The Community Table is the heart of a Lowes Foods store. Constructed of reclaimed wood from local barns, the table is designed to bring the community together through events like food pairings, tea parties and floral arranging classes.
Private events ranging from birthday parties for kids to beer and wine pairings for adults (Beer & Brats and Wine & Charcuterie Boards are a couple of options) also take place around the table.
There is a calendar of Community Table events in each Lowes Foods store. Some events vary by location; others are mainstays across the company, like Wine Down Wednesday (half-price Sunmill Wine pours 4-8 p.m.), Thirsty Thursday (half-price beer and wine pours 4-8 p.m.) and Friday Night Flights (half-price flight pours on “tap takeover” brands).
Lowes Foods community and local marketing managers work with each store to create a calendar to fit guests’ needs and aspirations. Some areas have more children in the vicinity, so those stores have more kid-centric events. Others, like the one near UNC Wilmington, has more young adults, so events would reflect that difference.
Kelly Davis, senior director of guest engagement for Lowes Foods, said the Community Table and all the events are all about connecting people, whether that’s guests or Lowes Foods’ team members.
President Tim Lowe “considers this the heart of the store,” Davis said. Twice a day, store staff – called hosts – have meetings around the table.
She said it’s not unusual when the store is crowded to see people who are in line at the Beer Den striking up conversations with people seated at the Community Table.
Lowe said the children’s birthday parties that take place around the Community Table are convenient for parents and fun for kids. Parents who reserve the table for a birthday party (they’re a sellout every year) get balloons, food (maybe a Pizzapalooza or panini party) and a gift for the child.
The kids take a tour around Lowes Foods to sample icing and blow out candles at The Cakery, push the button to help “make” the sausage at SausageWorks, pet the lobsters in the tank in the seafood department and maybe see the chicken dance at The Chicken Kitchen.
Parents, who know their kids are in a safe environment, can relax with a drink and maybe even do their grocery shopping while their child enjoys the party.
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SausageWorks
If you take Willy Wonka and mix him with Doc from “Back to the Future,” you might get the Sausage Professor, a white-coated character whose role is to promote SausageWorks’ sausage creations, offer cooking suggestions, entertain guests and “steal” business from The Chicken Kitchen (or at least its rubbery mascot).
SausageWorks, an offshoot of the Lowes Foods meat department, features a range of more than 60 pork, beef and poultry sausages, with flavors stretching from familiar to not-so-familiar. 
“The Star Spangler is like eating a cheeseburger… We have the Trusty Farmer, which is a kind of mild pork sausage. Then we have the Farmer’s Daughter, which is just like the Trusty Farmer, only hotter,” Davis said.
There’s also The Cheesapeño (cheddar cheese, jalapeño and beef and pork sausage), The Grill Master (caramelized onions, garlic, black pepper and beef and pork sausage), The Pig Kahuna (teriyaki, pineapple, soy sauce, brown sugar and pork sausage), The Godfather (fennel, anise and Italian pork sausage), The Greek God (oregano, basil, garlic, rosemary and pork sausage), The Firecracker (pork sausage with roasted habanero), The Sergeant Pepperoni and Cheese (pizza seasonings and mozzarella in pork sausage) and more.
Lowes Foods hosts submit names for the sausages, and the winning name is selected from their ideas.
A pumpkin-, fruitcake- or champagne-flavored sausage might be featured, depending on time of year.
Lowe said one of his favorites is The Kentucky Gentlemen, a sweet tea bourbon pork sausage created in the spirit of the Kentucky Derby. The Margarita honors Cinco de Mayo. “There is actually a ritual you can do with it, where you dip it in salt and do it just like you would a margarita,” he said.
There’s a full line of mustards to go with the sausages, Davis noted, and to engage the kids, there’s a button they can push to “make” the sausage. A Rube Goldberg-inspired machine overhead spins and clicks once they’ve pushed the button. Kids also can be sworn into the ISLOP Club – International Sausage Lovers of the Piedmont – on the promise to eat SausageWorks sausages.
In the stores where there is not a SausageWorks service case, customers can pick them up prepackaged.
“That way, we can have it in every store,” Lowe said. “Whether you have an actual SausageWorks environment or not, you’re able to go through and still enjoy the same great quality products.”
The Smokehouse
The Smokehouse offers a daily rotation of wood-smoked meats – including beef, pork, chicken and salmon – using a variety of woods to infuse flavor. Shoppers can pick them up ready to eat or ready to take home and heat. The pitmaster also whips up a smoked meatloaf, adding a new dimension to the perennial favorite.
Popular days at The Smokehouse are Wing Wednesday and Rib Friday. On Wednesdays, wings are 44 cents each, and on Fridays, a half-rack of ribs is $5.
“Wing Wednesday and Rib Friday are kind of throwbacks to the past of merchandising items on a specific day,” said Lowe, adding that the promotions are a way to get people excited about things that aren’t necessarily new, just marketed and promoted differently.
