Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Contributor Post: Current and Former Krogers in North Carolina

 

Well, here's a first: two posts in the same number of days the blog's first contributor post! You may have seen commenter 11110 mention below a post before that he had a Kroger project of his own in the works. This week he notified me (via his new flickr account) that the project is now complete, and ready for sharing!

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1vy-rTiwvyDaLQ2wA0oA_g1B4GpM

As you can see from the screengrab above, his project is a Google MyMaps feature titled "Current and Former Krogers (NC)." If you click this link (or the screengrab directly), you may access the map and explore its pinpoints. Here is 11110's description of the map:

Most of the stores open in NC on or after the establishment of the Carolinas Division. Some stores still missing.

Red- Current stores
Blue- Former Stores
Yellow- Stores taken over by Bi-Lo in 1988

11110 likened Kroger's situation in North Carolina (not counting Harris Teeter stores, which they did not take ownership of until 2013/14) to that of Albertsons in Florida, for those of you familiar with that story. (If not, check out the Albertsons Florida Blog!) He also linked me to a Groceteria.com post that mentions some of Kroger's storied history in North Carolina. Below is an excerpt...

Kroger was once a much bigger force in NC. The chain had a strong presence in the Triad (Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point) from the late 1940s to 1999, when the Triad stores were more or less swapped (an oversimplification) with Harris-Teeter for some Virginia locations. They built most of their own stores but also acquired some Family Mart units from A&P in the mid-1980s. The Triad stores built near the end were quite large; Harris-Teeter (not exactly known for compact stores itself) actually subdivided some of them.

Kroger moved somewhat aggressively into Charlotte in the late 1970s but departed in 1988, selling their stores to Bi-Lo, as has been documented elsewhere on the board.

In the Triangle, I know Kroger was in Durham at least as early as the late 1960s or early 1970s (maybe earlier), but they apparently did not have a major presence in Raleigh until they...started building some of their own stores around the ['80s and '90s].

There were formerly stores in Wilmington NC/Myrtle Beach SC, at least during the 1980s and 1990s, but I'm not sure about the whole history there nor about any former presence in Greenville/Spartanburg or Charleston SC.

A second member (both quoted are based in NC) offers some additional information:

Kroger's first move south was the purchase of the Jamison Stores in Roanoke, VA in the 1927-29 era, I believe 1928. They purchased 92 stores, including stores in Winston-Salem, Durham and Mt Airy, NC and in the Bluefield area of West Virginia, and in Johnson City, TN. The Jamison stores were converted to Kroger at that time, and Kroger signs went up in Winston-Salem and Durham (cannot confirm the conversion in Mt Airy), as well as stores to the other extremes in Johnson City, Bluefield, Danville and Lynchburg. Kroger is still strong in the southern Virginia valley, and in the Lynchburg-Danville market. In NC, Kroger lasted in Durham for a couple of years, left, and came back in about 1956-57. They operated continuously in W-S until the Harris Teeter trade a few years ago. Elsewhere in NC, they were latecomers to Raleigh, and could be found in Triangle extreme edges such as a store in Wilson that dated from the 1990s and closed about 5 years ago. They appeared in Wilmington in the 1980s, lasted thru the 1990s, and their single store there is a Harris Teeter today. Kroger expanded from their W-S to Greensboro and Burlington in the 1950s. They were briefly in metro Charlotte during the 1980s-90s, as far north and west as Hickory. There have never been any stores in NC west of the US 321 corridor.

The full conversation (titled "When/how did Kroger 'conquer' the South?") can be found here. Back to the map itself: unfortunately, Google's MyMaps feature at this time does not appear to include access to addresses or Street Views. 11110 mentioned to me that some of the stores have been demolished and others remodeled beyond recognition, so if he or any one of you has the time to compile a list and/or set of links, I will gladly update this post so everyone may explore freely!

