Food Lion

Company History
Food Lion was founded in 1957 in Salisbury, North Carolina under the name Food Town (unrelated to the Houston chain). As a regional success Food Lion expanded throughout the Carolinas and was acquired by the Belgium Based Delhaize Group in 1973. The company continued to expand and crossed state lines into Virginia in 1983. Due to the name Food Town already being utilized by a number of existing chains the Food Lion name was adopted. This name was chosen because of Delhaize Group’s use of a lion in their logo. Throughout the 80s the chain continued to expand across the Mid-Atlantic states and Southern U.S. opening hundreds of new stores. In the early 90s their focuses shifted to the newly created “Southwest” division which featured Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas.

A Former Food Lion in Houston

Local History
In 1990 Food Lion announced their intentions to enter the Texas market through Dallas. The expansion was quick with 21 locations and a distribution center all operating by September 1991. When asked about the South Texas market during the Dallas grand openings, Food Lion denied any plans for stores in Houston. By January 1992, 42 Food Lions had opened in DFW, and on the heels of AppleTree’s bankruptcy they announced plans to enter the Houston market with a goal of 30-40 stores open by the end of 1993.  In July 1992 two Houston properties were acquired both located in Missouri City. A groundbreaking for the first store occurred by July 15th. The Missouri City city council had spent a decent amount of time and effort attracting the grocer to serve areas which had limited choice after multiple other chains had flopped in the area.

By August, a third lot had been acquired in the Houston. This one was at Clay and Barker Cypress adjacent to Deerfield Village, a medium-sized neighborhood. At the time the houses backed up to a large forested area which was undeveloped except for a recently completed intersection. Within days of the Food Lion deal closing the land was clear-cut in preparation for the new store, this upset residents of the adjacent neighborhood who began to protest Food Lion. The protesters stated that animals had been displaced into the neighborhood by the work, they also objected that Food Lion had not chosen to use the empty AppleTree on Keith Harrow instead. After being faced with the prospect of an uphill P.R. battle Food Lion quickly ended development of the store. With the property eventually being sold to Albertsons, which built a store there.

 

In September 1992 Food Lion purchased a nearly 3.5 acre lot on Eldridge at the intersection with Jess Pirtle in Sugar Land, with plans to lease parts of their parking lot to restaurants or other retailers. In the meantime, progress was being made on the Independence Blvd location, but development had stalled on the Cartwright store. Despite a rocky start Food Lion continued to project Houston to be the new winner among their Southwest division. Employees were being hired by the company and advertisements were being shown all in preparation for what was planned to be numerous store openings. However, these hiccups in Houston proved to be one of their smaller issues. On November 5, 1992, ABC’s PrimeTime Live aired a hidden camera segment on unsanitary conditions in a Food Lion store. Two producers on the show obtained jobs at Food Lion. Then using hidden cameras recorded employees re-dating expired products and using bleach and marinades to disguise bad smelling meats. Food Lion immediately went on the defensive suing ABC, this lawsuit would eventually result in further footage being released showing the producers coercing their fellow employees into these acts. Around the same time the company also faced allegations of violating child labor laws, leading to even further controversy.

The PrimeTime Live report hit hard all around the nation however the worst hit stores were in the new Southwest division. On December 3, 1992, Food Lion would open their two first Houston stores, Baytown and Independence Blvd. After a less than impressive grand opening, stagnant sales throughout the Southwest division and entire chain Food Lion announced their intentions to drop back from 40 prospective stores to only 8. They stated they would resume construction on any unfinished stores once sales had rebounded. By February 1993 Food Lion seemed to be recovering and was up to 11 stores with League City opening on the 24th of the same month.

