'When a competitor
placed his stores in
Charlotte and in
Charleston on the market
we immediately
recognized a significant
opportunity for BI-LO.
vTylaiiis,
shrimp
GFS Hagerstown
Allan Noddle (I) and store manager
Bill Gossard in Hagerstown
BI-LO Charlotte
Marshall Collins Jr. (I) and assistant
store manager Jeff Bowers in one
of the new BI-LO stores in Charlotte
Giant Food Stores built its
largest and most modern
store so far in Hagerstown
(Md.j: over 54,000
square feet, a 35,000
item assortment, a com
plete pharmacy and drug
store and great emphasis
on perishables. President
and COO Allan Noddle:
'We had seen the Albert
Heijn prototype in Tilburg,
we had seen BI-LO's and
we had seen drawings of
the new Finast stores, and
we borrowed some ideas
from each of them for our
own situation. The store is
doing very well, with sales
running above projections.'
The Giant in Hagerstown
may be considered its pro
totype for the nineties, but
not all Giant's new stores
will be based upon this
store. Noddle: 'They will
be similar, but some new
stores will be smaller.
We are building three
standard sizes: 38,000,
44,000 and 54,000
square feet. What they
will have in common is the
emphasis on freshness
and a great variety.1
only 100 miles away from
our distribution center.
When this competitor
wanted to sell all his Char
lotte stores along with
those in Charleston -
where we were successful
already - we quickly avail
ed ourselves of this oppor
tunity.
In four days the newly
acquired stores were con
verted into provisional
BI-LO supermarkets. In the
course of the year a more
thorough remodeling took
place. Collins: 'And just
when that was over the
Charleston and Charlotte
markets were hit by Hurri
cane Hugo. In spite of all
that we are very pleased
with the results of the new
locations.
Early in 1989 BI-LO
strengthened its position
through the acquisition of
21 supermarkets in Char
lotte (N.C.), Greenville
(S.C.j and Charleston
(S.C.j. Through this acqui
sition BI-LO returned to
Charlotte. President and
CEO Marshall Collins Jr.
'BI-LO had never been
represented effectively in
the Charlotte market.
We had only four old out
moded stores which we
finally sold to a competitor
in 1988. Still, we wanted
to go back because Char-
lote is a market that repre
sents a major opportunity.
It has a population of over
800,000 people and lies