The Chicken Kitchen
The Chicken Kitchen is the place to find all things chicken – rotisserie chicken, fried chicken, chicken wings, chicken pot pies, chicken tenders, chicken salad and Cock-a-Doodle Noodle soup. The chicken is fresh and never frozen, locally sourced and raised with no antibiotics.
When hot chicken comes out of the rotisserie oven, the animated chicken chandelier signals shoppers to come and get it. The chicken then calls out the moves for the chicken dance, which involves hosts and possibly Lowes Foods guests flapping their wings and shaking their tail feathers.
The chicken dance actually came out of an overnight meeting of store managers. They were brainstorming ways to convey that Lowes Foods has the best chicken in town, according to Lowe.
So between the crowing chandelier and the chicken dance, “people are going to take recognition and come over and say, ‘what’s going on?’ And then we can tell our story,” he said. “We can tell about our birds being larger than our competitors’ birds. We can talk about the taste and the quality of our birds. We can talk about our local breading that we use for our fried chicken.
“The reality is that people are looking for an authentic connection. They’re also looking for entertainment. You know, that’s important to consumers; that’s why they constantly stay on the small screens in front of them. Wherever they are, they’re looking for that entertainment element as well.”
The Cakery
Lowes Foods makes great muffins, and when the company was reimagining its different departments, the initial thought was they should build the bakery around muffins. But after seeking input from customers, “we heard loud and clear that everybody loved our cakes,” Davis said.
So, they changed course and decided to name it The Cakery.
But how could they really stand out?
Go square.
The cakes can be purchased whole, or customers can mix and match cut cake squares to bring home everybody’s favorite.
To draw the kids, The Cakery offers icing samples, all made with real ingredients like cream, butter and cream cheese. The samples are placed on square forks. When they’re done, kids drop the forks in a special bin and make a wish. 
There’s also a cake where kids can blow out the candles, and the “cake wizards” who staff the department have a remote that cause the candles to spark to life again.
Daily cake walks also take place in The Cakery. Kids are invited to the department to walk around on specially designed square floor tiles while a song – exclusively written for Lowes Foods – plays. When the music stops, the one on the winning tile gets a prize.
The Cakery also features L’Oven Cookies. The cookies first were baked in Lowes Foods’ Chapel Hill, North Carolina, store.
Lowe, calling it a “phenomenal” cookie, said the decision was made to create a whole brand around it. L’Oven Cookies was born. The counter where they’re sold features oven doors underneath, and the packaging itself looks like a little oven.
“It’s grown from just a single item in a single store to now it’s one of our best-selling cookies across the organization, and we continue to bring in new flavor profiles, like we just launched our Harvest flavor for the fall time frame,” he said.
The Beer Den
According to Lowes Foods, The Beer Den “offers the finest selection of crafts and drafts that is fantastically varied and local.”
Shoppers are invited to “sip-n-shop” – buy a glass of beer to drink as they shop – which is made easier with cupholders built into the shopping cart. Or they can get food from Sammy’s or Smokehouse or Chicken Kitchen, have a beer and then have their second (and final) beer while they shop.
“At the end of the day, we’re a grocery store, but it’s a place you can come in, have a beer, get something to eat, do your grocery shopping with a second beer,” Davis said.
If guests want to take home a beer from the tap, they can have a growler or crowler filled. (A growler is a glass container that typically contains 32 or 64 ounces; a crowler is a container such as an aluminum can that holds 32 ounces, or two pints.)
There are seasonal beer offerings, special events and tap takeovers. On Thursdays, Lowes Foods offers half-price pints; on Fridays, there are Friday Night Flights at a special price.
There are no TVs in The Beer Den. “We want people to gather around the table, to come in and have conversations,” Davis said.
In addition to its proprietary beers under The Beer Den name (it also has its own brewery in Greenville, South Carolina – The Cavern at Lowes Foods of Five Forks), Lowes Foods partners with local breweries to get their brands the recognition they need.
Lowes Foods’ Collabeeration series highlights local brewers’ dark beers with a twist. Examples include the Mallard Duck, a peach cobbler milkshake ale from Hazelwood Brewing Co. in Columbia, South Carolina, and Gray Squirrel, a nut brown ale from Incendiary Brewing Co. from North Carolina’s Triad area.
“We’re going to serve local craft beer that you can’t buy anywhere else,” she said.
And Lowes Foods is the official grocer of North Carolina craft beer, as the only grocery member of the North Carolina Craft Brewers Guild.
To encourage guests to try different beers to find what they like, Lowes Foods offers a mix-and-match six-pack.
Other weekly promotions include Wine Down Wednesday, featuring half-price wine pours; half-price growlers on Saturday; and half-price mimosas on Sundays.
After Hurricane Helene ravaged towns in western North Carolina this fall – impacting several Lowes Foods stores – the grocer is participating in the “Pouring for Neighbors” fundraiser sponsored by the North Carolina Craft Brewers Guild. Breweries and companies nationwide designated a beer that they would donate the proceeds from to support relief efforts.
At Lowes Foods, for every pour of its featured craft beer on tap at The Beer Den, the grocer is donating $1.
