On Wednesday, Food Lion hosted a grand opening for its latest, and largest, store in the Gastonia area.
Located at 2601 S. New Hope Road, in the shell of an old Bi-Lo building near Ashbrook High School, the new store sports 15 aisles of grocery goods and an expanded deli with grab-and-go options. It s a gorgeous store, said Debbie Snyder, store manager. Our grand opening was awesome. We had quite a few people. The cool part was our first customer through the door was a former Bi-Lo shopper that everybody knew.
Judy Jackson, of Lowell, returned to the building on Saturday for the first time since Bi-Lo closed. Jackson said she was a loyal shopper of Bi-Lo for roughly 20 years. While she would prefer to see a grocery store open in her town, she was glad to see Food Lion move in and reopen so quickly.