[Dave]

Does anyone know what the exact impetus was for Food Town to become Food Lion? There seems to have been a lot of Food Towns and Foodtowns around, and I wonder if there was one in particular that was pesky enough to cause the name change.

I'd once heard that it was a Virginia Foodtown that precipitated the name change, but I think that might be an urban myth.

Interestingly, perhaps, back in the 1960's, there was a split in the Ukrop's family here in Richmond, with one branch carrying on as Ukrop's and the other renaming their stores Foodtown. Again, perhaps in the myth category, I'd always heard the the split wasn't necessarily acrimonious or anything, but that the Foodtown branch wanted to sell beer and wine (Ukrop's still doesn't).

[danielh_512]

The way I've always heard it told was that Food Lion was entering new markets with new competition, and had to find a new operating name in their new territory, much like Martin's and Giant-PA are. They came up w/Food Lion somehow, it resonated well, and they all got converted to Food Lion.

[Groceteria]

The way I've always heard it told was that Food Lion was entering new markets with new competition, and had to find a new operating name in their new territory, much like Martin's and Giant-PA are. They came up w/Food Lion somehow, it resonated well, and they all got converted to Food Lion.

That's pretty much it. In their ads, they made much of the fact that they were saving customers money by choosing a name which only required replacing two letters on their signs.

[jamcool]

Also their Belgian parent - Delhaize - sells in Europe under the name "Le Lion" Their logo is the Food Lion logo

[rich]

Delhaize ownership came after the "lion". They use the Food Lion name in many places. They have stores in Bangkok, Thailand with that name and use a "discount" format. Some of their competitors there also are European, sometimes with US touches: Ahold (using the US-derived "Tops" name) and Tesco (operating as "Lotus"), and Carrefour. Ahold & tesco operate as joint ventures, although Tops has expanded beyond their original partners' stores (the Central Dept Store).

[Groceteria]

Delhaize ownership came after the "lion".

Actually, Delhaize purchased a 34% interest in Food Town in 1974 and acquired a majority interest in 1976. The name change didn't happen until 1982-1983. In fact, the lion icon had been used in the Food Town house brand logo (and even on some store signs) for a couple of years prior to the name change.

Lest anyone wonder, I didn't just pull these facts off the top of my head. i was re-reading the company history ("Lion's Share") from 1991 yesterday.

[Barcelos]

You have sort of answered the question I had. I was wondering what the Food Town logo was and came across a certificate which had the Food Lion logo except Town in place of Lion. That must have been during their transition period. Does anyone have photos of a pre-food lion Food Town store or have a clue as to what the logo looked like? I like to collect old grocery store memorabilia and have recently become interested in Food Town.

[BatteryMill]

Speaking of the Ukrop's Foodtown in the OP, does anyone have any more information about what happened to that chain?

[Groceteria]

Speaking of the Ukrop's Foodtown in the OP, does anyone have any more information about what happened to that chain?

I started with some research the OP did and gave me years ago, and then scanned through the Richmond newspapers. It looks like the Richmond Foodtown stores opened around 1964, peaked in the early 1970s, and were down to one store on Wilkinson Road by 1989. That one was purchased by Farm Fresh, marking the end of the chain.

Apparently the two brothers agreed not to compete directly. The Ukrops stores operated north of the James River, while the Foodtown stores operated to the south. Foodtown ads did mention prominently that the stores were owned by Sam Ukrop.

Some quick research. I will now return to my regularly scheduled vacation.

[Super S]

There were regional operators using the Food Town name. The Food Town chain in the Toledo, Ohio area (operated by Seaway Food Town, which also operated The Pharm drug stores) comes to mind.

Also, there was some kind of unrelated regional grocery buying group out west that used the Food Town name/affiliation on a number of independently operated small-town grocery stores. I have not seen one of those in many years though.

I seem to remember a news story about the Food Town to Food Lion change airing on one of the major networks years ago, possibly even on 60 Minutes. I don't remember all of the details, but do remember them mentioning having to change only 2 sign letters.

[BatteryMill]

Speaking of the Ukrop's Foodtown in the OP, does anyone have any more information about what happened to that chain?

I started with some research the OP did and gave me years ago, and then scanned through the Richmond newspapers. It looks like the Richmond Foodtown stores opened around 1964, peaked in the early 1970s, and were down to one store on Wilkinson Road by 1989. That one was purchased by Farm Fresh, marking the end of the chain.

Apparently the two brothers agreed not to compete directly. The Ukrops stores operated north of the James River, while the Foodtown stores operated to the south. Foodtown ads did mention prominently that the stores were owned by Sam Ukrop.

Some quick research. I will now return to my regularly scheduled vacation.

Thank you. Strange that chain is never mentioned in the story of Ukrop's.

[BillyGr]

There were regional operators using the Food Town name. The Food Town chain in the Toledo, Ohio area (operated by Seaway Food Town, which also operated The Pharm drug stores) comes to mind.

Also, there was some kind of unrelated regional grocery buying group out west that used the Food Town name/affiliation on a number of independently operated small-town grocery stores. I have not seen one of those in many years though.

I seem to remember a news story about the Food Town to Food Lion change airing on one of the major networks years ago, possibly even on 60 Minutes. I don't remember all of the details, but do remember them mentioning having to change only 2 sign letters.

Yes, that was an idea of the founders, as they were well known for doing anything that would save money. In this case, it was supposed to be about $1 million saved by reusing the two letters (o & n) and only having to buy the L and i for each store.
Worked out well being that they had the association with Delhaize that happened to use a lion in their logo.

And, of course, the reason behind the change to begin with was what you mention - too many other people using the Food Town name in some way, shape or form that would be an issue as they wanted to keep expanding into new areas. Not an uncommon thing, as I've mentioned before the use of Star Markets, the one people know of now around Boston, but also two chains in NY State, Albany and Rochester areas - none of those ever got to a point of wanting to go further so it wasn't an issue. The other commonly known one was the Giants (of MD and PA, but there was also a small chain with that name around Binghamton NY that Weis eventually bought and switched to their name).

[jleyerle]

There were a few Food Town stores located in and around St. Louis, MO----generally in-line 1960s build stores, seemingly associated with the two Korvettes stores which opened there. They seemed to get absorbed into Schnucks' operations in the mid 70s, then the one in Sunset Hills was converted to a Rock Bottom Warehouse Supermarket (still Schnucks----warehouse shelving, bag-yourself) which was reasonable as the Lindbergh/66 intersection was well-surrounded by other Schnucks-operated stores to the east and south.