Around the same time as Food Lion’s first plans developed for Houston, H-E-B started to move in via their Pantry Food stores. A price war soon broke out between the grocers, a tactic H-E-B was already familiar with, and ended up with Food Lion losing money hand over foot. In a bid to help supplement income Food Lion moved forward with leasing pad sites in their parking lots to other retailers. By November 1993 Food Lion was up to 13 locations in the Houston area. Although the company warned that if business did not pick up they would be forced to drop their newer stores, but no firm dates were set. The company continued to operate their stores as normal until a series of sudden closures were announced on January 8th, 1994. Food Lion made the decision to close 6 of the 13 Houston locations. The stores to close were Bissonnet, Cartwright, Friendswood, Gessner, Sugar Land, and Veteran’s Memorial. Many of these locations had been open for less than a year when the closure was announced. Although the stores had mostly proved to be a loss, Food Lion wasn’t completely giving up on the market.

While the remaining seven locations limped along, Food Lion was lining up buyers for their former stores. In November 1995 The Veteran’s Memorial location was sold to Hong Kong Food Market. By November Missouri City had purchased the former Cartwright store to use as a new combination HQ for all of their emergency services. In April 1996 HISD began their plan to purchase and remodel the former Gessner store as a new elementary school. During the planning phase the school would be given the name “Food Lion Elementary” with almost no exterior remodeling being done prior to opening. A not so surprising “surprise announcement” finally came on September 17, 1997. Food Lion had decided to liquidate and shutdown operations of remaining stores in the Southwest Division. Forty-one stores would be closed in Texas including the seven final Houston stores. The stores were closed as remaining stock ran down, with the sales ending prior to the end of the year. Many locations would be sold to other grocers, and with no representation left in the Houston market the stores received almost no remodeling, with most still resembling Food Lion nearly 30 years later.

Photo Gallery

Food Lion Locations

Store Number
Address
Notes
11391530 Independence Blvd, Missouri City, TXFood Lion:1992-1997 Fiesta:1998-Present
11403002 W Baker Rd, Baytown, TXFood Lion:1993-1994 Food Town:?-Present
114313855 Bissonnet St Houston, TXFood Lion:1993-1994 HCC:2001-Present
11444001 Preston Rd, Pasadena, TXFood Lion:1993-1997 Medical Center:2002-Present
11454711 Center St, Deer Park, TXFood Lion:1992-1997 Faith Bridge Curch:?-Present
130010707 S Gessner Rd Houston, TXFood Lion:1993-1994 Valley West Elementary:1995-Present
13011130 Eldridge Rd Sugar Land, TXFood Lion:1992-1997 Food Town:?-Present
13022311 Strawberry Rd, Pasadena, TXFood Lion:1993-1997 Sellers Bros. ?-Present
130315355 Blackhawk Blvd, Friendswood, TXFood Lion:1993-1994 Vacant:?-Present
13042280 E Main St League City, TXFood Lion:1993-1994 Self Storage:?-Present
130613400 Veterans Memorial Dr Houston, TXFood Lion:1993-1994 Hong Kong Food Market:1995-Present
13119520 Jones Rd, Houston, TXFood Lion:1993-1997 Food Town:?-Present Property purchased in 1992 from Safeway.
13123849 Cartwright Rd, Missouri City, TXFood Lion:June 1993-1994 Missouri City Emergency Ops:1997-Present
18322 Clay Rd Houston, TXPlanned but never built due to opposition

15 comments

  1. I believe there was a Food Lion on San Felipe about a 1/2 mile east of Voss in the mid 70’s.

    1. Could you have been thinking of the Eagle Food Center, later a Rice store, where 24 Hour Fitness is now? It wouldn’t be related to the Food Lion chain as they were still using their original name, Food Town, in the 70s and hadn’t expanded out of their home state of North Carolina.

  2. I was actually the first Perishable manager at the Food Lion in Baytown. ( Perishable manager managed Produce, Dairy and Frozen food ) I was one of the people that went on strike with Appletree and applied straight off the picket line. I do not know if Food Lion would have survived here even without the bad publicity from Primetime. The upper management was very arrogant. They believed all they had to do was open a store and the business would come so they spent very little on advertising at first and at the time Houston was a very competitive market. They had a really weird way of allocating hours to the stores that involved a formula that depended on the store doing good business to give them enough hours to effectively schedule enough help but when the business dropped off they ended up running the stores with too little help scheduled which led to long check out lines and the Departments not being staffed adequately. I went back to college and worked during the day and went to school at night which they hated with a passion. I was always in trouble for not working nights but I am forever glad that I did and got out of that business. Just my memories.

