(03-04-2019 10:07 AM)UofMemphis Wrote:  

(03-04-2019 10:02 AM)bobdizole Wrote:  

(03-04-2019 09:49 AM)UofMemphis Wrote:  I'm just messing with ya...I went to a Food Lion in Murfreesboro and while it reminded me of a Piggly Wiggly (older style, kinda run down) it had solid prices and everything I needed to make it the weekend.

They had a Food Lion and Exxon on the corner (and NOTHING else lol) but you could get everything you needed at one of the two spots.

I lived around the corner from that Food Lion...Towards the end it looked like what I imagine a Venezuelan market looks like these days. As soon as the Kroger went up across the street it was game over

I bet...it was kinda cool because of the 'chill' vibe as it was 75% college kids shopping there.

I wanna say the place was College Grove or Campus Grove...man, we were stoned ALL the damn time lol. It was a big room with 4 small studios attached to the big room and the 4 kids shared the middle space.

I did several weekend road trips just to visit my friend and get out of town for a Fri, Sat, Sun...hit up Slick Pig, Camino Real, and this 'tropical cafe' place that had killer jerk wings.

Yea it was College Grove. I lived there for awhile

Not going to quote because it's been touched on in many posts ... so to touch on my earlier post:

News to me that Harris Teeter still exists. They're completely gone from my area almost. They use to be somewhat common. Now there's just 2 Harris Teeters in my entire media market (Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson-Asheville). Publix has completely replaced HT in all the nicer areas.

Lidl has expanded into the area but I'd still say the average person is unaware of their existence.

Aldi is the one growing fastest around here. And their established stores are usually quite busy. If they didn't have military speed checkout and much less people doing the bi-monthly shop for a family of 20 it would be a real time sink to check out.

Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets have scared away everybody near them where they've opened except Aldi. Rite-Aid was going to open a pharmacy directly next to a Neighboorhood Market that had a pharmacy but no drive through pharmacy. By the time Rite-Aid was doing framing on the building Wal-Mart had already knocked out the side wall, added a pharmacy drive through, painted the right quarter of the building orange for pickup, and added 15 pickup spots. Rite-Aid finished building the store. They never opened it or moved in.

Bi-Lo has dropped visibly in quality at least twice in the last 5-6 years. They do still have a few golden goose stores around here in competitive high traffic areas with no competition ... and those stores are much nicer and cleaner and clearly profitable. But the average Bi-Lo just feels like a place closing sooner rather than later.

Ingles is perhaps more a tweener than a true HT equivalent? Around here the way it works is if there is an Ingles near you with no competition, then yea, it feels more like a Food Lion. But anywhere where they are competing Ingles differentiates by higher quality (and higher prices). You're going to find poncy cheeses and soy free dairy free gluten free GMO free certified organic whatever-the-eff in Ingles you'd never find in Food Lion. Ingles deli serves Boar's Head just like Publix and the other higher quality (and more expensive) delis.

Food Lion expanded like wildfire in the area. All their stores where they have to compete in denser areas are all gone. Feels like more than half of the Food Lions closed. I would agree, there are some Food Lions that do real well in rural areas, but I attribute this primarily to lack of competition. I think Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets would crush Food Lion if they wanted to.

Memphis has 3 Walmart Neighborhood Market locations (Hickory Hill, Bartlett, South Memphis) and 8 or 9 regular Walmart locations in the metro area. They also operate 4 Sam's Club locations...recently the Target next to the Cordova Walmart closed...I've heard Walmart is considering making it a Sam's Club.

Man it's easy to forget how crowded the Carolina grocery market is, even in my line of work. As someone who grew up with basically two main conventional chains in St. Louis (Dierbergs/Schnucks) and just one in college (Kroger), it's very interesting to see. Then again, the Mid-Atlantic is where a lot of population growth is happening so it's natural that nearby chains like Publix and foreign entities like Lidl are expanding there.

Keep in mind with this that Amazon is targeting major metro areas only. A hipster living in urban San Francisco is a much different target consumer than middle America.

