Food Lion in $77 million store upgrade in North Carolina
Food Lion continues its store remodeling initiative.
With a $77 million capital investment, the grocer has enhanced the customer shopping experience at its stores in Greenville, Jacksonville and New Bern, N.C.
The investment includes an extensive product assortment with a focus on affordable and easy meal solutions that are ready-to-eat, ready-to-cook or ready-to-heat. It also featured the installation of energy-efficient overhead LED lighting and refrigerated cases with doors, as well as e-commerce options across all stores through pickup or home delivery.
In addition, most renovated stores are introducing self-checkout lanes, allowing customers to choose to check out with a cashier or by themselves
Earlier this year, Food Lion unveiled 30 remodeled stores in Wilmington, N.C., with a capital investment exceeding $50 million.
“These remodels also reflect our ongoing commitment to invest in the growth and development of our associates so they can provide a shopping experience customers can count on,” said Meg Ham, president, Food Lion. “From a brand-new look and feel to more convenient grab-and-go items to make any meal easier, each store has made big changes with our customers in mind, so they can nourish their families affordably and make life a little easier.”
Working in partnership to help address food insecurity, Food Lion has contributed $150,000 through its hunger-relief platform, Food Lion Feeds, to benefit East Carolina University and its Farm-to-Clinic initiative. The investment funded the construction of a mobile teaching kitchen and food distribution unit designed to improve access to healthy food and support improved nutrition and health for uninsured, low-income diabetes patients in rural eastern North Carolina.
“The mission of East Carolina University’s Farm-to-Clinic aligns with Food Lion Feeds and we are thrilled to have the mobile teaching kitchen on the road this year to combat food insecurity and health disparities in rural, eastern North Carolina together,” said Lauren R. Sastre, Ph.D., assistant professor and farm-to-clinic program director, East Carolina University.
Food Lion noted it was the first grocery retailer in the country to establish a food rescue program with Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, more than 20 years ago. In 2022, Greenville, Jacksonville and New Bern stores provided more than 2.3 million pounds through food rescue to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina and Food Bank of the Albemarle.
Operating more than 1,100 stores, Food Lion is a company of Ahold Delhaize USA, the U.S. division of Zaandam-based Ahold Delhaize.