Pick & Prep
The Pick & Prep department in Lowes Foods offers packaged, grab-and-go fruits and vegetables that are cut fresh throughout the day.
But if a half-cup of diced celery is all that’s needed for a recipe and the rest will go to waste, the customer just fills out a form and a produce “butcher” will get to work.
In fact, the butcher will slice, dice, mince, julienne or cube any fruit or vegetable while the customer shops.
The idea for Pick & Prep came from knowing that many of today’s consumers still want to make meals at home but don’t always have the time or desire to do the prep work, according to Lowe.
A guest can make a quick meal with fresh salsa and guacamole from Pick & Prep, salad from the produce department and meat from The Smokehouse, if they so choose. But they can also just get all the ingredients at Lowes Foods and pull it together at home.
“The question is, ‘How can we help you?’ We’re not going to tell you how to save time, but instead give you a menu of options so that you choose how to spend your time. We’re just here to make it easier for you,” Lowe said. “Use us however you choose.”
As with Pick & Prep, guests can buy just the amount of fresh herbs they need at the clip-your-own table; at the Tomato Bar, they can get the mix of tomatoes they want or need for any meal or recipe.
Local is important in the Lowes Foods produce department. Anywhere from 10 percent to 40 percent (depending on season) of items in the produce department are locally sourced.
“For us, it’s about developing those relationships, keeping those tight connections and being able to be authentic to who we are. It’s not just a slogan or a sign we hung up in a store, but again, really, really cling to our roots, if you will,” said Lowe, adding that Lowes has partnered with more than 300 local farmers over the years as they have transitioned from tobacco farming to crop farming.
Lowes Foods has offered insights on how to sell their new crops into the grocery industry.
“We know if it’s right for the community that it’s right for us, because if our community is healthy and growing, then we’re healthy and growing,” Lowe said.
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The Boxcar Coffee Co.
In the Lowes Foods locations that feature a Boxcar Coffee Co. counter, guests can get a cup of coffee or smoothie (for themselves or their kids) to sip while they shop. Limited-time seasonal offers allow for innovation for Lowes Foods and anticipation for guests. This fall, pumpkin caramel cold brew was available as an LTO.
The coffee beans for Boxcar are roasted locally for freshness and quality. On Fridays, guests get a special deal on beans – $7 a pound. 
In stores without a Boxcar Coffee Co. counter, guests can buy bagged whole beans on the coffee aisle. There are six varieties, among them Boxcar Blend, Jamaican Me Crazy and Colombian Del Patron.
In stores that do have a designated Boxcar Coffee, the railroad theme carries throughout. The ordering counter is called Arrivals, and the sizes are aptly named Short Line, Main Station and Long Haul. A new line of grab-and-go beverages are sold under the Express Train name. The line includes cold brew, latte, lemonade and shaken tea.
Replicas of photos of the last passenger train that went from Winston-Salem to Wilkesboro, found at the Forsyth County Library, add to the ambience, as does the caboose-red sign on corrugated metal.
Sammy’s Sandwiches
At the Sammy’s Sandwiches counter in Lowes Foods, guests can grab items like sandwiches, pizzas, paninis and salads (Garden Bowls) for lunch or dinner.
They also can start their day with a Breakfast Garden Bowl, a Toaster (an open-faced sandwich) or Breakfast Sammich. These can be custom-made using Boar’s Head products, a Smokehouse item and/or vegetables from Pick & Prep, but there also are options in the case for those who need to grab and go.
A variety of cold drinks are available in a case in front of Sammy’s, and there is seating for those who would like to dine in.
Davis explained the concept behind Sammy’s selections: “Sammy is a world traveler. He goes to Pick & Prep and gets all the sandwich extras. He might get some guacamole. He might get some other fun stuff to put on there. He goes to Bread Crumb to get his bread. He goes to Chicken Kitchen to get chicken. He goes to SausageWorks, and he goes to Smokehouse to get sandwich fillings, too.”
Bread Crumb
Store-baked bread is available every day at Bread Crumb. It might be baguettes, rolls, bagels or, if it’s Focaccia Friday, the Italian bread in a variety of flavors for $2.99 a loaf.
The focaccias tend to sell out every week, whether it’s black olive, tomato or a fruit variety – the latter of which makes a “decadent grilled cheese,” Davis said.
Seasonal breads appear during the year, including a sweet potato bread for fall.
When bread comes out of the oven, a Bread Crumb host will ring the bell, and a cry of “hot, fresh bread” rings out across the store. The scent of baking bread permeates the store.
Floral
Lowes Foods offers bountiful “greenhouses” staffed by trained florists, where guests can find fresh flowers (stems or bouquets), plants, balloons and a variety of gift options.
Cheese Shop
The Cheese Shop features a broad range of cheeses, from traditional varieties to rare finds. It also draws guest attention with its cheese wheel supports and Swiss cheese lighting.
Complementary items line the outside of The Cheese Shop, including bread, wines, oils, crackers and other charcuterie board elements.
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