Opening set for Lowes Foods’ new type of store near Charlotte. There’s a food hall too

Lowes Foods has set its opening date this month for its “first-of-its-kind” store with entertainment in the Charlotte region.

The Winston-Salem based grocer will open its new concept store at 8 a.m. Feb. 18 at 14021 Boren St. in Huntersville in the former Earth Fare site.

The 25,000-square-foot store is smaller than a typical Lowes Foods store. But along with being a traditional supermarket, it also will feature entertainment and a “frictionless” shopping experience with the new Scan*Pay*Go app, according to the company.

“Our new Huntersville store is like a food hall that will also serve as a community hub for morning coffee, family dinner on the go, beer with a friend, picking up groceries curbside, or a complete grocery shopping experience,” Lowes Foods President Tim Lowe said in a statement Monday.

Calling it the “Swiss Army Knife of grocery stores,” Lowes said the store will offer events for children, prepped fruits and vegetables to go, an expanded pickup menu and a place to hold club and class meetings. “We’ll set up the cheese board, pour the wine, and have a floral centerpiece. And you won’t have to clean up,” Lowe said in the statement.

The grocer is trying to stand out by pitching itself as a “community hub,” the company said last year when it announced the Huntersville store plan.

Charlotte’s grocery store competition is fierce, with several grocers vying for market share including Aldi, Farmstead, Food Lion, Lidl and Publix, as well as Matthews-based Harris Teeter.

Lowes Foods, with two Charlotte-area locations in Mooresville and Harrisburg, also plans to open another store next year in Concord to anchor the Christenbury Village shopping center, the Observer previously reported.

The 67-year-old company also has been expanding in Greenville, Columbia and Charleston, all in South Carolina.

Lowes Foods is a subsidiary of Alex Lee in Hickory, with nearly 9,000 employees at 80 supermarkets in the Carolinas. The Huntersville store expects to hire about 100 workers.

What to expect at the new Lowes

New features at the Lowes Huntersville store include:

▪ A second-floor mezzanine that is available for booking events such as birthday parties, book clubs, team celebrations, group meetings, and it also serves as a spot to eat or enjoy a beverage.

▪ Planned events in the upper and lower mezzanine areas, such as floral arranging classes, trivia nights, board game tournaments, and beer and wine tastings.

▪ Frictionless shopping with Lowes Foods’ new app called Scan*Pay*Go. Customers can scan items as they shop, then checkout at marked kiosks as they leave. The grocer also has a Lowes Foods to Go app to order groceries for curbside pickup or delivery.

The store also will include features from its latest remodeled stores like the one in Mooresville:

▪ Promotion of locally sourced goods, including a bakery, smokehouse and wine bar.

▪ The Beer Den with craft beers and drafts; “pick and prep” station to have fruits and vegetables sliced, diced, minced or cubed

▪ The Chicken Kitchen, prepared chicken as rotisserie, wings, pot pies, tenders, salad and soup.

▪ Sammy’s offers breakfast, lunch or dinner sandwiches and salads to eat in-store or take home.

Other grocery store expansions around Charlotte

Lowes Foods joins several other stores with recent openings and expansions in the Charlotte area, including:

▪ Last month’s opening of a nearly 48,000-square-foot Food Lion store at 2201 West W. T. Harris Blvd., in a former Harris Teeter location. The store features a hot bar, to-go meals and local produce. And last spring, Food Lion opened another store at 1620 Ashley Road in northwest Charlotte in the former Harveys Supermarket location.

▪ In June, Asheville-based specialty grocer Earth Fare opened its fifth area store, in Davidson.

▪ In April, Silicon Valley online-only grocer Farmstead expanded its free delivery service to homes within an hour’s drive of its Westwood Forest warehouse after opening its first East Coast hub in Charlotte in 2020.

▪ Publix, based in Florida, plans to open at least five more Charlotte-area stores, at the Arboretum, North Creek Village in Huntersville, 10 Tryon building in uptown, at the corner of Sharon and Colony roads in South Park and at 11525 Carmel Commons.

This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 6:05 AM.