Food Lion, a grocery store chain with 1,109 stores across 10 states in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern U.S., remains focused on providing an “easy, fresh and affordable” shopping experience for its customers. Key initiatives include store remodels, technology upgrades and community engagement through the company’s Food Lion Feeds program.
The company has been named The Shelby Report’s 2024 Southeast Retailer of the Year.
Meg Ham, president of North Carolina-based Food Lion, said the company opened four new locations in the past year and is in the process of remodeling hundreds of stores.
The remodels allow Food Lion to “bring new assortments, a fresh new look, new services and new programs to our marketplaces,” Ham said.
Food Lion invested $127 million in capital and celebrated the remodels of 76 stores in the Wilmington and Greenville, North Carolina, markets in 2023. It is in the process of remodeling 167 stores in the Raleigh, North Carolina, market.
[RELATED: Food Lion Finishes 167 Store Remodels In Raleigh-Durham Market]Ham said a lot is involved in the remodeling process, which begins with talking to customers. She said the grocer wants to understand what is important to them and ensure that it can execute against its strategy of being “Easy, Fresh & Affordable. You can count on Food Lion… Every day!” to deliver on the needs of its customers.
“It includes talking to customers. It includes looking at all the elements of our store and ensuring they match up with our best, most current thinking,” Ham said.
“And then we literally go store by store and figure out what we need to add, what needs to be consistent across the marketplace and what needs to be different by store. It is a long, detailed process but all grounded in our brand, our strategy and our culture and listening to our customers.”
Food Lion has a consistent look and feel across its stores, she added, and part of any remodel is freshening the physical plants, so the décor, signage and messaging are consistent.
“We put a real emphasis on what our customers have told us is important to them, and that’s what we call home meal solutions. These items are ready to cook, ready to heat and ready to eat. We ensure that we have a relevant assortment in that area,” Ham said.
Another key area of focus is local products that are carried throughout the store. Also, Food Lion’s “core equity of price” is consistent across all stores.
“We look store by store to see what space is required to expand and what’s important in certain markets ,” Ham said. “But our overall strategy, look and feel and great low prices are absolutely consistent across our marketplace.”
The remodels also are focused on providing a healthy assortment at an affordable price, Ham said.
To that end, Food Lion’s private brand, Nature’s Promise, offers natural, free-from and organic items.
“Part of a remodel is setting our assortments up for our latest and best thinking, and that would include incorporating our healthy assortment at an affordable price,” she said.
New self-checkouts will be included in all remodeled locations, and many will have an e-commerce option through Food Lion To Go. This includes pickup and delivery. 
Food Lion has received EPA’s Energy Star of the Year Award for 23 consecutive years. “That’s one thing we’re incredibly proud of,” Ham said. “Every time that we touch our stores, we do work to make those stores more energy efficient.”
LED lights are used throughout the network, and the company continues to look at different ways to reduce refrigerant emissions to support overall efficiency.
Lowering food waste also “is incredibly important to us,” said Ham, adding that Food Lion does this in many ways. Each store across the company’s 10-state footprint has a partner in its food rescue program. Products that are not “perfect enough” to sell but are still edible are donated to the food banks.
Food Lion also spearheads large volunteer efforts and giving campaigns under the umbrella of its Food Lion Feeds platform to eliminate hunger in the communities it serves. Ham said this is an important focus for the company, as well.
Focus on ‘easy, fresh and affordable’
Food Lion’s strategy – “Easy, Fresh & Affordable. You can count on Food Lion… Every day!” – helps differentiate it from its competitors, Ham said.
Having smaller-sized stores also is an advantage.
“We’re smaller, easy to get in and out of, easy to know what’s for dinner, easy to know what the price of items are,” she said.
Fresh also is important, Ham noted, not only in fresh products but a fresh new look for the stores.
“Fresh products, quality products at affordable prices and convenience are Food Lion’s historical heritage of core equities, and they certainly live inside of what can differentiate us. But it’s also that consistent experience from store to store, day to day, hour to hour – you can count on us. We are part of the towns and cities that we serve.”
Ham added that Food Lion stores “aren’t just in the neighborhood, we are the neighborhood.”
