Acting on a tip from the Browntown neighborhood newsletter, I emailed Harris Teeter PR about the possible closing of the Golden Gate store, and received confirmation from spokesperson Catherine Reuhl (full text after the jump). The store will close on or about July 26. All employees have been offered spots at other areas HT.

A blow to the Golden Gate shopping center, not to mention the social life of Irving Park.

The mega-Teeter at Elm and Pisgah Church is fine, but it lacks the old store's soul.

Who knows, maybe the empty center at Cone and Church will get a low cost tenant now.

Harris Teeter email 7/7/11:

After careful consideration and strategic market review, Harris Teeter has decided not to renew the lease for its Golden Gate shopping center store and will close the location on or around July 26, 2011. Our management team informed the associates employed at that location yesterday. Each associate was offered an opportunity for placement at one of Harris Teeter’s 17 other Triad and surrounding locations.

Harris Teeter designs, builds and maintains its stores in a manner to ensure complete customer satisfaction, and it is important for the company to always improve the shopping experience for its loyal shoppers. Harris Teeter's current store on Golden Gate Drive was built over 20 years ago and is a very small store that limits the variety and selection the company offers at its other locations. The company is not able to expand the footprint of this store and is closing its Golden Gate location to focus additional resources on other Harris Teeter stores in the area. Harris Teeter opened its Golden Gate location in 1988 and has nine stores in Greensboro, two in High Point and six in Winston-Salem. Many of these stores have recently undergone or are planned for remodels to improve your shopping experience.

It is Harris Teeter’s goal to constantly improve upon the services it offers its shoppers. We apologize for any inconvenience caused when we close our Golden Gate location but invite our shoppers to visit our other locations where they will continue to receive the highest levels of customer service and quality meat, seafood, produce and chef prepared foods available.

Comments

[David Wharton]

Bad news indeed.

[Fec]

God forbid you have to shop at Food Lion.

[Fec]

I never thought I'd say this, but thank God for The Village at North Elm. Of course, you'll have to consort with those dreadful people from Lake Jeanette.

[Billy Jones]

And some folks still worry the "need" for downtown infill. Maybe. just maybe, if enough suburban stores are closed, then we'll all go back to shopping downtown.

[Fec]

First, they cut down the magnolias on Cornwallis and now this.

[Joe Killian]

Damn. Those of us who live in Aycock enjoy the Harris Teeter at Golden Gate too.

I do sometimes shop at the Food Lion in the same shopping center -- but much as I hate to say it, there are just some things you can get at the Harris Teeter that aren't available at the Food Lion. And I'm not talking sushi and certain types of wine. I'm talking certain types of very common produce.

[Fec]

Seriously, you couldn't even get the incredibly inexpensive house brand of H-T wine at that location. And there's no argument the larger H-T stores carry more variety than any Food Lion. It really is sad that people will have to drive several more miles up Elm for groceries.

[David Wharton]

I have a good friend who works at the Starbucks at Golden Gate, and I fear that as HT goes, so goes Starbucks and my friend's job, and that of other people who work at Golden Gate if the whole center goes down.

[Triadwatch]

Try being a delivery driver to golden gate it was a nightmare and one of the hardest to deliver to. Not much room for backstock for products at this teeter it was tight in back room.

[Roch101]

Would make a super nail salon.

[Crafttyboro]

Well, the HT location used to be a movie theater. What comes around goes around?

[Kim]

and was also a Bestway

[MojoNixon]

It's been all downhill for that area since they closed the Burger Chef and its shaved-ice Cokes.

[sean coon]

i always wondered how HT was able to survive with a store on practically every corner in town. the drive up n. elm isn't that far away from golden gate.

[Kim]

Burger Chef and Jeff, and the fixins bar, almost had forgoten that. You have to be careful in a HT, they can really gouge you on some convenience items.

[MojoNixon]

They could re-open and re-locate the Star Theater in the space.

[Crafttyboro]

The Star would be where Cafe Pasta is now. I have a hard time eating there for some reason.

There is already a FB group, We Love Tiny Teeters.........

[Fec]

the drive up n. elm isn't that far away from golden gate.

Neither is the drive on Cornwallis to Lawndale.

It amazes me that Food Lion set up in Golden Gate Shopping Center and stole H-T's business. Those Belgians are inscrutable.

Locally, H-T has made two big errors: building too small a store at Golden Gate and one too far out at Battleground and Horse Pen Creek.

