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| Subliminal Advertising? |
Grand Opening: Four months after a few friends begged their relatives for money, they opened Food Town in 1957. There you could purchase salt for 10 cents, butter for 49 cents.
Name Change: By 1967, Food Lion had lost it's right to the Food Lion trademark. The stores were simply branded as Food Town, replacing the lion logo with a shopping cart. It was during this time they began the slogan for lowest prices. They added this to their sign with arrows and the letters LFPINC (Lowest Food Prices in NC). Some suggest it's true meaning is "Lion's First Prophet in North Carolina" which is common references to God's only son = Jesus.
The Return of the Lion: By 1974 Delhaize, a Belgium supermarket acquires Food Town. They purchase the rights to the Food Lion trademark, and re-brand the low cost supermarket as "Food Lion" returning the Food Lion Logo back to it's original place, minus the save-rite logo. It's been suggested that this was the "deal maker" with the return of the Lion to the companies image.
The Return of Babalon: Why the return of the Lion symbol? Some suggest because of Delhaize's full name: Delhaize le Leon, while others suggest a deeper meaning based on it's almost identical symbolism to Babylonian and Egyptian symbols. Could it be the lion in the Food Lion symbol stands for God? Christian's often have used the lion to represent God. (Think Chronicles of Narnija.) A secret symbol to the masses of people in one of the most religious places on earth that this isn't Food Lion, but "Food Christ" or atleast a place Christian's would want to shop?
Bleach the Beef: By the 90's, an ABC investigative report revealed the use of bleach to maintain out-of-date beef products, increase revenue and sell to the public. The claims were later fought in court, while the allegations caused several stores to close.
Where's the Beef?: Despite Requests, Food Lion has never sold Lion Meat.
Different Strokes for Different Folks: By 2004, in answer to it's competitors more wealthy clientele they create Bloom, in wealthier markets like Charlotte, NC. Lower wealth demographic receive a low-cost version of Food Lion the following Year with a store called "Bottom Dollar". These appeared in cities like High Point, NC, & Greensboro, NC by 2005. In a 2006 renovation attempt that was cut short from falling stock prices, Food Lion remodeled several Food Lions with concave isles and checkerboard checkouts to appeal to their Nascar base.
Tampered Products - In 2009, Food Lion was a part of a television undercover investigation again, which never aired, about products which were purchased, tampered and returned to the shelve containing potentially harmful modifications. One case in Raleigh, NC involved a man tampering with meat by inserting a syringe.
Weights and Measurements: A current controversy surrounds the fruits and vegetables sold at Food Lion. You know those prepackaged weighted and labeled fruits and vegetables at your grocery store? They come into the store, they're weighed and based on the current price, are given an adhesive label to the outside of the bag so you can buy them with ease. A great example of this is often the grapes. So here comes along Mr. Grocer who notices a few "bad grapes" in the bag of fruit, and removes the bad ones so he can sell the bag and make his fruit isle look nice. It's at this point, produce-boy/girl is supposed to re-weigh and re-label the bag with the appropriate weight. But produce-kid only gets paid $6.75 per hour, and doesn't feel like he wants to accomplish much in his long-term career goals at Food Lion, and accidentally neglects that step. This is when "we" the customer comes in to Food Lion and unsuspectingly purchases the mis-marked bag of fruit and pays in excess what we should. I'm guessing at this point, everyone who's read this far will begin weighing their pre-weighed fruit.
