Store #1

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carolinatraveler
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Re: Store #1

Post by carolinatraveler »

Just for the record, the first Food Lion (Food Town) store is still standing. That store opened in Ketner Center on W. Innes St in Salisbury. It operated as a Food Town, later Food Lion, up until about 12 or so years ago, when it was replaced with a unit situated just behind the original store but oriented in a different direction. I was in Salisbury a week ago or so and saw the building (seems like it is empty) adjacent to the rest of the shopping center which is still occupied. I have several photos of it as a Food Town, and the company put up a historical marker along the side street adjacent to the store.

Ketner's was a grocery operation based in Salisbury and operated by members of the same family. They sold out to newly formed Winn Dixie in 1956. Seems like there were seven or eight Ketner's stores when they sold out, and they were purchased at the same time as Triangle area Milners Piggly Wiggly stores, a company that had some buying operations with Ketners. Fresh on the heels of the Dixie Home purchase, W-D bought and converted both chains, then started building throughout central NC.

For more information, find a copy of the Food Lion story entitled "Five Fast Pennies". Its got great historical detail, even about the aborted early expansion of Food Town into Asheville with the purchase of Giesentaner's Super Markets (Store 1 seen clearly in movie Thunder Road). They couldn't manage the group of four stores so far removed from home base and sold them to Bi-Lo in 1966.

Wayne Henderson
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Brian Lutz
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Re: Store #1

Post by Brian Lutz »

I'll need to do some research to verify this, but I believe that the first QFC store is still standing, and is being used as a Korean grocery store these days. The info I have says the first one opened in Bellevue in 1956, and the oldest Bellevue location I know of (from 1960s ads) would be the one in the Lake Hills Village shopping center at 156th and Lake Hills Boulevard. It closed in 2000 as QFC opened a new store about a mile away, and I believe that Pal-Do World (the aforementioned Korean grocery) moved in shortly afterward. There's a (small) photo of the current store at this page.
The Sledgehammer - Version 2.0 - Seattle Area Malls, Retail History, and other random things.
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