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Food City history
Food City company history timeline
The former head office was located in Grundy, VA, until 1955.
Jack C. Smith established Food City in the year 1955.
The founder first started a grocery store Piggly Wiggly in Grundy, adding three stores in Kentucky by 1967.
The official headquarters of Food City is located in Abingdon, USA and it has been there since 1970.
When K-VA-T acquired Quality Foods and adopted the Food City name in 1984, the Galax, Virginia, Piggly Wiggly location was renamed Oldtown Market.
In 1989, Food City purchased the 37-store White Stores chain based out of Knoxville, Tennessee, more than doubling the size of the company.
In 1989, Food City sold Oldtown Market to two of its retired management team members.
In 1998, Food City acquired the 11-store Kennedy Piggly Wiggly chain as well as full control of Mid-Mountain Foods, the current Food City Distribution Center.
K-VA-T closed one of its two Sevierville, Tennessee, locations in 2005, but it reopened this location a few months later under the While It Lasts banner.
In February 2006, Food City announced the purchase of eight Bi-Lo locations in Knoxville, Maryville, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Three years later, in October 2008, K-VA-T opened its 100th store in Rogersville, Tennessee.
In December 2010, K-VA-T purchased Old Town Market in Tazewell, Tennessee, as a replacement store for their New Tazewell, Tennessee, location.
In August 2012, K-VA-T opened its first Food City Wine & Spirits liquor store, in Pikeville, Kentucky.
In October 2013, K-VA-T officially consolidated its corporate operations into a new headquarters building in downtown Abingdon, Virginia, at 1 Food City Circle.
Another pair of Gas'N Go convenience store locations were constructed and opened in Morristown and Bristol, Tennessee, later in 2014.
In July 2015, Food City announced the purchase of 21 BI-LO locations in the Chattanooga, Tennessee market as well as eight BI-LO stores in Northern Georgia from Southeastern Grocers.
The company's second Food City Wine & Spirits opened in Louisa, Kentucky in August 2015.
A fifth location was opened in Oliver Springs, Tennessee in July 2016.
In November 2017, Food City opened its first in-store Starbucks in a newly built location in Athens, Tennessee.
Food City’s first in-store Starbucks was established in 2017 and the company currently owns 15 of them.
Over the course of 2017, the rest of the Super Dollar Discount Foods locations were converted to this new banner.
In February 2020, The National Grocers Association named K-VA-T Food Stores and Food City as Outstanding Marketer at the 2020 NGA Creative Choice Awards.
In June 2020, K-VA-T announced that they were expanding into their fifth state with plans to construct a 54,000 square feet (5,000 m) supermarket in Albertville, Alabama.
In June 2020, K-VA-T converted its older Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, location to their new Express by Food City format.
The store opened on April 14, 2021.
As of April 2021, there were 6 Super Dollar locations, two with Gas'N Go fuel stations.
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Food City competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brookshire's | 1928 | $2.7B | 14,001 | 455 |
| Ralphs | 1873 | $3.0B | 27,000 | 84 |
| Smith's Food and Drug | 1948 | $4.0B | 22,000 | 159 |
| Vallarta Supermarkets | 1985 | $24.4M | 8,000 | 81 |
| Vons | 1906 | $2.6B | 44,000 | - |
| Raley's | 1935 | $3.2B | 12,000 | 175 |
| King Soopers/City Market | 1947 | $4.0B | 20,000 | 151 |
| Bashas' | 1932 | $1.7B | 9,085 | 331 |
| City Market | 1973 | $450,000 | 25 | 66 |
| Weis Markets | 1912 | $4.8B | 23,000 | 885 |
Food City history FAQs
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