Company officials recently announced plans to construct a new Food City on Virginia Avenue in Bristol, TN.  The 42,600+ square foot supermarket will replace their existing location and be constructed on the same site.  Food City also operates four other locations in Bristol.   

“The residents of Bristol have certainly been supportive of all of our locations and we look forward to providing our valued customers with a new, larger state-of-the-art Food City to replace the existing outdated Virginia Avenue location,” says Steven C. Smith, Food City President and Chief Executive Officer. 

The company plans to temporarily close the Virginia Avenue facility on September 26, 2015 to make way for the demolition necessary to begin construction on the new store.  “As you can imagine, closing this store, even temporarily was an extremely difficult decision for our company,” says Smith.  “Unfortunately, it was the only viable option that would allow us to safely construct a new, larger, much more up-to-date store on the site.  Rest assured that we will utilize every resource at our disposal to erect the new structure in the quickest, safest manner possible, to minimize shopping interruption and inconvenience to our customers.”

Food City’s surrounding Bristol locations on Volunteer Parkway, Euclid Avenue and Bonham Road will welcome Virginia Avenue customers during the temporary closing.  Food City has partnered with the City of Bristol, TN to provide bus transportation between their Virginia Avenue location and the Volunteer Parkway store, beginning September 28th (see bus schedule below).  The bus service will be available Monday through Friday, except for holidays observed by the City. 

BUS TRANSPORTATION SCHEDULE

Food City Virginia Avenue          Food City Volunteer Parkway

6:20 am                                             6:35 am
7:20 am                                             7:35 am
8:50 am                                             8:30 am
9:50 am                                             9:30 am
10:50 am                                           10:30 am
11:50 am                                           11:30 am
12:50 pm                                           12:30 pm
1:50 pm                                             1:30 pm
2:50 pm                                             2:30 pm
3:50 pm                                             3:30 pm
4:40 pm                                             4:25 pm
5:40 pm                                             5:25 pm

The Virginia Avenue store associates are also being temporarily transferred to other area Food City locations.  “I’m very excited about the new store and the additional services it will provide our customers,” says Store Manager, Eric Sandefur.  “Our Store Planning and Development team does an excellent job and I’m confident they will get us up and going as quickly as possible.  In the meantime, I’ll be working between the other area Food City locations, checking on my customers and associates.”

The new location is expected to be complete after the first of the year and will include an in-store bakery/deli, complete with a hot food bar and sit-down café, enlarged produce, grocery, frozen food and health and beauty departments.  Full service meat and seafood departments will offer pre-marinated and seasoned oven ready products, plus a complete selection of top quality meats that are all-natural with no solutions added, including Certified Angus Beef.  In-house meat cutters will hand cut steaks and fresh meat to order.  The Food City Floral Boutique will be staffed with a designer seven days per week, offering a full assortment of fresh-cut floral arrangements, bouquets, gift items and more.  Rapid checkout service will be provided by six traditional check-out lanes, one express lane and four self-check-outs.  For added convenience, the store will also offer a Food City Pharmacy, equipped with a drive-thru for greater ease in prescription services. 

“The larger departments will allow for enhanced variety and selection and greater ease maneuvering through the store,” says Rick Bishop, Food City District Manager.  “I am confident that our customers are going to be pleased with their new, much improved Food City and will agree that it was well worth the wait.”

The new location also features an open rafter ceiling and several award winning energy saving concepts.  These range from energy efficient glass cooler doors, parking lot lights and refrigeration systems to motion sensors, LED lighting and a new skylight system that automatically dims the lights based upon the level of natural lighting for maximum energy efficiency.

Headquartered in Abingdon, Virginia, K-VA-T Food Stores operates 104 retail food outlets throughout the tri-state regions of Southeast Kentucky, Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee.  The company just recently purchased 29 BI-LO supermarkets in Chattanooga, Tennessee and North Georgia.  They are currently in the process of converting the new locations to the Food City format.