Food Lion at the time. That came with the buyout by De Lion.
Is that the April 12, 1861 Map?
I wouldn’t call Food Lion upscale at all. Their newest stores have more variety and a more appealing design and layout, but they’re really in the neighborhood of Aldi as far as price and market perception.
The vegetable depts. at the A&Ps are appalling! And after the big holidays, it takes weeks to restock things like sugar and spices. Luckily, I live near an independent “fancy” food store that sells beautiful food.
Both A&P and Winn-Dixie vacated the regional market here because of Food Lion. The more desireable locations actually became Food Lion stores. Same happened to Kroger, most of which became Harris-Teeter.
I have a certain fondness for Harris-Teeter, as they were once Big Star grocery stores. I spent many a night cutting amberlith masks for their store circulars in my first job. They’re a little pricey for day-to-day, but do have some things I like that I won’t find in the local Food Lion, so I go there for those things.
Good thing for WD. WD's stock was tanking and they were losing money.
A&P might be contributing to the “food desert” problem, by which blacks are systematically denied nutrition.../s
I have to disagree, at least here. Three years ago, Wal-Mart opened a supercenter here in Norfolk, right next to a K-Mart and across the street from a Food Lion. Don't get me wrong, Wal-Mart gets lots of business. But everyone I know expected the K-Mart to close (rumors were that the building would become a Sam's Club) and Food Lion to have problems.
But people still shop at K-Mart, probably to avoid the Wal-Mart Zoo, and I've found Food Lion's meat and produce far superior to Wal-Mart, and I spend less. And on the weekends, Food Lion's parking lot is full.
BTW neither store (FL or KM) are on their company's closing list.
The one closing in Fernandina Beach Fl has been so unsuccessful, one could shoot off a machine gun in it and not ever hit anyone except an employee. It is about 1/4 mile from Publix which has about 100 times the patronage. This store has been this way for at least 15 years and I am surprised it lasted this long.
More of interest, it is an anchor store in a small strip mall to which about 10 other stores were added four years ago and which have remained vacant from day one. This strip mall seems destined to become a ghost mall soon. I wonder what bank has it on its non performing assets listing?
Our tiny County Seat (pop. 4k) has a Walmart Superstore and the local, employee-owned store. We go to the local store for meat and produce and shop WM for canned/packaged/frozen things. Over 25 years ago, everyone predicted the other store would close. Instead, it and a SuperValue combined, became employee-owned and both are flourishing.
The county has around 30k people and there are several small stores in the nearby villages, plus a large organic co-op and a couple of tiny organic stores still in business. There are also still several meat processor/locker operations in the county and, IIRC, at least two cheese factories.
We are, unfortunately, still a forced unionization state.
Very similar to the Food Lion by my house in Fruit Cove. I've been using it as a very large convenience store since they have a good selection, low prices and it's never crowded. We also have 2 Publix stores nearby that are always crowded. I go right by the Food Lion on my way home from Church and frequently stop in to get their cake doughnuts to enjoy with my coffee. Bummer
Only if you’re used to shopping at the Salvation Army.
They were ugly and run down until they were converted just a few years ago to Bloom. Now they are converting them back to Food Lion.
We like going to the Bloom and make quite a few purchases there. I sure hope they do not go back to what the old Food Lions were like.
Wal mart has purchasing power others can’t touch.
They get a beter price when they order a gazillion widgets as opposed to three you or I may order.
Personally I hate wal mart.
They sell CRAP.
A solid proof of American Exceptionalism is just how far the South has risen after the WBTS. What was once a region of slavery and the Democrat party now embraces freedom wholeheartedly with a pro-business environment characterized by Right to Work, ensuring economic liberty for all. No wonder the South, a strongly pro-God, pro-gun part of America, is the engine that drives the whole country.
It's no coincidence that most of the Right to Work states repudiated the Marxist in the 2008 elections, favoring the ticket with a true Tea Party Patriot, Sarah Palin.
To a large extent, the regions where union thugs extort businesses (and employees as well), saw an embrace of the anti-freedom, anti-American, economic-crippling agenda of Obama and his type.
As a courtesy (another Southern trait) to all just now visiting the thread, here again is the Right to Work map. It really is interesting to compare it to the two others I posted in this message.
Food Lion is upscale? Not when I lived in Virginia. Maybe the Florida Food Lions are different.
I was just going on the idea that if I was given a locations map of all the area Food Kittys and had to guess which ones were closing I would pick other stores where the competition is just as heavy. I would have guessed a couple of North Area stores before both Mt. P stores.
Two in my town are being closed. Both were new construction in just the last few years. Both also have competition right across the street. The one I probably go to the most is much older and has no nearby competition.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.