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Harris Teeter, A North Carolina Chain with Dozens of Area Locations


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Graeter's started popping up at Whole Foods and Safeway locations around DC about a month ago. They don't seem to be getting restocked steadily though - my closest Safeway has only had Vanilla (with Graeter's? what's the point?) for weeks, and my last trip to the 14/P Whole Foods found only Black Raspberry Chip and one single pint of Mocha Chip.

Still, it is now here in the district. My gut is proof.

WF tenley had at least 3 or 4 flavors a week ago with good inventory levels.

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Just a quick note to let those near Laurel know, if they did not already, that the Harris Teeter at the shopping center development at the site of the former Laurel Mall, called Town Centre at Laurel, is now Open as of late last week.

While I know some of the prices they are running in this grand opening time slot will disappear, this is a very welcome addition to the Laurel grocery scene. While it is true there are plenty of other grocery stores (Giant, Safeway, Weis, Food Lion, Shoppers, Super Best, etc) and some smaller ethnic food stores, they tend not to have the desired depth and breadth of products you really want to see. Sure, it is no Wegman's, but then not even Wegmans has everything I want. While Wegmans will still be my default place for loading up, particularly for special items, this Harris Teeter will become my local default. Having it just 5 min from my house makes it tremendously convenient.

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The Harris Teeter in Old Town Alexandria opened about a month ago. It is (for Old Town) a very large store, with a good selection throughout. It has the usual counters: seafood, butcher, sushi, hot/cold food bars, plus a pizza oven/counter. It is also open 24 hours. Underground parking with access off of N. Pitt St; the main street-level entrance is on N. Saint Asaph.

Trader Joe's doesn't seem to be affected by this new addition to the neighborhood, but I can only imagine the Giant a few blocks down is hurting because of it.

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Is it my imagination, or has the Harris Teeter Organics ice cream changed slightly?  I appreciate that their Unit of Issue is still a real 16oz pint, but seem to remember it previously being denser / having less overrun.

Maybe all this cold weather is skewing my judgement.

Nope, not your imagination. I stopped buying it for that reason.

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I heard this surprising story on the radio today:

"Harris Teeter is First Downtown Falls Church Grocer in Three Decades" by Jeff Clabaugh on wtop.com

(For the understandably confused: There's "Falls Church City," an incorporated city, which is what this article is referring to, and "Falls Church, Fairfax County," an uncorporated mailing address in Fairfax County.)

From the article:

"The last grocery store in Falls Church, a Grand Union store at what is now the Broaddale Village Shopping Center, closed in the early 1980s."

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On 7/30/2016 at 9:25 AM, weezy said:

I thought there was a Safeway on Hillwood Avenue?  At any rate, I was at the farmer's market this morning and saw "Now Open" banners all around the new Harris Teeter.

Not from what I see. Anyway, I heard the "first grocery story in thirty years" story from several sources, so I'd trust that as being true.

Screenshot 2016-08-08 at 23.33.42.png

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I used to REALLY like HT Express Lane.  And I will say it is MUCH better than grocery shopping on my own, and MUCH better than peapod, and much cheaper than InstantCart.  But my last two orders at the Old Town store have had obviously rotten produce in them.  I am going to make a new note about being very picky about produce, but these were not like- bottom of the carton things, one was an obviously not good head of broccoli they would have had to put in the bag.  And another was a bag of pears with one visible that was absolutely completely moldy.  I still really like Express Lane, I just am a bit disappointed in my recent shoppers.  If you call the manager they will replace and even bring things to you- I just really hate to be THAT person. I did return the pears for a fresh bag myself. Not sure if Potomac Yard location would be better, I assume that is a smaller store, so likely not as big of selection.  I haven't found anything in store that isn't on their online ordering. 

I had the recent Whole Foods 2 hour free prime delivery- which was very nice- although my raspberries had some bad ones they were hidden in the bottom of the thing. Other items seemed good. If they could combine that with their Fresh/Pantry so you could get all the things this would be VERY dangerous for my lifestyle. They definitely don't have all the things from their store on there, I assume they will expand with time.  

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On 11/8/2019 at 2:30 PM, ktmoomau said:

I used to REALLY like HT Express Lane.  And I will say it is MUCH better than grocery shopping on my own, and MUCH better than peapod, and much cheaper than InstantCart.  But my last two orders at the Old Town store have had obviously rotten produce in them.  I am going to make a new note about being very picky about produce, but these were not like- bottom of the carton things, one was an obviously not good head of broccoli they would have had to put in the bag.  And another was a bag of pears with one visible that was absolutely completely moldy.  I still really like Express Lane, I just am a bit disappointed in my recent shoppers.  If you call the manager they will replace and even bring things to you- I just really hate to be THAT person. I did return the pears for a fresh bag myself. Not sure if Potomac Yard location would be better, I assume that is a smaller store, so likely not as big of selection.  I haven't found anything in store that isn't on their online ordering. 

I had the recent Whole Foods 2 hour free prime delivery- which was very nice- although my raspberries had some bad ones they were hidden in the bottom of the thing. Other items seemed good. If they could combine that with their Fresh/Pantry so you could get all the things this would be VERY dangerous for my lifestyle. They definitely don't have all the things from their store on there, I assume they will expand with time.  

