The Harris Teeter that closed on Wyalong Drive in East Charlotte back in April will reopen this fall under a new banner. Food Lion plans to open a store at the Mintworth Commons shopping center at 5706 Wyalong Drive on October 7, filling the space its longtime regional rival abandoned even as it keeps building stores elsewhere around the Charlotte area.
According to the Charlotte Observer, the new Food Lion will offer fresh produce, meats and everyday essentials, along with ready-to-eat, ready-to-cook and ready-to-heat meals. The store will also feature cashier-assisted and self-checkout lanes, plus pickup and delivery options. Food Lion, based in Salisbury, North Carolina, and owned by Ahold Delhaize USA, was founded in 1957 and now employs more than 82,000 people across more than 1,100 stores in 10 southeastern and mid-Atlantic states.
Food Lion already has two other stores less than two miles from the Mintworth Commons site, at 8100 Idlewild Road and 6275 Wilson Grove Road in Mint Hill, and a Lidl sits directly across the street at 4520 Margaret Wallace Road. Food Lion said the new location is part of its commitment to invest and grow in towns and cities throughout the Charlotte market, and that the store is intended to complement its existing network by providing added convenience and accessibility rather than simply duplicating coverage. The company added that it expects the location to strengthen its overall presence in the Charlotte market.
Harris Teeter Retreats While Expanding Elsewhere
Harris Teeter, a subsidiary of Kroger Co. based in Matthews, North Carolina, closed the Wyalong Drive store in April even as it pursues growth in other parts of the region. The chain, which operates more than 260 stores across the Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia, Maryland, Delaware, Florida and Washington, D.C., plans three new stores in Kannapolis, Lake Wylie and Fort Mill, South Carolina, with construction expected to begin later this year. That pattern fits a broader shift documented by Fast Company, which reported that Kroger's 2026 footprint consolidation targeted as many as 60 underperforming or overlapping supermarket locations nationwide, part of an effort to run more efficiently even as capital shifts toward faster-growing suburbs like Fort Mill and Lake Wylie.
The Mintworth Commons site has a long grocery history. Commercial property records reviewed by Groceteria.com show the shopping center was developed in the late 2000s, with Harris Teeter anchoring it from 2011 until its closure this year — a fifteen-year run serving neighborhoods along the Charlotte-Matthews border near Lawyers Road. The anchor space itself spans 48,831 square feet and was marketed under a triple-net lease arrangement after Harris Teeter's exit, according to property data from PropertyShark, with dock-high loading doors and clear heights suited for a quick grocery re-tenanting.
A Tight Race for Second Place
Per Chain Store Guide data cited by the Observer, Food Lion ranks as the third-largest grocer by market share in the Charlotte region, with 103 stores locally, while Harris Teeter sits second behind Walmart. Hoodline's own reporting on the Charlotte grocery market found Walmart commands roughly 23% of the region's $10.8 billion grocery revenue, or about $2.4 billion, while Harris Teeter and Food Lion are locked in a tight second-place battle at roughly 15% to 16% market share apiece — close to $1.7 billion each — spread across 737 total stores in the region.
Food Lion's momentum has been building for a while. The chain notched its 52nd consecutive quarter of positive same-store sales growth in the third quarter of 2025, according to Mass Market Retailers, remaining the primary growth engine for Ahold Delhaize's U.S. operations. That growth has been paired with heavy reinvestment: Food Lion recently completed a $484 million renovation of 153 Charlotte-area stores, finished in November 2025, with upgrades including new storefronts, improved produce, bakery and deli departments, self-checkout lanes, to-go service and energy-saving fixtures. Grocery Dive reported that the remodeled stores have posted higher average weekly sales than locations that weren't renovated.
Supply Chain Muscle Behind the Expansion
The push into East Charlotte follows an aggressive start to the year for Food Lion, which opened four new Carolinas supermarkets in the first quarter of 2026, including stores in Statesville and Greensboro, per Grocery Dive. Those new locations feature walk-in produce coolers, fresh sushi bars and expanded ready-to-heat meal options, a format that could carry over to the Wyalong Drive store.
Backing that expansion is a massive supply chain investment. Ahold Delhaize USA entered a $475 million triple-net lease financing deal with Blackstone Credit & Insurance in January 2026 to build an $860 million, 1-million-square-foot automated distribution center in Burlington, North Carolina. The hub, expected to open in 2029 and create roughly 500 jobs, is designed to supply Food Lion stores statewide as the chain continues its buildout.
Charlotte's grocery landscape isn't standing still elsewhere, either. New York-based Wegmans is set to open its first Charlotte-area store, a 110,000-square-foot supermarket in Ballantyne, on October 14 — just a week after Food Lion's Wyalong Drive debut — targeting high-income south Charlotte shoppers and adding fresh pressure on established chains. Meanwhile, food access remains a live local issue: Hoodline reported in July that independent operator Dany's Supermarket filed $510,000 in permit plans to convert a former Dollar General into a full-service grocery in the nearby Newell neighborhood, part of broader efforts to address the roughly 15% of Mecklenburg County residents living in areas with limited supermarket access.
