Food City to digitally connect stores
A regional supermarket retailer is integrating its brick-and-mortar channel with a broader end-to-end digital experience.
Food City Supermarkets, a banner of K-VA-T Food Stores Inc., is deploying the full Homesome regional grocery digital commerce platform suite across its 140 stores spanning Virginia, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia.
By deploying the Homesome enterprise, fulfillment, and artificial intelligence platforms, Food City intends to develop a complete e-commerce site and mobile app that are purpose-built to translate its in-store experience into a digital presence the retailer owns and controls. The experience will include fulfillment operations and personalization capabilities designed for the specific demands of high-volume grocery operations.
"We looked at everything available to regional grocers today, and nothing else came close," said Kevin Stafford, VP of center store operations, K-VA-T Food Stores. "Running a banner like Food City means managing weekly ads, digital coupons, loyalty, in-store promotions, and a seamless e-commerce experience—all of it connected, all of it on-brand. Most platforms can handle one or two of those things. Homesome is the only one to bring all of it together, and we're confident that will translate into a best-in-class experience for our customers and our associates."
Homesome will provide Food City with a website and app featuring all its products, order management technology, automated same-day delivery through its partners, one-stop customer support and tools to manage stores, sales and customer information. When a shopper buys directly from Food City, the retailer owns that customer and their data.
[READ MORE: Exclusive Q&A: Homesome seeks to become ‘Shopify for grocers’]
"Food City is exactly the kind of retailer that the grocery industry should be paying attention to," said Rahul Chabukswar, CEO and founder of Homesome. "They've spent decades earning deep trust in their communities, and they understand that protecting that relationship in the digital channel requires the same intentionality it took to build it in the store. That clarity of vision is rare, and it's exactly the kind of partnership Homesome was built for."
K-VA-T’s adoption of Homesome follows its 2025 deployment of the SymphonyAI CINDE Connected Retail platform in an effort to deepen its use of customer data across all key business functions, including supply chain, merchandising, shelf planning, assortment, and promotion optimization.
"Our focus has always been on building deeper, more personalized relationships with our customers, and that requires more than fragmented point solutions," said Misty Deskins, senior director of marketing, K-VA-T Food Stores. "Homesome gives us a single platform to connect every customer touchpoint — from discovery to fulfillment — helping us better serve our customers while driving meaningful growth."
Food City parent company K-VA-T Food Stores Inc. is headquartered in Abingdon, Va., and operates 163 retail stores throughout southeast Kentucky, southwest Virginia, east Tennessee, north Georgia, and Alabama.
