Founding and early days (Store #097-00401). Harris Teeter was founded by William Thomas Harris and Willis L. Teeter, two entrepreneurs who started their separate businesses during the
Great Depression in
Charlotte, North Carolina. Harris opened a full-service drugstore called Harris Drugs and Teeter opened Teeters Food Mart, later merging their two ventures. Harris, an employee of the
A&P store on Central and Pecan Avenues – Charlotte's first supermarket – borrowed funds in 1936 to open the Harris Super Market at 1704 Central Avenue. The store had eight employees, primarily selling
dry groceries because
frozen foods and
refrigeration did not become common until
World War II. To the family and their employees, it was known as Store #1. This store, later known as Harris Teeter store #201, closed on June 5, 2012, and was replaced by the two-story store #401 on the same site, which opened on May 29, 2013. Harris' store was the first in
North Carolina to allow customers to select their own groceries off the shelves. Before this time, customers handed a shopping list to a clerk, who then selected the groceries for the customers. The store was also open until 9 p.m. on Fridays, at a time when most grocery stores closed their doors at 5 p.m. This was done to appeal to working families and to capture their grocery shopping after they were paid on Fridays. Later, the Harris Super Market was the first grocery store in Charlotte to add
air conditioning. After opening his sixth store Teeter joined the NC Food Dealers Association. At one of the Food Dealers meetings, Teeter met Harris. The two men decided that working together would increase the financial strength of the two supermarkets, allow them to grow more rapidly, and decrease
operating costs. W. L. Teeter and W. T. Harris agreed to merge and did so in November 1959 to become Harris Teeter Supermarkets. The merger of 15 stores collectively became official in February 1960. The new company became the largest independent grocery organization in the Carolinas. The new owners introduced
alcoholic beverages for sale for the first time. Harris, a devout
Southern Baptist, had refused to allow the sale of alcohol, even after the merger. Starting in the 2000s, Harris Teeter attempted to differentiate itself from its competitors by providing exceptional customer service and newly "branded" departments. The first department to be "branded" was the meat department, which in June 2002 began offering "Harris Teeter Rancher" beef. This was followed by the introductions of the Farmers' Market (produce department, October 2003), the Fisherman's Market (seafood department, April 2004), and the Fresh Foods Market (deli/bakery, January 2005). Gourmet imported items are sold under the "H.T. Traders" brand. Harris Teeter stores are now separated into 3 regions and 20 districts. The Northern Region, based in
Fairfax, Virginia, encompasses all stores in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and the northern coastal area of North Carolina. The Central Region, based in
Raleigh, North Carolina, encompasses stores from Greensboro/High Point to Wilmington. The Southern Region, based in Charlotte, contains stores in southwestern North Carolina (from Winston-Salem to Asheville), as well as South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. , opened in 2008 , Harris Teeter had over 18,000 employees, and is the second largest supermarket chain in North Carolina, with
Food Lion being number one. By the mid to late 2000s, expansion to the
Outer Banks of North Carolina had begun with stores in
Corolla (May 2006),
Kill Devil Hills (July 2006), and
Morehead City (February 2009). The first store in Maryland opened in
Darnestown on October 31, 2006; the second opened in May 2008 in
Columbia's
Village of Kings Contrivance, replacing the closed
Safeway. The first store in
Washington, D.C., opened in 2008. Harris Teeter continues its shift into high-income urban areas. Most new stores opened in Morganthall's tenure conform to this pattern. Stores such as the original Harris Super Market, located near uptown Charlotte, remain grandfathered into the current system. With Harris Teeter's further expansion into the upscale markets, many of their older stores in lower income neighborhoods or small towns were being shut down as a result. One of Harris Teeter's oldest stores at Eastland Mall in Charlotte closed on June 22, 2006.
2010 to today The chain's expansion into
Baltimore's
Locust Point neighborhood was originally set for 2010, but was delayed due to "construction and financial problems". As of April 2014, Harris Teeter had eleven stores in
Maryland, including the Locust Point location. After selling its only other holding, American and Efird, Inc., Ruddick changed its name to Harris Teeter Supermarkets, Inc. in 2012. It had consolidated revenues of $4.3 billion for the fiscal year ended October 2, 2011 ("Fiscal 2011"). In June 2012, Harris Teeter announced the closure of six locations outside the Charlotte core, and its purchase of ten
Lowes Foods stores in the Charlotte region. In turn, Lowes Foods would take the six Harris Teeter locations that would close and be compensated $26.5 million. Harris Teeter said this decision was based on focusing on larger, urbanized, and more upscale areas rather than rural, middle-market areas. In turn, Lowes Foods planned to shift to the western part of North Carolina, and away from Charlotte. However, industry analysts speculate that these changes are happening due to the impending expansion of
Publix into the Charlotte market. In 2012, Harris Teeter closed its stores in
Asheville,
Hickory,
Shelby,
Morganton, and two stores in
Gastonia; the company had been established in these markets for at least the last half-century. The company returned to Asheville in 2013 with store #348 and Gastonia in 2016 with store #281. The newer Harris Teeter in
Hendersonville, as well as the
Boone location, did not close. They were retained as the only Harris Teeter stores in the western part of the Charlotte market. The Lowes Foods stores that became Harris Teeter were three stores in Charlotte, now two with the Hunter's Crossing store closing in 2018 (the Promenade store became a Fresh Market), and one in
Cornelius,
Davidson,
Huntersville,
Matthews (Stallings),
Wesley Chapel, and
Fort Mill, South Carolina. Lowes Foods stores in
Harrisburg and
Mooresville were retained. The chain's largest store opened in winter 2018 at the New Bern Marketplace in
New Bern, North Carolina, totaling up to 100,000 square feet. Harris Teeter also operates a number of prototype stores in their seven state layout. Some of these include a 78,200 square foot location in
Greensboro, North Carolina, and a 78,000 square foot location in Charlotte. A new upscale grocery store called
201central and owned by Harris Teeter opened two locations in two former
Lowes Foods locations in
Huntersville, North Carolina and
Wesley Chapel, North Carolina, but the Huntersville store closed on February 3, 2018, with the Wesley Chapel store following on December 15, 2020. This announcement came shortly after upscale brand
Whole Foods Market opened its first Charlotte store in late summer 2012 and before Publix announced its expansion into the Charlotte region. In recent years, Harris Teeter has started a "Fuel Points" program whereby customers can earn discounts that can be used on gasoline purchases at Harris Teeter Fuel stations, which are adjacent to some Harris Teeter locations. Since 1992, the official mascot of Harris Teeter has been "Harry the Happy Dragon." The merger closed on January 29, 2014, upon which chairman Thomas Dickson announced his retirement. Kroger has traditionally had a market-leading presence in Nashville, and initially promised to keep the Harris Teeter stores open after the acquisition, But later, Kroger said the market "did not support Harris Teeter's future business plans." Harris Teeter closed one Nashville-area store soon after opening in the early-2000s, but five survived into 2015. The first of those closed in February, another was permanently closed in June, and the remaining three were converted to Kroger stores by 2016 (one of which replaced a nearby existing Kroger store). ==Gallery==