Food Lion #2829 / Former Super BI-LO #5704
Verdae Village
Greenville, SC 29607
While it is not unusual to read about a former Floridian Food Lion on this blog, today we are going to change it up and look at a current Food Lion with a twist of Floridian lime. While I was visiting South Carolina a few months back, I was interested to see what sort of unusual (for me) retail finds I could experience. I then recalled how Southeastern Grocers had recently divested of BI-LO to Food Lion and was curious to see if I could find any soon-to-be extinct interiors. I managed to come across a few but settled on this particular store because of its relations back to Florida: it featured the green version of Down Down. Many of you have {red} about the infamous package, which actually originated from the Land Down Down Under (more pictures); however, you may not have realized that the red edition of the package had green and yellow siblings. The red package was reserved for Winn-Dixie stores, while green was used in BI-LO, and yellow was used in Harvey's & Fresco y Más locations. AFB toured a Harvey's a while back which featured the hideous yellow version, but today we will get to see my definite favorite amongst the three siblings: Green Down Down.
I personally think it is sad how the best of the three packages will likely be the first to go extinct. The fact that Winn-Dixie hasn't begun to remodel any of its stores featuring the red package, SEG has seemingly forgotten about the few remaining Harvey's stores, and all of the BI-LO stores were sold off means that Food Lion will likely eradicate the package in the near future. I have already seen where the chain has begun to remodel many of the new acquisitions to a blue and white interior, so I wouldn't be surprised if they continue this trend.
In my opinion, Food Lion's blue and white "Easy Fresh & Affordable 3.0" package is far better than some it has replaces (ehm, Yellow Down Down), but far inferior to others, such as Rutherfordton. At some point, I'll share a tour I had of a Harvey's-turned-EFA 3.0 Food Lion, but in the meantime, let's take a look at Green Down Down!
Some History
I typically don't perform extensive research for my MFR posts, contrary to posts on my main blog (take a look at my recent post on Former Publix #476 for an example); however, I decided to learn a bit more about this location since I'm not as familiar with the BI-LO brand.
 |
| Courtesy Newspapers.com (Page 2) - The Greenville News - June 21, 2007 |
It looks like this store opened on June 20, 2007, to all sorts of fanfare and in the midst of all sorts of change for the company. After reading through several articles discussing the new store and concept, it seems that the chain was looking for a potential buyer at the time. Looking back, this decision was seemingly part of a larger downward death spiral, involving everybody from Bruno's, to Delhaize, to C&S Wholesale Grocers, and ultimately, Southeastern Grocers. Just reading the Wikipedia page makes my head spin with all of the corporate drama! In the end, it looks like the new concept wasn't a clear winner for the Mauldin, SC grocer.
 |
| Courtesy Newspapers.com - The Greenville News - June 17, 2007 |
The "super" moniker for this store signified the expanded offerings of the location, including: a coffee shop, a Wi-Fi café, a medical clinic, and an expanded product selection. This particular store is approximately 57,000 sq. ft., making it roughly 10,000 sq. ft. larger than BI-LO's standard stores from the era. The new concept made its debut in Columbia, SC in 2005, but this location was the first of its kind in Upstate South Carolina. The new store also brought a $17 million dollar investment to the former Verdae Marketfair shopping center, which originally hosted Stein Mart, Service Merchandise, Marshall's, Office Depot, and Michael's as tenants. Update (June 10, 2022) - thanks to a comment I received below from "P", here is some additional information on what happened to the other stores in this center:
"Verdae MarketFair lost pretty much every major big box besides Stein Mart and Office Depot by the 2000s.
Marshalls moved out in 2005, taking a spot at a new lifestyle center elsewhere in town. Their space is now K&G Fashion Superstore.
Michaels left by 2000, taking over a former Circuit City nearby. Their space was later home to a factory outlet of some kind before becoming a Planet Fitness.
Service Merchandise made it until 2002, and sat vacant until 2006, when it was torn down for the Super BI-LO. BI-LO closed their location in a former Harris Teeter around 10 minutes away to build the new one, though this was not BI-LO's first time in the general area.
Stein Mart closed with the chain in 2020, and became an Overstock Furniture.
The only other tenant I've identified thus far is Old Country Buffet, which became a used book store."
It is always nice to receive more information on stores from people familiar with the area!
The Store
I managed to take this picture as I was leaving the shopping center, and
only realized there was still a sign for Stein Mart as I was writing up
this post (Stein Mart had been gone for at least a year by the time I
took these photos). I wish I had paid more attention to the vacant
space to see if the building signage was still up!