Of course, it's worth noting that North Carolina is not, in fact, within the Mid-South Retail Blog coverage area :P  No matter; the MSRB welcomes contributor posts either way! Figured this would be as good a time as any to plug that again, in case you're new here and have something to share. Naturally, Mid-South retail and/or anything Kroger related would be preferred given the blog's focus, but I would never turn away anything kindly sent in. Simply email stories and/or pictures you may have, along with enough background for readers to understand the context whether in the form of a fully written post (this is preferable, if you would!) or for me to comprise a post from if need be, to midsouthretailblog (at) gmail (dot) com. Or if you want, you can just contact me there and have a retail-related conversation, like has also happened over the past week with one of the blog's readers. Contributions and/or conversations are always welcome! :)

UPDATE, 8-16-16: I received an email from another contributor responding to the earlier Groceteria excerpt asking about Kroger's past and present operations in South Carolina. Here's that information:

Kroger in the past
  • Anderson
  • Charleston
  • Florence
  • Goose Creek
  • Greenville (as Welcome)
  • Florence
  • Lexington
  • Mount Pleasant
  • Sumter

Kroger in the present
  • Aiken
  • Bluffton (Kroger and soon-to-be Kroger Marketplace GA-678)
  • Florence
  • Columbia (as Kroger and Kroger Marketplace)
  • Hilton Head Island
  • Irmo
  • North Augusta
  • North Myrtle Beach
  • Myrtle Beach
  • Surfside Beach

South Carolina was [previously] covered by the Atlanta Division (Anderson, Aiken, North Augusta) and the Charlotte Division.  All Kroger stores in South Carolina [now] are in the Atlanta Division. Additionally, Harris Teeter is re-entering Greenville with two stores.

Thanks to 11110 for sharing his creation with us, and again, don't forget to check it out here! In the meantime, I ask that you also check out yesterday's MSRB feature post here, if you haven't yet... and have fun exploring the retail world wherever you are!

Retail Retell

23 comments:

  1. The timing of this post couldn't have been any better...

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    1. Either you're referring to your own two posts within short time on your blogs (which are both good, btw - cool that you got to stay in another Signature Inn too, I wasn't aware of that!), or this comment has gone completely over my head XD

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    2. I ended up going to NC and will have photos of at least a small handful of those locations on the map. It won't be much, but it's something.

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    3. Oh, neat! You've been traveling all over, haha! Looking forward to those :)

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  2. One of the Krogers were in Salisbury! They're now subdivided into Big Lots, Harbor Freight and Office Depot.

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    1. Good to know! It must have been pretty big to fit all three of those stores. I know Big Lots and Harbor Freight are typical reuses for stores, but it's less often you see an Office Depot take over something I think!

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  3. Two of the Krogers on that map got converted into Office Depots.

    One was a Sav-On in Greenville, the other was the aforementioned Sav-On in Salisbury which I did lay a pin down for since I noticed the rounded corners.

    Some of these (Wilkesboro) I had to go in Google Earth to turn on the timeline feature for. I still feel like I'm missing a few Charlotte stores, the Gastonia store, and another store in High Point

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    1. Still, it's amazing that you were able to find and compile what is essentially the statewide past and modern history of Kroger locations!

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    2. It is,

      I do have to thank Groceteria for part of it, and Bone Suckin' Sauce's website as well. Some of these locations never would've gotten if it weren't for those resources.

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  4. Thanks both to you and 11110 for this little history lesson. History was my favorite subject, so combining the two things (retail and history) I like together is just so awesome. I'll have to save the link for another day as it is time for some shut-eye for me at the moment.

    I've been open to capturing a few Kroger stores myself, but I obviously have to go south or southwest for them. At one time Kroger actually recognized my zip code on its store locator and wanted me to go the 233 miles to the closest location it has in Weirton, WV. Now it just refers me to Turkey Hill or Litman Jewelers as Kroger owns those companies.

    Speaking of Kroger and contributions, did any of you Memphians ever see a millennium decor drugstore sign? I ask because I don't recall any of you fellas posting a picture of one.

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    1. You're welcome.

      I'm not from Memphis, but I don't recall them using drugstore signs here in NC. Unless you're talking about the Kroger sign that gets put in front of the building, in that case some just say Kroger, while others say Kroger Food & Drug, say Kroger Food and Drugs, Kroger Food and Pharmacy (2 styles), and in the case of a store in Myrtle Beach, Kroger Sav-On

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    2. You're welcome from me as well! I enjoy retail history too (as you've seen with my Seessel's and Albertsons in MS stuff :P )

      On your note about having to travel to get to any Kroger stores: I mentioned this recently on a flickr post regarding the Ahold/Delhaize merger... I think Kroger would be interested in returning to the northeast, but they will only do so if the stores up for grabs are high quality enough. With these divestitures and the A&P bankruptcy, we've seen no interest from Kroger, likely because they foresee it not going smoothly for them - similar to how Seessel's turned out to be a bust for Albertsons; it looked like a good deal, and simply turned out not to be. Right now I think Kroger is comfortable staying away, but I do think one day they'll return up there (and Florida, for that matter)!

