Food City adding Starbucks coffee shops to some Chattanooga area stores

Customers of Food City's store at 5604 Hixson Pike are greeted by a Starbucks sign. The supermarket is slated to see a Starbucks coffee shop in March.
Customers of Food City's store at 5604 Hixson Pike are greeted by a Starbucks sign. The supermarket is slated to see a Starbucks coffee shop in March.

They'll follow the business model prescribed by Starbucks.

Food City will open a Starbucks coffee shop in one of its Hixson supermarkets as the Chattanooga area's biggest grocer continues efforts to upgrade its stores here since acquiring them from Bi-Lo.

"Bringing Starbucks is another positive step in that direction," said Dan Glei, Food City's executive vice president of merchandising and marketing.

Also, Glei expects Food City to add a Starbucks into its St. Elmo store by year's end, and there are plans for more within the Chattanooga market, he said.

The Starbucks at its 5604 Hixson Pike supermarket, slated to open in March, will be only Food City's third so far within its four-state footprint, Glei said.

One opened in its new Athens, Tenn., supermarket last year and a store in Middleboro, Ky., also holds a Starbucks, he said.

"The reception has been beyond our expectations and Starbucks'," the Food City official said. "We're feeling pretty bullish."

Michael Lucchi, an assistant manager at the Hixson store, said the Starbucks will go near its deli cafe.

"It will help bring more people into the store," he said. "They'll stay longer, absolutely."

Glei said the store will hold a 13-foot-by-22-foot kiosk that will provide all the offerings one can buy in a standalone Starbucks under a licensing agreement with the coffee company.

About 12 to 14 employees hired by Food City will work in the Starbucks, he said. They'll undergo two to three weeks of training by the coffee company, Glei said.

"They'll follow the business model prescribed by Starbucks," said the official, who wouldn't say how much Food City is investing in the venture.

Such in-store units are a proven business model and customers seem to gravitate to them, he said.

"We know customers will want to come in and shop and grab a drink," Glei said. He said the shop will sell Starbucks food and even "hard goods," such as cups.

Glei said the Starbucks shops are another move by Food City to improve the Chattanooga area stores it purchased from Bi-Lo in 2015.

The Abingdon, Va.-based company said after it entered the Chattanooga market that it planned to spend up to $50 million over three years on the 29 area Bi-Lo stores it acquired. The company has begun remodeling stores and built some replacement units. It also has added fuel centers adjacent to some of its stores.

Food City parent K-VA-T operates 132 retail outlets throughout Southeast Kentucky, Southwest Virginia, East Tennessee and North Georgia.

Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.

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