This was the first BI-LO visit of any kind for me, so I didn't exactly know what to expect. The façade of the building seems to be original to BI-LO because I know they liked to use an arched front like this. We also see some green paint reminiscent of this edifice's past. Interestingly, SEG used this same shade of green for both Harvey's and BI-LO (unfortunately I only took one picture in front of the store, so you can scroll up a bit to see what I'm talking about).
I guess I am used to Publix's normal assortment of indoor plants, but
this store seemed to carry a nice variety of outdoor plants as well. What an appealing way to greet customers! It matches the green decor scheme, too!
Taking a look at the door to the left of the flowers, I don't notice any obvious remnants from BI-LO.
But inside I do! I'd imagine that the green and cream tiles predate SEG's acquisition of the chain, but the wood paneling and black tile in the BAKERY are all courtesy of the Jacksonville, FL company. The wood also tells us that this was a later installation of Down Down.
Although I didn't photograph it, I believe the section to my right could have been home to BI-LO's café space. It seems like somebody was standing over there when I walked by, but I didn't think a few refrigeration cases of pre-packaged sandwich products were that interesting.
When you walk in the store, you are immediately greeted by a few dump bins of sale product, followed by the FRUIT & VEGETABLES department, BAKERY, DELI, and SEAFOOD rounding out the grand aisle, which runs along the right wall of the store.
Since I managed to only take one picture of the FRUIT & VEGETABLES department, I decided to at least throw in a more zoomed-in perspective too!
We'll first take a look at the BAKERY, which seems to look pretty upscale in comparison to ones I've seen in cheap Marketplace to Down Down remodels. Maybe it is the faux wood flooring!
Taking a look back toward the door we passed through, we see the
CUSTOMER SERVICE counter and Down Down's outrageously large font. I do
wonder if Food Lion had already painted part of this wall white or if
SEG was too cheap and didn't want to buy any more green paint. I vote for the latter option.
Just past the BAKERY is the KITCHEN, or hot food, section of the DELI. Each of the stations along this side of the store featured a curved soffit extending toward the sales floor.
Likewise, the service meats section of the DELI was to the left of the KITCHEN, in the back right corner of the store.
I'd like to note how the same black tile backsplash seems to be used in the red version of Down Down.
Finally, the SEAFOOD counter is located on the wall opposite the front door, at the other end of the grand aisle.
We'll take one last look down the grand aisle and see how the green checkered floor meanders its way through this side of the store.
I'm disappointed that I didn't take more pictures of the FRUIT & VEGETABLES department in this store, but I guess I was more distracted by the grand aisle's service departments!
Here we see the rear actionway of the store, which features the MEAT and BUTCHER departments. Oddly enough, this store seems to have a very similar layout to a number of Publixes out there. We can also see how the wood paneling continues throughout this store's service departments.
I'm not sure if Food Lion typically staffs a BUTCHER station, because nobody seemed to be back there on this day; furthermore, most of the meats were in the cooler along the wall next to the BUTCHER window, not in front of it. The signage was obviously a holdout from "The Beef People"; likewise, Food Lion probably wants people to forget they even sell beef! Similar to Winn-Dixie's often convenient placement of champagne and orange juice, I feel like it would have been nice had the mustard and BBQ sauce shelf instead displayed bleach.
Although it may not have been located next to the meat counter, the cleaning supplies aisle was located across the actionway. It must've either looked picturesque to me, or there may have just not been any people on it to get in my way!
Popping out of one of the aisles, we see some hot dogs and Lunchables down down below the sign for BACON. Very appropriate, if you ask me.
Just for reference, this BACON sign was partially obscured by the soffit for the BUTCHER sign we saw above.
Wow, I'm also surprised at how few pictures I took of the grocery aisles! At least I had time to snap a photo by the time I made it to aisle 11! This double-wide aisle is where customers can get their alcohol fix for the week, because it is home to wine and refrigerated beer (which is mostly obscured by the massive Bud Light shrine in front of me).
MILK & DIARY round out the back left corner of the store; although, Food Lion seems to have discovered a process of creating orange juice from cheese!
Aisle 12 looks to be where the flooring conditions took a down down turn, as it looks like this section of the store experienced water damage at some point. I do applaud BI-LO's creativity with their flooring materials though.
Regardless, we see that a variety of frozen foods can be found on this aisle.
On the other side of frozen foods (aisle 13) is where the remaining dairy products are found. I assume this aisle was busy during my visit because I'll typically photograph it.
Rounding
out the front left corner is BEAUTY, which looks like it is where the
pharmacy and health clinic used to be. We can also see a hanging BEAUTY sign which is
another relic from SEG. I guess Food Lion thinks basketball players could use more beauty (and chips) in their lives.