      Nope, haven't seen one that that I know of!

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    4. While Kroger technically never operated in the northeast proper beyond western PA, it amuses me how close to Pennsylvania some of their stores are. The Weirton store I mentioned can't be more than 10 miles. Morgantown, WV has three Kroger locations and that city is probably only 5 miles away from the PA border. Seems like Kroger could easily make a move back if they really wanted too. I can't imagine many remembering the whole union thing unless they've read my blog. :D

      I was actually reading recently where Kroger has closed a couple of their West Virginia stores. There is even a Facebook group that was made to save one of the now closed stores. It was sad to hear as the town's only other options are Walmart, Save a Lot, and Shop N Save. Shop N Save is more like a local grocery store chain.

      Yeah, I'm referring to an interior millennium decor drugstore sign. Must be rather uncommon.

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    5. Yep, haha! Glad you've documented that for prosperity :)

      I hate hearing of situations like that :(

      Sounds like you've got something up your sleeve ;)

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  5. I'm pretty skeptical on Kroger entering Florida, myself. Publix has over 700 stores down there (Kroger's most populated state, California only has 300) and a better reputation than Kroger. Kroger would have to be really aggressive to find spots for even 1 or 200 stores. There's a possibility Winn-Dixie could get brought by Kroger, but some of those stores would need huge capital investment, something I don't think Kroger wants to do in that area.

    The Harris Teeter division could probably do something on a smaller scale, but I wouldn't put all of my money on it.

    Mid-Atlantic (the same division that runs the existing NC stores) also runs the WV stores.

    If Kroger returns to Pittsburgh, it should also try to return to Cleveland and Northeast Ohio where they have no presence.

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    1. Yeah, I was thinking something along smaller lines as well. Harris Teeter would probably be ideal. And I agree completely about Winn Dixie... too much investment with no guaranteed payout for Kroger. I expect Albertsons/Safeway to go for those over Kroger should they go up for sale at all.

      It's very odd that Kroger doesn't have a complete presence in its home state!

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    2. They need to stay out of NE Ohio... *ducks*

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  6. I know I'm little less than 3 years late with some info...

    But I know of 1 former Kroger store in Greenville, SC.

    Sometime in the late 80s, on Laurens Road (then the major retail stretch in Greenville), Kroger built a prototype store. The store was called Welcome. There's not a whole lot out there on it besides a thread or two on Groceteria. From what I was able to gather, Welcome was a hypermarket. Only two were ever built, with one in Greenville, SC and the other being in Richmond, VA.

    The stores did NOT last very long, both closing six months after opening in 1988. The Greenville store was sold to Bi-Lo, whose headquarters were nearby. Bi-Lo did not bother keeping the store open and closed it. Greenville's store was split in half with the side facing Haywood Road becoming a Burlington and the other half becoming home to a OfficeMax. OfficeMax closed and moved to a new development in the early 2000s (Shoppes at Greenridge), with the space sitting empty for a year or two, eventually being occupied by Surplus Warehouse. The exterior is virtually untouched, and the remnants of the old Welcome road signs were intact/in use until 2-3 years ago, when they were taken down and replaced.

    The shopping center that Welcome was in still bears the name "Welcome Center" and housed a Circuit City (now Michaels), and a Discovery Zone (which became Rugged Wearhouse, but is currently vacant).

    Laurens Rd isn't the main retail stretch anymore, with most of big names such as Sam's Club, Kmart, Best Buy, Goody's, and Hechinger either relocating (Best Buy, Sam's), consolidating (Goody's), or closing outright (Kmart and Hechinger).

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    1. Wow, that's very interesting - thanks for sharing! I've never heard of that before (well, besides the lone mention in the post above, but I had no clue what it was referring to!), and based on how short-lived and obscure the concept was, I imagine most people are unfamiliar with it as well. Pretty cool to learn about, though! I'll see if I can contact 11110 to let him know of your comment; I'm sure he'd find it interesting, too.

      Do you know what became of the other location in Richmond? Or, perhaps, the former Kroger the information I received and posted above says was once in Lexington, SC? (I've been to Lexington many times and think it would be interesting to know where it was, if you happen to have any info on that front.)

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