Lowes Foods

Lowes Foodsis an Americansupermarketchain based inWinston-Salem, North Carolina. The chain initially grew in the mountains ofNorth Carolinaand rural areas ofVirginia, but, starting in the late 1990s, it expanded in metropolitan areas of North Carolina andSouth Carolina.
Lowes Foods started in 1954 inWilkesboro, North Carolina, with a single store opened by Jim Lowe (former co-owner of what becameLowe's Home Improvement Warehouse, and son of its founder). Lowe sold that store to J. C. Faw. Expansion in Wilkesboro and the mountain regions of North Carolina shortly followed.
In 1984,Merchants Distributors, Inc.(MDI), awholesaledistributor of food and non-food items to grocery stores headquartered inHickory, North Carolina, bought Lowes Foods.Lowes added 19 more stores between 1986 and 1990.In 1997, MDI parent companyAlex Lee Inc.boughtByrd'sFood Stores Inc. ofBurlington, North Carolina, which had 43 stores. Lowes Foods had 56 stores, few in the area served by Byrd's. The Byrd's stores became Lowes Foods stores.In 2000,Delhaize Americahad to sell 38Hannafordstores to satisfyantitrustconcerns. Lowes Foods bought 12 of these, six (plus one under construction) in theResearch Triangleregion and six along the North Carolina coast.
In 2007, Lowes Foods opened its firstfuel stationat a Hickory, North Carolina, store. As of August 2016, 14 Lowes Foods stores had fuel stations. Lowes Foods offered a five-cent discount per gallon of gas with each $100 spent inside the store (excl. alcohol and gift card purchases) which was redeemable at Lowes Foods fuel stations or any participatingSpeedwayorWilcoHesslocations in North and South Carolina.
Until October 4, 2009, Lowes Foods usedS&H Greenpointson their store discount card; this was replaced with "Fresh Rewards" on October 5, 2009.Many of Lowes Foods stores also offerLowes Foods to Go, where shoppers can order groceries online and drive to the store to pick them up. Business and home delivery is available at select locations throughout North and South Carolina.
In March 2011, Lowes Foods opened a 'frugal cousin' series of stores calledJust $ave. These stores are located all in North Carolina and mainly in rural areas, targeting budget-conscious shoppers. The first location opened was inPilot Mountain, North Carolina.In August 2011, Lowes Foods began the Aisle50 program in the Carolinas, intending to expand to other areas and other chains in the future. Deals from aisle50.com will not likely replacecoupons, but shoppers will be able to buy certain products for about half their normal prices.
On June 1, 2012, the company announced that they were leaving theCharlotte, North Carolina, market by trading ten Charlotte area stores withHarris Teeterfor six Western North Carolina stores and $26.5 million in cash.By March 2015, Lowes Foods began shifting its store portfolio and had closed five of the six stores it acquired from Harris Teeter as well as stores inCary,Newland,West Jefferson, andGreenville, North Carolina. These closures were announced as part of a comprehensive growth strategy that would include rebranding all existing Lowes Foods stores by 2019 and entering into theGreenville, South Carolinamarket in 2016. Lowes Foods plans to add three to five Greenville stores as part of its growth strategy.In 2013, New CEO Tim Lowe had plans to change their experiences in their stores and wanted to invent a new concept for their locations that showed their "Carolina Roots". The development began with in-depth consumer research and a series of overnight workshops designed to get the very best ideas from managers across all facets of the business including all store managers and many from MDI. During these workshops, Lowes Foods created a number of new concepts, including Chicken Kitchen, SausageWorks, Pick & Prep, and the CommunityIn early 2014, Lowes Foods remodeled their location in Clemmons, North Carolina, a suburb of Winston-Salem, North Carolina where the headquarters is located. This was the first location to feature the new concept. There was also a new Pizza and Panini program which would be eventually known as Sammy's.. The company completed most of the rest of the Forsyth County locations including some stores in theTriangle Regionof North Carolina . The company would also renovate existing and construct new locations in other regions of North Carolina and South Carolina with the concepts throughout the rest of the decade. These later projects would extend a few more concepts.
In August 2016, Lowes Foods announced the closures of two Lowes Foods stores inNorth WilkesboroandShallotte, North Carolina, as well as a Just $ave location inDobson, North Carolina. In July 2019, the closures of three stores—two in theHickory, North Carolina-area, as well as theMyrtle Beach, South Carolina, location on Cipriana Drive, was announced. The closures are part of an overall investment strategy to accelerate growth.
Lowes Foods, Just $ave, KJ's Market, and corporate-owned IGA Southeast locations are considered "stores".  Fuel Centers are part of actual stores and therefore do not count towards total store counts.