We'll take one last look at the old pharmacy section before we move on. SEG seemed to close a number of their in-store pharmacies between 2016 and 2018, so I'd imagine this location closed sometime around then.
Ahh, I finally took a picture of some more grocery aisles! Here we
can see how the wine aisle also received some laminate wood flooring,
and how the dropped ceiling ends and warehouse ceiling begins over the
grocery aisles. We also see some of the aisle signs which were added by
Food Lion; the SEG original ones which matched this package would have looked like this.
Taking a look at the register lines, I believe those lights are original to BI-LO as well (judging by the fact that they are green). At least Food Lion went through the effort to print out a card to paste over BI-LO's logo on the wall!
As we leave the store, we'll pass by a few rows of extra Food Lion buggies in the exit vestibule of the store. Anyway, that was our tour of one of the many stores Food Lion acquired from SEG last year. I hope y'all enjoyed it!
In all seriousness, I'd imagine this store will look much more cohesive once Food Lion remodels it to their "Easy Fresh & Affordable 3.0" package. It will be interesting to see how extensive the remodel is, because I have seen a number of other stores only receive new paint and signage. At least all of the departments will soon be aligned once again!
As usual, I'm planning to release another full-featured post over on The Sing Oil Blog this Saturday, so be sure to check it out!
Until next time,
- The Sing Oil Blogger
Just the first paragraph alone got a number of verbal "oh no"s out of me, which always represents my approval of some incredible puns XD That aside, I'm happy to see some BI-LO/Food Lion coverage! I have family in South Carolina, and due to the lack of coverage from the region I really hoped I could document some BI-LO stores prior to the sale, but unfortunately the pandemic stopped us from traveling there right around the time the whole sale ordeal was happening. I did wind up with two pre-pandemic BI-LO tours (one of which I've already uploaded to flickr), however, as well as two post-sale tours -- each with a different décor package. One of those is a green Down Down store, and I'm glad you got to experience one also -- they definitely do look good. The wood paneling really makes this version stand out as opposed to the red and yellow versions of the décor. I do think Food Lion will remodel these stores eventually, but my understanding is they've been focusing on remodeling all of their existing stores first, so hopefully there's still some time yet to get more former BI-LO décors documented! The Super BI-LOs in particular had some neat packages, but I think most of those have sadly been eradicated already...
ReplyDeleteOh no, I did go there! I guess I was in a very "punny" mood while I was writing this post!
DeleteSimilar to how you were happy to see me cover a BI-LO/Food Lion, I'm glad to hear you were able to cover several of the BI-LO stores I didn't make it to! I guess I wasn't as motivated to visit other former BI-LO stores since I lack the personal connection. I did, however, notice one former BI-LO which had already remodeled to EFA 3.0. I also really wanted to stop by a Rutherfordton Food Lion, but it seems as if all of those in the Greenville area had already been remodeled as well. Anyway, I'm excited to see how your other "stours" turned out!
While I do agree that the wood paneling makes this version of Down Down look nice, it seems like it was also featured in later installs of the standard red Down Down. Oddly enough, my only tour of a Down Down Winn-Dixie had this wood paneling, and it was in a Mississippi store too! We'll see when I get around to sharing that post, but it is certainly a store with a strange and extensive history.
From what I have seen, Food Lion has remodeled several of their newly-acquired stores already, but it would make sense for them to primarily focus on existing stores to begin with. Maybe I'll have a chance to visit a few more of the acquired stores before they are remolded, but I'm not going to get my hopes up.
I can't really say I have much knowledge of SEG and I have even less knowledge of Food Lion outside their brief foray in Houston in the early 1990s. Much of what I know about SEG banners/former banners comes from AFB/MFR. That said, I've seen a few 'Down Down' Winn-Dixies and this BI-LO, former BI-LO at least, looks a lot nicer than any 'Down Down' Winn-Dixie I've seen! Perhaps SEG dumped the wrong banner, lol. Flooring problems in the frozen food area aside, this looks like quite a nice place to shop.
ReplyDeleteI must say that I was distracted by the Mr. K's Used Books & CDs store in this shopping center! I've never heard of Mr. K's before. They seem a bit similar to Half Price Books, which is probably in your area as well, and also maybe 2nd & Charles. 2nd & Charles is roughly in this area, but only roughly so I've never been to one. I suppose the same could be said about Books-A-Million, but that's a different story. In some ways, Mr. K's looks a bit nicer than a Half Price Books. I'm not really sure if I like how they've organized their CDs, but it's not an unusual way that they've done it. I wonder if they only sell major albums or if they sell just about everything they get like how Half Price Books does.
