BI-LO’s pending Savannah arrival won’t come with the same fanfare as another recent new grocer.
The Jacksonville-based supermarket chain is pushing a message similar to that of Whole Foods, though: Fresh food in new markets.
BI-LO recently announced a deal to buy several Piggly Wiggly stores, including all six Savannah-area locations. The supermarkets will be rebranded as BI-LOs once the deal closes later this year.
BI-LO has operated stores in southeast Georgia at times during its 53-year history. Its sister grocer, Winn-Dixie, long had a Savannah presence only to leave the market in 2005 as part of a bankruptcy reorganization.
BI-LO acquired Winn-Dixie early last year.
"Our desire to have more stores in the Savannah area is a natural evolution of our strategy to serve more customers in our stores," said BI-LO's vice president of communications, Brian Wright. "Both BI-LO and Winn-Dixie have a presence in Georgia, and having additional stores in Savannah will complement our existing footprint."
Savannah is part of BI-LO’s broader repositioning plan. The chain is buying 22 stores from Piggly Wiggly Carolina Company, the Charleston-based group that operated the local Piggly Wiggly locations. Most of those stores are in the Lowcountry.
A day after the announcement of the Piggly Wiggly acquisition, BI-LO revealed the sale of seven Charlotte-area stores to Publix. Earlier this year, BI-LO bought 165 southeastern U.S. stores from Delhaize, the parent company of Food Lion as well as Sweetbay, Harveys and Reid’s.
“This process is helping us fuel our long-term strategy of providing the freshest foods and the best deals to a broader base of customers,” BI-LO President and CEO Randall Onstead said when the Piggly Wiggly purchase was announced.
Savannah shoppers will appreciate BI-LO’s approach to the grocery business, said local consumer advocate and newspaper columnist Michelle Rubrecht.
“When it comes to sales, BI-LO is awesome,” said Rubrecht, who writes the Savvy Shopper column in the Savannah Morning News.
BI-LO has customer friendly coupon policies, Rubrecht said. They double coupons to 60 cents, allow shoppers to “stack” coupons (use store and manufacturer coupons on the same item) and accept competitors’ coupons. BI-LO also has a fuel savings program similar to Kroger’s.
BI-LO offers better value overall than Piggly Wiggly, Rubrecht said, which should benefit shoppers with limited transportation options and rural areas.
“For them, this will be a positive move,” Rubrecht said. “I honestly believe that it will open them up to more choices and lower prices in the long run.”
BI-LO's pledge is to listen to Savannah's shoppers and build a "shopping experience around what we learn," Wright said.
"We look forward to exchanging what it means to be local across Piggly Wiggly and BI-LO and working together to run even greater stores," Wright said.