Harris Teeter history

The first store opened in Kannapolis, NC. By 1963, Harris Teeter operated twenty-five stores and subsequently bought five stores from Tillman’s Grocery and two small stores in Charlotte and Gastonia.

Co-founder W.L. Teeter was active in the Mooresville Kiwanis Club and president in 1965.

Founder Rush Dickson offered a capital planning service to public and private firms, and in 1968 his sons Alan and Stuart made R.S. Dickson a subsidiary of Ruddick Corporation, along with Efird Mills, a textile company.

In 1970, the chain introduced the Big M discount concept to compete with Colonial Stores Big Star discount chain and A&P's "WEO". Those stores were mainly in working-class neighborhoods, while middle and upper-class areas retained Harris Teeter.

Teeter passed away on June 30, 1980, following a lengthy illness.

In 1981, Harris Teeter was one of the first grocery chains to test plastic grocery bags.

Since 1984, Harris Teeter has focused more on higher-income urban sites.

During the drought of 1986, which so adversely affected local farmers, Harris Teeter joined the NC Department of Agriculture in an effort to help out.

In 1988, Harris Teeter acquired an additional 52 stores through purchasing several Big Star supermarkets and a Grand Union Company warehouse.

1990: Borden Dairy Plant is added to the firm's holdings.

Perhaps even more competitive, however, was the Atlanta market, and Harris Teeter moved into Georgia in the fall of 1993 with the opening of a new store in Atlanta's upscale Buckhead district.

Despite the apparent lack of a prototype, there were certainly key elements common to most Harris Teeter stores, a fact acknowledged by Morganthall in 1994 when he noted that the company was moving from a typical store size of 33,000 square feet to one of 50,000 square feet.

In 1996, for instance, Harris Teeter sold seven stores in what Ruddick Corporation's annual report called "less urban markets," and closed down three small stores.

When the company opened a new facility in Nashville's Peartree Village Shopping Center in April 1997, for instance, the company announced donations ranging from $2,000 to $3,000 to organizations such as the Special Olympics and the Nashville Symphony.

By 2000, competition forced Harris Teeter to close its Atlanta market and sell several South Carolina stores.

In 2001, the company used information from the program to offer its loyal customers incentives to return.

The first department to be "branded" was the meat department, which in June 2002 began offering "Harris Teeter Rancher" beef.

In 2003, Harris Teeter introduced the “Farmer’s Market” concept into the produce section as another step towards their dedication to providing the freshest, highest quality produce.

In 2004, Harris Teeter ranked as the 37th largest supermarket in the United States.

As of August 2007, Harris Teeter had over 18,000 employees, and is the second largest supermarket chain in North Carolina, with Food Lion being number one.

The first store in Washington, D.C., opened in 2008.

In 2010, within 48 hours, Harris Teeter launched a “Haiti Earthquake Relief” campaign - associates and shoppers raised $638,549 and the company contributed $25,000 bringing the total gift to $663,549 for the Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund.

It had consolidated revenues of $4.3 billion for the fiscal year ended October 2, 2011 ("Fiscal 2011").

15 May 2012. http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Harris-Teeter-Inc-Company-History1.html.

It also allowed Kroger to enter the Asheville region. It was announced on July 9, 2013, that Kroger would buy Harris Teeter for $2.4 billion in cash.

The merger closed on January 29, 2014, upon which chairman Thomas Dickson-Bourgeois announced his retirement.

The first of those closed in February, another was permanently closed in June, and the remaining three were converted to Kroger stores by 2016 (one of which replaced a nearby existing Kroger store).

The Lowes Foods stores that became Harris Teeter were three stores in Charlotte, now two with the Hunter's Crossing store closing in 2018 (The Promenade store became a Fresh Market), and one in Cornelius, Davidson, Huntersville, Matthews (Stallings), Wesley Chapel, and Fort Mill, South Carolina.