This is the grocery store that will not die.
I just got off the phone with Jennifer Thompson, the director of communications for the Harris Teeter chain and she made it very clear that the rumors of the impending Danville store closure swirling around are total CRAP.
You can’t get any clearer than that, folks. That store seems to survive everything thrown at it. The occasional flooding, the closure of every other business in the shopping center, even a 60% decrease in sales from their best days. Personally, I don’t see how the store continues to operate at a profit, but maybe that’s not important to the overall chain’s strategy (also equally unbelievable).
Anyway, the store is going to remain open and that comes from the top of the corporate ladder.
I sure hope they CAN hang in. I never get to shop there but LOVED the Harris Teeter in So Bo years ago at Hupps Mill. I SO wish we could get a Harris Teeter or Kroger, etc but not in the cards anytime soon. NOT until there is a real turn around and until Halifax Co. gets some industry…not holding MY breath. Glad to hear this and hope it holds.
The low-price supermarket that refuses to price like one! 😛
Lot of crap here also…. Why have they refused to renew their lease, told employees of the pending closing, and rebuffed attempts to move them to a more suitable area. In addition management sources have indicated Danville does not fit into their strategic plan for more “upscale” stores. As a high place source indicated “Danville does not have the demographics that fit into our corporate plan”
Reply: I agree that Danville doesn’t have the demographics for the normal Harris-Teeter market area, but I spoke directly to Jennifer Thompson and I’m reporting exactly what she told me.
Who’s your “high place source”? I’d love to contact them myself. Feel free to use the new TipLine to contact me directly & anonymously.
you can never beleive someone from corporate offices until it happens. I know it happened to winn dixie in clarksville in 2004. We had customers come in to the store asking us when food lion was going to take over our store cause they had heard from a food lion manager in chase city say that food lion was buying our store but we ask corporate about it and they would deny it saying they weren’t going to close their number one store. But one month later our district manager came in for a store manager meeting and in the the middle of the meeting he said oh by the way this store has been sold to food lion and is closing in a week.
I actually work here at Harris Teeter in Danville. Store #031. I started in ’07 and I really enjoy it. The only thing I have been told as far as closing is the Lease date ending somewhere in the March – May 2010 area. Everything else is either “Don’t know” or just so much of a secret, I have no idea who to believe. I still go in and take it one day at a time. If Jennifer Thompson is true to her word, I would be grateful. Losing this job would stop payments on a house/car and family needs. I haven’t felt more comfortable in a job before such as this store, but I’ve only had 2 jobs before this so that’s why this is the best so far. If only we could get out of that stinky river ^_^
Well folks, according to a comment on Grocerying, the store should be closing in March. I’m glad I was able to document this store before its closure, but you could tell that if Harris Teeter really was interested in Danville they would have at least invested in some sort of remodel.
Oh Well – Your source fed you a good one for this story. I will miss them!
Agreed. I was just in the process of writing the new article.
Told ya so! I predicted this 8 months ago. When my source told me of their refusal to discuss a new lease I knew it was over.