You know, if you are picky about produce or some other foodstuff (and you should be, especially produce), then I find complaining about what you get when you order someone to pick it for you kind of hilarious. Either go and shop yourself so you can make the judgement call on what is acceptable, or pay the price for the convenience you want - pretty simple. Not being harsh, honest, just matter of fact.

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1 hour ago, Pool Boy said:

You know, if you are picky about produce or some other foodstuff (and you should be, especially produce), then I find complaining about what you get when you order someone to pick it for you kind of hilarious. Either go and shop yourself so you can make the judgement call on what is acceptable, or pay the price for the convenience you want - pretty simple. Not being harsh, honest, just matter of fact.

HAHAHAHAHA no offense taken.  And you are likely right. 

But I complain here so people know whats going on, and can see if anyone else has experienced a decline in the experience, is this a blip, or is it a trend?  I don't really think my current standard- no obvious and visible mold on the item as being very picky. Some shoppers I have had were amazing- they would call and say for example, "leaf lettuce is down to a few damaged heads, should I sub romaine or organic." So actually their shoppers can be GREAT and way above expectations. That is why a lot of my friends were willing to switch to HT and use their shopping program after everyone hated Peapod and got burned, this has been to HT benefit and Giant and Safeways downfall.  Instant cart has pretty high standards, so to stay in the game, HT actually does need to be somewhat cognizant, Walmart is stepping up, and now the 500 pound gorilla coming in the distance Amazon, who has Whole Foods shoppers, who the perception is do care more about produce. (Peapod still is pretty terrible, HT is way above it already, no competition).  So they started me out with high expectations.  Plus, their stores are no longer designed to be able to handle the capacity of everyone like me shopping in person, they have cut way too much in personnel, plus I am an early adopter and therefore my ordering intuition and data is worth a very pretty penny, as online grocery sales will likely account for 15% of all grocery sales in only two years, so it's not just my convenience but their gain right now, as well. It is in their best interest to keep me ordering online so they can use my data to figure out how to increase cart loads with online orders. 

And to be perfectly honest- I am the future, unless we have an apocalypse, so to stay profitable, it's something to which they really are going to have to train their shoppers to pay attention. (Look at the stats of the decreasing number of persons who have gotten their drivers license and you will see why this is VERY, VERY important for them to stay competitive and why my data is extremely valuable.) Plus, they don't really want me to fully grocery shop in person because if I am going to actually go somewhere it is going to be Wegman's, which has a far better in person experience, so HT would lose my business. HT gets my business solely out of the strength of their online ordering program and it's convenience. So, it isn't as simple as it may seem. I admit us millennials are completely annoying in our incessant refusal to conform or settle, but so far, it doesn't really seem to bother us very much.

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On 11/13/2019 at 10:16 PM, ktmoomau said:

HAHAHAHAHA no offense taken.  And you are likely right. 

But I complain here so people know whats going on, and can see if anyone else has experienced a decline in the experience, is this a blip, or is it a trend?  I don't really think my current standard- no obvious and visible mold on the item as being very picky. Some shoppers I have had were amazing- they would call and say for example, "leaf lettuce is down to a few damaged heads, should I sub romaine or organic." So actually their shoppers can be GREAT and way above expectations. That is why a lot of my friends were willing to switch to HT and use their shopping program after everyone hated Peapod and got burned, this has been to HT benefit and Giant and Safeways downfall.  Instant cart has pretty high standards, so to stay in the game, HT actually does need to be somewhat cognizant, Walmart is stepping up, and now the 500 pound gorilla coming in the distance Amazon, who has Whole Foods shoppers, who the perception is do care more about produce. (Peapod still is pretty terrible, HT is way above it already, no competition).  So they started me out with high expectations.  Plus, their stores are no longer designed to be able to handle the capacity of everyone like me shopping in person, they have cut way too much in personnel, plus I am an early adopter and therefore my ordering intuition and data is worth a very pretty penny, as online grocery sales will likely account for 15% of all grocery sales in only two years, so it's not just my convenience but their gain right now, as well. It is in their best interest to keep me ordering online so they can use my data to figure out how to increase cart loads with online orders. 

And to be perfectly honest- I am the future, unless we have an apocalypse, so to stay profitable, it's something to which they really are going to have to train their shoppers to pay attention. (Look at the stats of the decreasing number of persons who have gotten their drivers license and you will see why this is VERY, VERY important for them to stay competitive and why my data is extremely valuable.) Plus, they don't really want me to fully grocery shop in person because if I am going to actually go somewhere it is going to be Wegman's, which has a far better in person experience, so HT would lose my business. HT gets my business solely out of the strength of their online ordering program and it's convenience. So, it isn't as simple as it may seem. I admit us millennials are completely annoying in our incessant refusal to conform or settle, but so far, it doesn't really seem to bother us very much.

Yep it all makes sense. The winners of this niche will be the ones that can nail perfect shopping. That said, you are never going to get truly perfect unless you go in person. But I agree, sometimes the convenience is worth it.

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