Terri A. Tacquard

The History of Food Lion

The now ever popular grocery store Food Lion was first founded 50 plus years ago in 1957 in the small town of Salisbury, North Carolina. Originally known as Food Town, Wilson Smith, Ralph Ketner, and Brown Ketner were the great minds who started this now multi-million dollar company. Many believe that more than any other North Carolinian Glenn Ketner helped create millionaires. For those who originally bought stock from Ketner in Food Town and did not touch it, for many simply not knowing if it could make money or not, 20 years later would be multi millionaires. It all started out with a simple grocery store owned by Glenn Ketner named Ketner Grocery, then once his brother Ralph Ketner had went through several jobs came to work for him along with holding several other jobs in the same industry it all started to take shape. Before they knew it, they were in price wars with big names such as Winn-Dixie. The Food Lion name itself was adopted around 1983, when the Belgium-based grocer Delhaize acquired the Food Town name. Once the Food Town chain expanded into the Virginia area, the chain came upon several stores still called Food Town in the central Virginia area, such as Richmond. Once the chain expanded into Tennessee, they would see an even bigger problem. Nearly 100 stores were displaying the name Food Town. Since the Delhaize Corporation had a lion as its official emblem logo, Food Town thought to display it on all of its merchandise labels and new store front. Ralph Ketner, one of the founders, discovered the “lion” logo actually only needed two new letters (an “L” and an “i”) and the switch of the letter “o” in the chain’s original signs to become Food Lion. December 12, 1982, Ketner decided to announce the official name change from “Food Town” to “Food Lion”. By the later of March 1983, all stores had then been resigned. While some American customers were confused by the name change, it clearly made economic and historic sense for Delhaize, once known as “Delhaize Le Lion” to have the “Lion” still in the brand.
During the 80s, Food Lion opened several stores in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern areas, and actually being very successful where several grocery chains were not. When big chains like A&P, Grand Union, Colonial/Big Star and Piggly Wiggly vanished from the Southern neighborhoods; Food Lion stood strong. The company itself continued expanding all throughout the late 80s, opening many stores in already thriving markets like the Carolinas and Virginia, and trying their hand at new areas like Georgia, West Virginia, and Kentucky, Tennessee and Maryland.
In the early 90s, Food Lion stores popped up in even more areas like Delaware and Pennsylvania; Orlando, Florida; Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma and Shreveport; the Dallas/Fort Worth area; and Houston and Tyler, Texas. During this huge growth, the Food Lion name was the fastest-growing supermarket company in the U.S.; they opened over 100 new stores per year.
In 1993, Food Lion settled a claim in which they were accused of violating federal laws implying unpaid overtime, minimum wage and child labor, according to the U.S. Department of Labor by agreeing to pay $16.2 million. In the claim Food Lion agreed to make changes where all employees would be better informed about their rights. At the time, this was the largest settlement paid by a private employer with allegations of acting against the Fair Labor Standards Act.
January 7, 1994, the Delhaize Corporation made a decision of several store closings which at the time, not knowing that it would become a yearly tradition. The stores that were announced to be closed included 47 of its newly opened stores in Texas and Oklahoma and also stores in other major areas including most states that they had worked so hard to thrive in.
All through the 1990s, the once thriving company decided to not re-new leases for new construction stores and closed newly built stores in recently well established markets in the Texas and Oklahoma areas. Announcing badly declining sales in late 1997, the Delhaize Corporation announced that it would now cancel its entire Midwest expansion, cancelling all prospective stores in the Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana areas, and it would be closing its 6-year-old distribution center in Texas. A now struggling Food Lion was forced to keep to the East Coast, where even there it was faced with strong competition from other corporations with larger stores, better customer service, and more variety and amenities; these competitors included regional corporations as Ingles, Harris Teeter, and Publix; new frontrunners such as Whole Foods Market; and growing national chains such as Kroger, Target and Wal-Mart Supercenters which we now see on every major corner of America.
Fast forwarding to 2003, Food Lion became very popular in "market renewals" where every year Food Lion chooses particular cities in their operating area where they update or remodel those stores and refresh the products offered within that store. In 2006, Food Lion actively used their market renewals program by using in-depth demographic and geographic data to pin point which stores should be featured as Food Lion, Bloom, or Bottom Dollar based on their findings. Depending on what the data findings supported, an already existing Food Lion could simply be remodeled as is, or could possibly face a complete change into a Bloom or Bottom Dollar store. Over 100 stores faced closures in 2012 as part of this restructuring, including the entire Florida market.
Now reaching approximately 48,000 employees Food Lion LLC is the largest subsidiary of Delhaize Group.
From personal experience, working for this group is a great career opportunity. The wages, training, and information you receive while working for this company is at the top of their field. I can truly say Food Lion has been my most enjoyable and informative job to date. They care about the lives of their employees and want to make a huge impact in them. I would recommend Food Lion to anyone as a great employer and grocery store.

Citations:
The History of Food Lion. (n.d.). Our State Magazine. Retrieved July 3, 2014, from http://www.ourstate.com/food-lion/
Food Lion's History. (n.d.). Food Lion Corporate. Retrieved July 3, 2014, from http://www.foodlion.com/Corporate/History Wineka, M. W., & Lesley, J. (n.d.). History of Food Town - Statewide Title, Inc. of North Carolina * Real Property Title Insurance. History of Food Town - Statewide Title, Inc. of North Carolina * Real Property Title Insurance. Retrieved July 3, 2014, from http://www.statewidetitle.com/FoodTownHistory.htm
History of the Delhaize Group. (n.d.). . Retrieved July 3, 2014, from http://www.delhaizegroup.com/en/.../History.aspx
Government Accountability Project. (n.d.). History of FIC. Retrieved July 3, 2014, from http://www.foodwhistleblower.org/about/history-of-fic