(03-04-2019 12:26 PM)UofMemphis Wrote:  Memphis has 3 Walmart Neighborhood Market locations (Hickory Hill, Bartlett, South Memphis) and 8 or 9 regular Walmart locations in the metro area. They also operate 4 Sam's Club locations...recently the Target next to the Cordova Walmart closed...I've heard Walmart is considering making it a Sam's Club.

The super target near the BMW dealership?

(03-04-2019 11:13 PM)bobdizole Wrote:  

(03-04-2019 12:26 PM)UofMemphis Wrote:  Memphis has 3 Walmart Neighborhood Market locations (Hickory Hill, Bartlett, South Memphis) and 8 or 9 regular Walmart locations in the metro area. They also operate 4 Sam's Club locations...recently the Target next to the Cordova Walmart closed...I've heard Walmart is considering making it a Sam's Club.

The super target near the BMW dealership?

yup...just closed.

perfect location for a Sam's....nearest locations are 64/Gtown Pky or Winchester/Gtown Pky

https://wreg.com/2018/10/30/cordova-targ...-february/

Target also announced they were doing a 1.1 million dollar renovation to the Forest Hill/Poplar store...so at least it's not closing.

(03-04-2019 11:18 PM)UofMemphis Wrote:  

(03-04-2019 11:13 PM)bobdizole Wrote:  

(03-04-2019 12:26 PM)UofMemphis Wrote:  Memphis has 3 Walmart Neighborhood Market locations (Hickory Hill, Bartlett, South Memphis) and 8 or 9 regular Walmart locations in the metro area. They also operate 4 Sam's Club locations...recently the Target next to the Cordova Walmart closed...I've heard Walmart is considering making it a Sam's Club.

The super target near the BMW dealership?

yup...just closed.

perfect location for a Sam's....nearest locations are 64/Gtown Pky or Winchester/Gtown Pky

https://wreg.com/2018/10/30/cordova-targ...-february/

Target also announced they were doing a 1.1 million dollar renovation to the Forest Hill/Poplar store...so at least it's not closing.

It's been awhile since I have been in that area, my family lives out in fayette county we rarely make it into the city when we visit. But it was going down hill fast when I lived out near walnut grove and germantown parkway a few years back

(03-03-2019 04:27 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  Trader Joe's and Whole Foods and Fresh Market are only into metro cores where there's exorbitant foot traffic.

Not here. Trader Joe's selected a suburb as the location for their first Memphis metro location - beats driving to Nashville to stock up on their stuff, but it's most definitely car-centric.

There is a Fresh Market in the more walkable area of midtown Memphis, but it's in a location that's car-centric, too. Whole Foods has an East Memphis location & one in G'town. Their choices are more about income demos than walkability.

We have a few Sprouts in the region as well - one just down the street from Whole Foods.

I'd LOVE for Publix to come here & start eating into some of Kroger's share.

Our Trader Joe's is also in the concrete jungle. I wish it wasn't because I actually like shopping there as they have some unique things and largely fair prices aside from the meat and cheeses. I really only go 1-2 times per year when I have to be in the concrete jungle for something else. If it was somewhere where I didn't have to fight traffic and hoards of sheep, I'd probably go there monthly for shite like cereal, fig breakfast bars, gyoza sauce, pot stickers and other frozen meals, toasted sesame oil, and unique beer. It just isn't worth my time very often.

(03-05-2019 11:38 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  Our Trader Joe's is also in the concrete jungle. I wish it wasn't because I actually like shopping there as they have some unique things and largely fair prices aside from the meat and cheeses. I really only go 1-2 times per year when I have to be in the concrete jungle for something else. If it was somewhere where I didn't have to fight traffic and hoards of sheep, I'd probably go there monthly for shite like cereal, fig breakfast bars, gyoza sauce, pot stickers and other frozen meals, toasted sesame oil, and unique beer. It just isn't worth my time very often.

we have a local meat market that kills 'em all....and I'm from a family of grocers....

we also have a local owner that has dominated the convenience of specialty shopping....

and, we also have wally-world and the winn-dixies....

they all serve a purpose in tandem....

what one ends up realizing is how lazy one is to eat fast food every day, if one can cook for shite, or one is frugal enough to enjoy all the amenities of free market enterprise....