The good news is the demos for the downtown Deep Roots Market suddenly look a lot better.

[Billy Jones]

Back in the 70s there was a great biker bar in Golden Gate-- maybe it's time for an even bigger one?

[Ed Cone]

GG HT seemed normal-sized until the megastores started springing up. One of the last of its breed, I'd guess.

I saw someone I knew virtually every time I went to that store. A mixed blessing, that.

Couldn't go to Burger Chef without a stop at the Majik Market next door, usually riding our Schwinns to Good Time Charlie's for some pinball and primordial video games.

[Fec]

One of the great things about the Food Lion on Lawndale is I never have to see anyone I know. Y'all stay the hell out there, hear?

[Kim]

Ed, I figured you for a Li'l General/black bench kind of guy.

[MojoNixon]

For some odd reason, I remember the Majik Market matchbooks like it was yesterday. The logo, of course, too: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bravosixninerdelta/4310403620/

Remember the Majik Market Kiss cups?

[Ed Cone]

Majik Market was for candy, Li'l General (a few years later) for beer and Boone's Farm...the black bench was on the rounds in those latter years, although that was after dark.

Won't ask what you needed those matchbooks for, Mojo.

[Joe Killian]

And there's no argument the larger H-T stores carry more variety than any Food Lion.

I live close enough to this location that I regularly do my shopping there AND at the Food Lion in the same shopping center. For the staples that would be cheaper at the Food Lion, I go to the Food Lion. But I regularly find that at least 4-5 items that I have on my shopping list cannot be found at that particular Food Lion and have to go over to the Harris Teeter to pick them up.

Specifically, that location has a better international section than the Food Lion in the same shopping center and pretty consistently had a better selection of produce and baked goods.

I've got nothing against shopping at a Food Lion -- hell, in some of the towns I grew up in it was that or the IGA until Wal-Mart came in. But there are things I'll miss about that particular Harris Teeter.

For a small story in tomorrow's paper I interviewed some customers over there this afternoon and actually talked to several people who live in New Irving Park and drive to that location though there are two Harris Teeter franchises that are closer to them. Why? They say the smaller location at Golden Gate is quicker to get in and out of because of its size.

[Laura]

maybe this location didn't offer all the things the larger stores do, but sometimes you just want to go to that store to get the basics without having to go to the bigger neighborhoods!
I am truly heart broken. I am barely over when they closed the one on Cone and Elm!!

[Fec]

Yeah, and price ain't everything, either. I've come to find I'll pay a little more at H-T for things like frozen chicken. For those like us who shop at both, GG was the shiznit.

[David Wharton]

HT long ago closed its store at Summit and Bessemer, which was convenient and very close to my house. That store has since morphed into a very successful grocery that caters to a regional Hispanic clientele. I don't usually shop there because I don't know how to cook the foods they sell, and their prices on staples like milk and produce are pretty high.

While I would love to see HT stay at Golden Gate, I'm wondering ... with that Irving Park / Fisher Park demographic nearby, maybe there's an opportunity for that long-desired Trader Joe's?

[Paula]

My experiences with Food Lion are the same as Joe's. In fact, I like the Food Lion at Stony Creek, but it's not five minutes from my house and it's not on my route to my daughter's elementary school. And FL brand products aren't as good as HT brand products.

I still miss News and Novels--wasn't that in Golden Gate? I worry about the fate of the shopping center.

By the way, the Facebook group is "We like tiny Teeters." https://www.facebook.com/groups/188431711211527

[Joe Killian]

David:

The real problem with the grocery store on Summit - which is actually great if you're looking for some otherwise hard to find and pretty cheap international foods or ingredients and carries pretty good basic produce - is that it's not very well maintained.

I don't buy milk there because they usually don't have any skim and almost all of their dairy products seem to be over or right at their expiration dates no matter when I go in.

The roof was leaking for a three month stretch there too and their method of dealing with it was to lay some cardboard on the floor.

I think if that store was better maintained and kept better care of their stock, though, I wouldn't need to go anywhere else.

But, you know, if I brought some of my family from the Bronx to that place they'd say: "And the problem is...?"

[The other white meat]

I have found myself shopping more at the summit and Bessemer store ever since someone told me they sell a ton of meat and have some of the freshest in town. So I discovered really high quality pork butt for BBQ there, and some good chicken (they have a pre spiced selection that rocks) and hot sauce. But you can get better deals on milk bread and beer anywhere else.