Back to the Food Lion for a minute, from what little I've seen of their modern decor packages and stores in general, it seems that they are a more viable grocer now than they were when they came to Houston in around 1992. Maybe Food Lion's very standardized format of that time looked nice in certain markets, but their stores felt like a 1980s Safeway in many ways at a time when Kroger and Randall's (pre-Safeway), and later Albertsons, were introducing very modern, larger stores in Houston such as the Kroger Signature/Power Alley stores. Food Lion was certainly positioning themselves as a low-price leader when they came to Houston, and so maybe their rather dowdy stores made sense in that manner, but Food Lion had the misfortune of entering Houston at the same time that HEB did with their HEB Pantry Foods format. While the HEB Pantry Foods stores were even more basic, smaller, and worse looking than the Food Lions even, they had prices probably better than Food Lion and none of the issues Food Lion was dealing with in around 1992. The rest is history, at least as far as Houston goes, but it seems Food Lion recovered nicely from that troubled time in their history if their modern stores are any indication. With that in mind, perhaps the shoppers of this store won't mind SEG's presence fading away in favor of Food Lion, but again, it's hard for me to say much about these chains in modern times.
I can agree with you there! The fact that this store was built in 2007 and had good bones to start with probably contributed to it looking much nicer than a run-down Winn-Dixie Marketplace with bright red walls and mismatched flooring. I wanted to share a Marketplace-turned-BI-LO which looked really interesting, but I can't remember where it was! In the meantime, I did come across an interesting Marketplace-to-Food Lion conversion. Although I haven't shared any pictures yet, you've probably seen some of Winn-Dixie's newly remodeled stores which do look quite nice. They did ditch some nice grocery stores around South Carolina, but I believe the influx of cash is what has allowed them to invest in some of their long-forgotten Florida stores which will always be their bread-and-butter.
DeleteHaha, I didn't even notice the used book store! I would think it was a local business because I have never heard of Mr. K's either. I've been to several 2nd & Charles stores before (and happened to visit the one down the street from this Food Lion). They typically have some interesting stuff and can be a good way to kill time. It seems like BAM has tried to differentiate themselves by mostly selling new stuff while saving the used items for 2nd & Charles. Although, I did recently see a larger used CD & DVD section in a BAM than I had noticed before.
I guess Food Lion is more viable than they were in the 1990's, but they certainly went through some tough times during the recession when they nearly pulled-out of Georgia and Florida. As far as their modern décor packages go, I thought their outgoing Rutherfordton package looked really nice and felt upscale. On the other hand, I'm not a huge fan of their current Easy Fresh & Affordable 3.0 interior. Although it seems easy to install, stores do get a fresh coat of paint, and Food Lion seemingly takes the affordable route with the remodels, the stores end up feeling stark and cheap, with some reminding me of Down Down remodels I have seen. I can certainly see how Food Lion's stores of the 1990's felt dated even at the time, just comparing them to various Publix or Marketplace stores I have been to from that era. Like you, I don't have much exposure to the modern Food Lion, so maybe they have turned themselves around from their old ways, but I still have more faith in what I have seen recently from SEG. Although the shoppers of this area may miss BI-LO, at least Food Lion is still familiar with the region and likely knows how to cater to the local market.
Hi, I'm a Greenville local and a bit of a historian myself about the area.
ReplyDeleteVerdae MarketFair lost pretty much every major big box besides Stein Mart and Office Depot by the 2000s.
Marshalls moved out in 2005, taking a spot at a new lifestyle center elsewhere in town. Their space is now K&G Fashion Superstore.
Michaels left by 2000, taking over a former Circuit City nearby. Their space was later home to a factory outlet of some kind before becoming a Planet Fitness.
Service Merchandise made it until 2002, and sat vacant until 2006, when it was torn down for the Super BI-LO. BI-LO closed their location in a former Harris Teeter around 10 minutes away to build the new one, though this was not BI-LO's first time in the general area.
Stein Mart closed with the chain in 2020, and became an Overstock Furniture.
The only other tenant I've identified thus far is Old Country Buffet, which became a used book store.
Hello, and I'm glad you found your way to my post! Hopefully I didn't mischaracterize anything as I have only ever been to Greenville a couple of times.
DeleteThanks for that info, and I'll stick it in the main post as an addendum for others to read in-context. I also find it interesting how it seems like the Super BI-LO's construction was an attempt to revitalize an otherwise declining shopping center, especially with all of those other stores leaving in the early-2000's.
While I was visiting Greenville, I also managed to stop by a couple of other supermarkets, so hopefully I can cover them here in the coming months!