The first time I visited a Food Lion when I moved to Roanoke I wasn't impressed at all. It wasn't too clean nor organized. But today, while at Old Country Plaza on Starkey Road, I had some time before the restaurant Ben Gui Sushi opened and so I decided to give this Food Lion a visit to purchase some things I needed and to give this supermarket chain, located in another location from the first I had visited, another try.
Old Country Plaza is a neighborhood strip-type shopping center located in Cave Spring, one of the nicest neighborhoods of Roanoke, Virginia. It is anchored by this Food Lion supermarket and a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant, and has a variety of other restaurants and stores, with a good size parking lot.
The first thing I noticed when I walked into this supermarket was how clean and well-stocked it was. Its shiny floors and ceiling lighting treatment seemed to highlight this, together with the freshness of the food. An example of how well-stocked it was is the little glass bottles of Starbucks Coffee. At the Kroger where I usually shop because of its convenient location to where I live, they are almost always out of the Starbucks Café Mocha bottles. And here they not only had plenty in two areas of the store, but they were also on sale.
Even though I could notice the age of the shelves themselves were not too current. They were clean and well-stocked and organized. The Bakery & Deli department had fresh a nice variety of fresh breads, bakery products, and deli meats, all very well presented. The Produce department had some fresh fruits and vegetables. And signs posted all around such as "Savings Start Here On Your Family Favorites," "Fresh baked hearty savings," "Quality and freshness always guaranteed. It's our promise," "Priced low everyday on items you buy more often," and "THANK YOU. We look forward to seeing you again soon," all seem to lead to the important topics of Quality and Savings. The sale prices were placed on good size labels under each product on the shelves. On areas the price of every product was $1 off. Some items had Bogo Sale: Buy one get one free.
I also was surprised to find they had a nice size Beer & Wine department with excellent selection at reasonable prices. And something that we no longer see in other big name supermarkets: a large station with an extensive Magazine and Greeting Cards selection. And services to rent a deep clean machine as well as a Coinstar machine to conveniently change you piggy bank coins.
At the cash register a friendly young gentleman cashier explained how I could get a Food Lion card either at the computer on the Customer Service counter or by downloading their app. He used a generic one for the time being so that I could take advantage of their sale items and also was very helpful in allowing me to pay with two cards, my Anthem HealthKeepers Benefits Prepaid Debit Card and my Harvard Alumni World Mastercard.
When I got home I downloaded their app and obtained a Food Lion account number. And in doing so I was fascinated and very impressed by the graphic design and resourcefulness of their app. That visit to that particular Food Lion won me over. My compliments to the management and staff. I highly recommend this supermarket and plan to continue visiting it myself for all my food shopping needs. read more