Looking for crunchier lettuce or fewer brown bananas? Tired of cutting into avocados and finding them brown? Salisbury-based Food Lion is undertaking a major effort to ensure its produce is fresh, as well as expanding its selection, the company said Tuesday.
The initiative is starting at 581 of Food Lion's stores, including those in and around Charlotte. The company expects to expand it next year.
Food Lion said the new program is a complete overhaul of its produce practices. The company is purchasing better produce, changing temperatures produce is stored at, and reducing the amount of time produce spends in distribution centers. Warehouse, transportation and in-store produce associates have had new training in better handling practices to improve produce freshness, the company said.
Food Lion is also adding more produce items, the company said, and starting a customer education program with tip cards on storing fresh produce. In-store signage in what the company calls its new "market" produce section includes tips such as storing potatoes in a perforated plastic bag in a cool, dark place to maintain freshness.
The grocer is also offering a double-money back guarantee on any produce customers are dissatisfied with.
Food Lion is owned by the Belgian supermarket conglomerate Delhaize, and the company operates 1,100 locations.
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18 comments:
Food Lion makes a similar announcement every year, yet I've yet to see much of a change in the stores, other than a little better look at some of the older stores that they renovated. If they had freshened up as much as they said they did, they'd be the highest quality grocer on the planet.
What a joke...and why wasn't quality control an issue to upper management at Food Lion previously??? Any chance this works? I don't think so. So now they are lowering prices and boosting store brands (used to have the market cornered on this in the Carolinas); so now they charge half price on BOGO offers (never knew in the past how they might have it electronically entered for check-out), but Bi-Lo has always charged half price for BOGO offers, etc, etc. And as someone who shops for groceries by price, i.e. some things I get at Wal-mart, buy the ad at Bi-lo, regularly shop Aldi, and also frequent Sav-a-Lot and Compare, well, as you can see, Food Lion is not in the mix. As I have said before in response to stories about Food Lion...they have become insignificant IMO. Oh, they'll be around for awhile yet, but just another player in a crowded game. Disclosure: former 10 year FL employee...it's nothing personal!!
I hope they follow through with this. Their produce is PATHETIC. The choices are poor and what is there is unappetizing. Yeah, the green peppers may be cheaper but they are the size of golf balls. I live one mile from a Food Lion and 15 miles from Harris Teeter. I make the 15 mile drive every weekend because of Food Lion's poor quality.
I will take Food Lion over Harris Teeter any day of the week. I am so sick of the elitist, soccer mom attitudes of Harris Teeter customers. Thank God that Food Lion does not overprice everything. Harris Teeter should be prosecuted for price gouging, and I wouldn't mind some of their supporters having the same fate.
I love Food Lion. You can keep your stuck up Harris Teeter and Whole Foods, and whatever else makes the rich republicans feel like they are at a spa instead of a grocery store. Give me a break.
Pathetic comments that sadly show just how important the people in Charlotte 'think' they are. Outside of your little bubble, Food Lion is huge in other cities and states.
Just because the stores here are quite as nice as you want them to be, you think that is Food Lion as a whole. Shame on you and your lack of knowledge. Where I live, our Food Lion is the go-to place with stores that are larger and nicer than any of your Harris Teeters.
Keep on thinking that you are the only people on the planet Charlotte. I am so glad that I never have to travel to Ballantyne or those sickening places any more!
Enjoy your 15 mile ride to Harris Teeter so you can boss around workers and talk down to them. This is not the 1800s.
I will keep going to Wal Mart and FL and enjoy every minute of it.
You can keep your stuck up Harris Teeter and Whole Foods, and whatever else makes the rich republicans feel like they are at a spa instead of a grocery store. Give me a break.
What a dumb comment lol!
I'm definitely not an elitist but I drive right by my nearby Food Lion to go to Harris Teeter because (1) a lot of Food Lion's customers smell like cigarette smoke because they smoked a cigarette before they entered the store; (2) the produce and choices are absolutely awful; (3) Food Lion makes you put your groceries on the conveyor belt yourself when a cashier could easily do it for you; and (4) it's just plain nasty in Food Lion. I prefer my grocery store (and its customers) smoke-free, thank you very much.
Sorry, but that is a lie. I work at Harris Teeter, and we go on smoke breaks all the time, so your comment is just plain BS.
You also have to put your items on our counter when you check out!
No, the comment I made was only dumb because it descibes you and your ilk. You go to a grocery store to get the best prices you can on items, not to prance around and act like you are being pampered at a spa.
I am tired as tired can be of your type when I go shopping. Shouldn't you have your maid doing this anyway? Go back and play golf or cry over the election, whydontcha!
So now people who shop at Harris Teeter are stuck up Republicans? Wow. Tough to respond to comments as stupid as that but I'll try.
Thank you. I keep driving past Food Lion and head to Harris Teeter where a $1.59 full size, fresh green pepper is still a better deal than a month old dried up vegetable you can barely recognize. PLEASE keep shopping at Food Lion. It keeps you out of store.
I can not believe I have just been labeled a Republican because of where I shop for groceries.
Laughable.
Most of you are the 'this is MY money' republicans as can be seen at most any Harris Teeter. For God's sake, please keep driving on past Food Lion so you'll pay twice as much just to think you are part of some elite soccer mom society. That's fine with us.
The produce, selection, and prices are just fine at Food Lion, and we don't want your type shopping with us anyway. You make me sick to my stomach.
I hate Harris Teeter.
Idiots. Proof of why this country is a mess. You buy CRAP and pay too much for it and then label someone for working hard as an elitist.
PLEASE stay at Food Lion. There aren't enough fans in the Harris Teeter's to remove your stench.
Crude Lion sells crap in a can and you know it.
This former health inspector avoids Food Lion. Nearest HT is only if we happen to be in the neighborhood and need an item or two. For the most part I prefer our Lowes Foods especially for produce, seafood and meats.
Funny thing, everything the story mentions about the "customer education program" and the tip cards etc... they must've been walking through our local Lowes to get the idea!
Oh, and to the FL fan who calls HT customers "elitist Republicans"... I'm sorry, but that's about a dumb as it gets. Broad labeling like that of people you don't know is the very heart of racism and bigotry. Rich elitism has nothing to do with political party. Both have them. I suppose you think George Soros, Michael Moore and all those Hollywood celebs who were stumping for Obama shop at Food Lion?
Mr. Partillo,
How nice that you censor some of us but let the snobs talk trash to us. I weep for the future.
Food Lion has gone downhill over the past few years. Why all of a sudden are they listening to customers when they should have been providing the best quality food to begin with. With Publix moving into their territory in the Carolina's, they need to step up their game. Treat their employees fairly and give them better pay. Maybe that is why Cathy Green got the boot from her position in the company today!
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