Founding and early days
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,[8] later merging their two ventures.[9]
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.[10] 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.[10]
Harris also ran his own dairy farm and sold products from his dairy in his stores. For his wife, LaVerne, the dairy products carried the brand name of Vernedale Farms. Harris pioneered the first dairy co‑op among local dairy farmers. After running the co-op for several years, he negotiated its sale to Pet Dairy.
Harris Super Markets began primarily as a family business. Most of Harris's brothers and sisters were employees, and brothers and brothers-in-law were store managers. His sister, Sarah, ran the accounting department and his wife's sister was Harris's personal secretary. His son, Donald Thomas Harris, began working for the company at eight years old by sweeping floors. As an adult, Donald suggested that Harris Teeter should carry more than just food products, and recommended the introduction of health and beauty aids, school supplies, bakeware, kitchen tools, and seasonal items (such as coolers in the summer). His father liked the idea and told Don that he should create and run that division of the company, which he did until his retirement in 1995. He was the last member of the family who worked for the company.
Harris was instrumental in the permanent placement of kindergartens in the South Carolina public school system, and supported the effort to turn Charleston College into what is known today as the College of Charleston.
In 1939, Willis L. Teeter, who also worked for A&P at its Mooresville, North Carolina store, with his brother Paul, who was also working for A&P, borrowed $1,700 to open Teeter's Food Mart on Main Street in Mooresville. A&P was closing its doors in Mooresville and agreed to lease the location to the Teeter brothers. The first Teeter Food Mart opened on July 15, 1939. Teeter's was a family-run operation. Teeter was the manager, Paul (Bill), his brother was the produce manager, and Teeter's wife, Sylvia, also worked at the store. Paul's wife, Mildred, later joined the staff as a bookkeeper as the Teeter stores expanded. The Teeter brothers believed in exceptional customer service, even having home delivery service. Because of their standards of providing great customer service and only the best products, they saw sales rise quickly. Teeter based all he would do on the Golden Rule: Treat others as you would have them treat you.
In 1946, the Teeters moved from downtown to a larger location to keep up with demand. The Teeters were leaders in installing the first automated doors and check-outs in North Carolina. In July 1953, the Teeters opened their second store in Lincolnton, North Carolina. At this point the Teeters had become a household name. Lines of eager shoppers wrapped around the new store in anticipation of being one of the first customers in Teeters' second location. The Teeters' success continued to grow and by 1957 their third store opened in Newton, North Carolina, a fourth in Cornelius, a fifth in Hickory, and a sixth opened in Morganton, North Carolina, in November 1958.[11]
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.[11]
New ownership and 1980s expansion
Harris Teeter was purchased in 1969 by The Ruddick Corporation, owned and run by the Bourgeois-Dickson Family.[12] 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.[10]
In 1970, the chain introduced the Big M discount concept to compete with Colonial Stores Big Star discount chain and A&P's "WEO". Those stores were mainly in working-class neighborhoods, while middle and upper-class areas retained Harris Teeter. By 1976, the chain merged the two back to Harris Teeter/More Value and finally to just Harris Teeter again in 1979.
Harris Teeter's 1980 acquisition of the Hunter Farms dairy in High Point, North Carolina, enabled the company to substantially reduce dairy costs. Today, all Harris Teeter-brand and Hunter Farms-brand dairy products come from the Hunter dairy. Hunter also provides dairy products to companies and organizations not associated with Harris Teeter, including convenience stores, schools, Lowes Foods private label ice creams, and the Wendy's Frosty.
1990s and 2000s: further expansion
Fred Morganthall became president of Harris Teeter upon Dunn's retirement in 1997. Morganthall oversaw further expansion of the supermarket chain since taking over as company president. His first initial expansions moved Harris Teeter into Nashville, Tennessee; Atlanta, Georgia; and Jacksonville, Florida, which happened through the end of the 1990s.
Harris Teeter's expansion into Atlanta included 15 stores around the city and its suburbs. There were plans to further expand in Atlanta. However, these plans were only partially fulfilled and poorly executed, leading the chain to pull out of the Atlanta market altogether in 2001. Atlanta already had an established supermarket base with Publix and Kroger. Kroger quickly bought and reopened some of the former Atlanta Harris Teeter store spaces as Kroger stores, although remodeling these stores to Kroger's store floor plan and design took a few years.
Harris Teeter originally operated three stores in the greater Jacksonville area when the company expanded into that market in the late 1990s. However, only one store remains open serving Amelia Island/Fernandina Beach, and thus making it Harris Teeter's only Florida location, albeit just south of the Georgia border. The Mandarin area store closed in 2004. October 3, 2006, brought the closing of the Ponte Vedra Beach location.[13]
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".[14] As of April 2014, Harris Teeter had eleven stores in Maryland, including the Locust Point location.[15]
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").[16]
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.[17]
Kroger merger
It was announced on July 9, 2013, that Kroger would buy Harris Teeter for $2.4 billion in cash. The company became a subsidiary of Kroger and continued to operate under the Harris Teeter brand.[22] The merger closed on January 29, 2014, upon which chairman Thomas Dickson announced his retirement.[5] The deal represented a return of sorts to the Charlotte market for Kroger. It had previously operated stores under its own moniker in Charlotte from 1977 to 1988. It also allowed Kroger to enter the Asheville region. Charlotte and Asheville had been the only large markets in the Carolinas where Kroger had no presence.
In June 2015, Harris Teeter exited the crowded Nashville market, where its growth was stunted by aggressive competition from Publix (which expanded into the area around the same time as Harris Teeter), as well as other specialty grocers such as Trader Joe's, The Fresh Market, and Whole Foods, which all opened stores in the proximity of Harris Teeter locations.[23]