“We care deeply about our neighbors, and we’re good citizens in the communities. We live there and we volunteer there, and we know what’s important in the neighborhoods. We’re there to be able to serve those needs. I think all of that coming together is what sets us apart inside of a marketplace, with our people, the quality of our products, the low prices that we have and the care that we have for our community.”
Food Lion Feeds is a testament to the care the company has for the communities it serves. Ham said the outreach program is “close to our heart” and is front and center for the work Food Lion does inside of its communities.
“We believe that no one should have to choose between dinner and rent or gas and groceries. That’s where we put a tremendous amount of our energy,” she said. “But we’re also a very sustainable organization. We care about the planet and care about the people that we come in contact with – all of that together is what differentiates us.”
[RELATED: Food Lion Prepares To Open New Supermarket In Florence, SC]
Evolution of Food Lion Feeds
Starting in 1957 with Food Lion founder Ralph Ketner, Ham said caring for neighbors and putting food on local folks’ table has always been important to the company.
“It’s part of our DNA. Feeding communities and nourishing communities is incredibly important to us. And that starts from the very beginning,” she said.
Ham noted that Food Lion was a pioneer in starting food rescue programs at its stores. It continues to work to find innovative ways to provide more products to its food bank partners “and to get in the stomach of those who need it versus in a landfill.”
Over the past several years, Ham said Food Lion has focused more on how to shorten the lines at partner food banks. To that end, it is supporting local culinary kitchens, where participants can explore how to have a career as a chef, along with learning how to cook a healthy meal on a budget.
“It’s one of those things that can sustain a community and can actually nourish an entire family. The culinary kitchens are a huge piece for us,” she said.
Food Lion also has worked with local food banks and regional partners to establish gardens at the food bank locations. Workers grow the garden and use the produce harvested in the culinary kitchen and to serve clients. Ham said it also teaches people how to grow and cook items in their backyards.
“That’s another area where we’re trying to create a more sustainable difference,” she said.
Food Lion Feeds’ Guiding Stars Nights is a fun program where stores invite local elementary school classes to come in and learn math skills, how to shop on a budget and about some of the company’s healthy products.
Guiding Stars is a proprietary algorithm that takes all the ingredients of an item and identifies it as good (one star), better (two stars) or best (three stars).
“That’s something you can see on our products inside of our store. That’s where the essence of healthy eating and eating on a budget comes from,” Ham said.
“We’ve done what we’ve called Math Nights before where we have classes and just have fun ways to teach kids math and how to shop healthy, and we do those on a regular basis.”
Ham said the education aspect – whether through the culinary kitchens, local gardens or Guiding Stars Nights – is a way to “try to educate on a more sustainable way and give people the skills to nourish their families and set them up for success in life. We will continue to evolve and to find ways to grow and make a more sustainable difference in our communities.”
Food Lion also works with food bank partners on needs such as additional refrigeration space, by providing grants, or pantry makeovers, where associates come in and do the work. The retailer also has awarded grants to pantries that need refrigerated distribution vehicles to reach some of their communities.
Culture of empowering associates
Food Lion’s 82,000 associates are the company’s lifeblood. Ham described them as “fiercely passionate about our brand, our strategy and our culture.”
She said company leadership empowers and unleashes associates to “do what’s right in the moment for our customers. That is critically important to us, and I believe that sets us apart, also.
“Our relationship with our associates is gold. We cherish our associates and value and respect their contribution.”
Food Lion annually recognizes associates who have reached a milestone of loyalty and service with the company. It celebrates long-term associates with 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 years of service.
Ham said this recognition “speaks to the power of our people.”
Ham emphasized that each associate has a role to play in the organization, which is important to deliver on customers’ wants and needs, along with delivering on Food Lion’s promise to nourish families and set them up for success in life.
“People want to make a difference, and our job at Food Lion is to enable every associate to make a difference. I believe that’s what people want – to find fulfillment in their work. And that’s our mission, to have our associates find fulfillment in their work.” 
Standing out in competitive market
Food Lion recognizes that its customers’ dollars are tight, Ham said, and is working to help them feed their families within their budgets.
“Anything and everything that we can do to enable them to lower their grocery budget, to be able to be healthy on a budget, that’s where our focus has been,” she said. “We’re laser focused on keeping our costs low so we can keep our prices low, so we can nourish our families that choose to shop with us.”
