Food Lion is adding six supermarkets across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia before the end of 2026, giving Salisbury, North Carolina-based grocery 10 new store openings for the year. The next round begins September 23rd in Summerfield, North Carolina, followed by a Charlotte location on October 7th and a store in Lavonia, Georgia on October 14th.
Food Lion will then turn its attention to South Carolina, where supermarkets are scheduled to open in Greenville in October, Hilton Head in November, and Wren in December. The six locations will carry the core departments found in newer Food Lion locations, including fresh produce and meat, along with ready-to-eat, ready-to-cook, and ready-to-heat foods. The assortment will also include organic, gluten-free, and plant-abased products and items under Nature’s Promise, the natural and organic private brand sold by Food Lion and other Ahold Delhaize USA Banners.
Regional products will be represented through Food Lion’s Local Goodness program, with suppliers from the Carolinas and Georgia featured in the stores. Checkout options will include staffed registers and self-checkout. Digital ordering is part of the operating model as well. Each supermarket will support pickup and home delivery through Food Lion To Go, the grocer’s website and mobile app. Delivery is also available through third-party services including Instacart, DoorDash, and Uber Eats. Pickup and/or home delivery is available across Food Lion’s entire 10-state operating area. While the six stores share a general format, several involve distinctly different real estate projects.
For Charlotte, Food Lion is taking over a former Harris Teeter at 5706 Wyalong Drive in Mintworth Commons. Harris Teeter closed the location in April, leaving a location gap that will return to grocery use when Food Lion opens on October 7th. The Greenville project similarly puts aa vacant grocery property back into use. Food Lion is moving into the former Bi-Lo at 2111 N. Pleasantburg Drive in Field Plaza Shopping Center. The approximately 42,000 square-foot supermarket is one of several former Bi-Lo properties connected to Food Lion’s grocery in the Carolinas following Bi-Lo’s exit from the grocery business in 2021. Hilton Head represents a return to a market Food Lion left more than a decade ago. The grocery is preparing a roughly 41,000 square foot store at 83 Mathews Drive in Port Royal Plasa, occupying part of a former Sam’s Club property. Food Lion previously operated on Hilton Head for nearly 22 years before closing its store there in 2012. The Georgia opening also has ties to an established local grocery business. Food Lion is converting the Dill’s Food City in Lavonia following the Dilworth family’s agreement to sell its grocery operations to the Ahold Delhaize USA banner. The transaction also calls for Food Lion to build a store on the former Dill’s site in nearby Royston, where the previous supermarket was destroyed by fire in 2024. In Wren, South Carolina, Food Lion is slated to anchor Wren Market Square, a planned shopping center with additional retail, service, and medical space. The store is scheduled to open in December, making it the last of the six currently planned for 2026.
Each of the six upcoming locations will also be connected with local food banks and community organizations through Food Lion Feeds. The hunger-relief program has provided more than 1.5 billion meals since its launch in 2014, according to the company, which has set a goal of reaching 3 billion meals by 2032. The new stores follow four Food Lion openings earlier this year. The grocer began 2026 with locations in Pontiac and Simpsonville, South Carolina, and Statesville and Greensboro, North Carolina. The Simpsonville store opened March 25th at 2321 W. Georgia Road and was the company’s fifth supermarket in that area. That puts Food Lion on track to finish the year with 10 openings. The company has also indicated that additional openings are planned for 2027. The development activity comes alongside investment in existing stores. Food Lion has remodeled 87 supermarkets across Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia through a $127 million program that included expanded assortments and the hiring of more than 1,800 associates.
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