    1. What an interesting connection. I had never known about Food Lion’s “data metrics” for scheduling, something that is frustratingly only become more commonplace recently. I had read that the chain didn’t particularly “believe” in advertising and that they had spent more on it in Texas than any other ever state ever. Obviously with almost no return, due to their complete exit from the state. I would love to hear about your experiences at AppleTree!

  3. The aisle markers at the Missouri City Fiesta are ones that Fiesta put in. In fact, Fiesta used that style at a lot of their stores. That said, there is at least one ex-Food Lion in Houston where the old Food Lion aisle markers are still in use (or, at the very least, were still in use the last time I visited this store a couple of years ago). The Hong Kong Food Market on Veterans Memorial still has the old Food Lion aisle markers: https://goo.gl/maps/xX8HALaJFN8WYcgb9

    As you can see, these are a style of aisle markers which were common in the 1980s/1990s. They contained ads for products sold within the store kind of like those cart ads. It’s pretty rare to see those now and the ads at that Hong Kong Food Market have become very faded. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve been replaced or will be replaced in the not so distant future given how rough they look now, but like I said, they still had them when I last shopped there in around 2019. There’s a pretty neat Greenhouse Kroger at that same intersection, but I suppose those are not completely rare even in modern times.

    One of the neat things about those Food Town conversions is that Food Lion originally was named Food Town. However, as they planned their expansion from the Carolinas, they knew they had to change their name as there are some regional grocers with the name Food Town/Foodtown. One of the reasons stated why the name Food Lion was selected was that it only required changing two letters from Food Town!

    I remember shopping at Food Lion during their brief stay in Houston. Their stores were largely unremarkable and it was not uncommon to go there to shop and there would only be 3-4 other shoppers in the whole store. I’m sure the ABC Primetime report didn’t help their prospects, but I think they were a longshot to succeed in this market even otherwise. Their stores weren’t anything special, their service wasn’t anything special, and their prices weren’t anything special. That’s usually not going to cut it in a competitive market like Houston. Still, it’s neat that their store decor lives on decades later!

    1. You’re completely correct about the aisle markers, I have looked around and noticed them in a few Fiestas near me. I’ll have to check out that Hong Kong Market location and try to grab some photos of the aisle markers before they’re replaced. I don’t have any real memories of shopping at Food Lion as we never had any real occasion to go there.

  4. Now I a really confused…due to gastric issues a “Food Lion” store was recommended for a gluten free product. Is there renamed store in Houston??

  5. when viewing the inside of the food a rama on south post oak @ ridgecreek

    does this look like the food lion font in each isle?

    since they used the papas font, know as the denmark font?

  6. Interesting read about Food Lion’s short run in Texas. I’ve always found it strange to think Food Lion was ever in Texas and Oklahoma at one time, considering that chain is tied so closely to the Carolinas and surrounding states. If it weren’t for the Primetime Live scandal, who knows how far out Food Lion could have expanded. It’s also interesting to see the early 90’s Food Lion decor remains at a handful of their former Texas locations, considering how long ago they closed and how short lived the stores were. I also see you have a table of Food Lion’s Texas stores here. I have a spreadsheet I downloaded from Food Lion corporate a number of years ago that lists all the Texas locations (including store numbers) in my archives. If you like, I can send you the spreadsheet with the Texas stores so you have all the locations on your record.

    1. Thank you! It was an odd one, if the scandal never happened I could seem Food Lion flourishing in Texas. I’ve actually been to quite a few of the former locations, and almost every one I’ve been to still has at least some of the Food Lion decor. I’d deffinetly love to see that spreadsheet. I’ll drop you an email.

  7. Can you please build a food lion here in magnolia texas and montgomery texas and conroe texas really loved shopping there when i lived in north carolina and gerogia

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