Lowes Foods is ready to debut near Charlotte as part of larger expansion plan

A North Carolina grocery chain is ready to open another Charlotte-area store with a community gathering spot.

Lowes Foods will open at 8 a.m. Aug. 29 at 2415 Herrons Nest Place NW in Concord, the Winston-Salem based grocer said Monday in a news release.

The 52,000-square-foot grocery store will anchor the 17-acre Christenbury Village shopping center near Concord Mills, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.

The store’s community table, made from reclaimed wood from local barns, is a spot for gatherings for events like food pairings, tea parties, and floral arranging classes. The table also is available for private events like birthday parties.

What to expect at the new Lowes

Other features at the Concord store, Lowes Foods said, include:

▪ The Beer Den with craft beers and drafts. Shoppers can grab a pour and sip while they shop, or fill a growler or crowler to take home.

▪ Boxcar Coffee. Sip on a cup of coffee while shopping or grab a smoothie for children.

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

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

▪ The Smokehouse offers a rotation of wood-smoked meats ready to eat or take home and heat up.

Lowes Foods expansion plan

Lowes Foods has three Charlotte-area locations in Harrisburg, Huntersville and Mooresville, and plans to open three more in Waxhaw , Kannapolis and Indian Land, S.C . No opening timeframe is available for the Waxhaw store, but the latter two are expected to open over the next two years.

The expansion joins tough $10.2 billion competition in the Charlotte market with competition from Matthews-based Harris Teeter and Salisbury-based Food Lion, Florida-based Publix, and specialty grocer Sprouts .

Lowes Foods’ Charlotte-area expansion is part of its strategy that includes openings in Winterville and Pittsboro in North Carolina and Aiken and Lexington in South Carolina. Lowes Foods also is renovating stores including Mount Airy and Florence, S.C.

But Lowes Foods also is closing three stores by the end of the month in Raleigh, Wilmington and Moncks Corner, S.C., the grocer said last month.

In 2014, Lowes Foods began pulling out of Charlotte , swapping stores with Harris Teeter and closing under-performing stores as part of a reinvestment strategy in new stores and remodeling others.

The 68-year-old company has about 9,000 employees at 80 Lowes Foods supermarkets in the Carolinas. Lowes Foods is a subsidiary of Alex Lee, based in Hickory.

Other grocery store expansions

There are 745 grocery stores in the region, up from 722 in 2020, according to sales tracking firm Chain Store Guide .

Here are other grocery store plans:

▪ Sprouts Farmers Market will open a 21,000-square-foot store next summer at the One NoDa Park development on the corner of 36th and Tryon streets, The Charlotte Observer reported last month. It will be the third location for the Phoenix-based grocer, which opened a store in Steele Creek last fall and has a store in Ballantyne.

▪ Last month, the Matthews Board of Commissioners approved changes to a grocery store plan with signage in an illustration that looks a lot like Trader Joe’s. Town officials and the developer, as well as Trader Joe’s, would not confirm which grocer plans to move into the 13,5000-square-foot stand-alone building at Matthews Gateway on East John Street.

▪ In May, Mecklenburg County commissioners approved $1.5 million for California-based grocer Spangler’s to build a 8,000-square-foot store at Kohler and Statesville avenues, north of uptown.

▪ In April, Rochester, N.Y.-based Wegmans confirmed it will make its Charlotte debut in two years with a 110,000-square-foot grocery store on the east side of Ballantyne in south Charlotte .

▪ Last year, Publix opened a 48,387-square-foot store at North Creek Village in Huntersville. The Florida-based grocer, with 26 stores in the Charlotte market, is planning to open at least six more stores.

A 48,000-square-foot Publix at Harris Farms Shopping Center , on the northwest corner of Coddle Creek Highway and Kistler Farm Road, in Mooresville, is expected to open this year. A 55,000-square-foot store with a drive-thru and a proposed private drive at 11525 Carmel Commons should open early next year.

Construction for The Arboretum store at Providence and Pineville-Matthews roads will start by the end of this year or early next year.

Publix also has plans for a store at the 10 Tryon building on the corner of Tryon and Ninth streets in uptown; Clear Creek Crossings development on the corner of Albemarle and Rocky River Church roads; and The Colony on the corner of Sharon and Colony roads in SouthPark.

▪ The West Boulevard Coalition will open Charlotte’s first cooperative grocery store, Three Sisters Market . The full-service grocery store will debut in an area that’s been without a traditional supermarket for over 30 years. It’s expected to open next year.