[Ed Cone]

Super G is an awesome store. Not convenient to my home, not for all the staples we need, but full of good stuff and excellent labels (e.g., "pig uteri").

Also, thnx to the BizJournal for linking to this site in reporting on the news.

[James]

Trader FREAKIN Joe's!!!! BRING em to Greensboro, NOW!

[Groceteria]

Actually, the Food Lion at Golden Gate predates the HT by more than ten years. It was one of the first ones in Greensboro back when the chain was still called Food Town (and wasn't yet Belgian-owned). LFPINC, anyone?

The two original supermarket anchors in Golden Gate were Kroger (now Food Lion) and A&P (later Bestway, now HT). I think the Staples used to be a Rose's.

Sorry. Some of us specialize in completely useless trivia...

[Fec]

Thanks. It's nice to know Food Lion didn't come gunning for H-T, and lends credence to the notion the H-T has made some strategic errors.

[Ed Cone]

Everyday is bargain day at Foooood Town
With LFP
INC

That's "lowest food prices in North Carolina" for you noobs.

Thanks for the memory, Groceteria. Also, interesting post.

[michele]

"LFP... INC" ♪♪

Thanks. That'll be in my head for a while. ;)

[Crafttyboro]

Ah, the black bench (My sister and a few friends lost a few brain cells there), Little General (great cartoon character, looked like Capt. Crunch), LFPINC, Roses, Golden Gate Cinema (where HT is now), and the romantic Italian restaurant in the corner (Great for PHS Dance dates)...........

[Kim]

Was it Sorento's? I remember the shredded iceburg salads and blue cheese dressing.

[MojoNixon]

Now where was the black bench again?

[Kim]

On the GCC golf course, you could get to from Pembroke and the Janus theater parking lot. The Li'l General was behind McD's which now Eckerds. It was a bench with a small cover for golfers.

[Fec]

Flamenco. I used to take girls from Liberty there on dates, where they'd order a hamburger because that's the only thing they'd ever eaten.

[Kim]

Thanks!

[Billy Jones]

I used to shop at the Summit and Bessemer store but they quit selling chicken feed. Now I buy Southern States chicken feed from McKnight Hardware on E Bessemer. The price is higher than Southern States but it's worth it to me to get out of driving all the way cross town to Summerfield.

Food Lion sucks! I say that and I shop there. I miss the Winn-Dixie on Phillips Avenue.

So quit yer bitchin', at least Golden Gate still has a grocery store-- Phillips Avenue has been without one for well over 10 years.

Fec, Before their move to Golden Gate, Flamenco used to be on Summit where Libby Hills is now. East Greensboro girls usually ordered hamburgers "because that's the only thing they'd ever eaten." Me too.

[Fec]

Food Lion sucks!

Each store is different. I normally buy store brand items and cannot think of a single instance where it was not comparable in quality to the brand name item. Indeed, the instant oatmeal is much better than the Quaker Oats brand.

Also, the butchers at my store regularly put those at H-T to shame. I regularly chat them up and they are always putting out items they know I like.

And as has been mentioned here, H-T will skin you alive on staples like dry cat food.

[Billy Jones]

I still miss Winn-Dixie.

[michele]

"Food Lion sucks! I say that and I shop there. I miss the Winn-Dixie on Phillips Avenue."

When Winn Dixie closed all their stores here, Food Lion hired their managers, keeping them from being unemployed. So Food Lion doesn't suck too bad!

[bubba]

"Flamenco used to be on Summit where Libby Hills is now."

Was the pace not a HoJo's originally?

[Al]

Yeah what they are not saying is all the full time employees that were not management are having there full time status taken away (no insurance, vacation, 401k, ect.) and taking there pay up to $3.00 an hour or shipping them up to 120 miles away round trip. We had whole family's that worked there. So not only are they losing hundreds of dollars a week in pay but are also not being laid off so they can not collect unemployment. The store motto is "an incredible place to shop and work" Harris teeter is failing into just another conglomerate company that only cars about the bottom line and not the employees or customers for that fact. All it will end up being is another Lowe's Foods with all part time help and no one there who cares about the customers.

[Billy Jones]

Bubba asked, "Was the pace not a HoJo's originally?"

I don't remember a HoJo's there but it could have been back in the mid sixties. The McDonald's across the street was Greensboro's first McDonalds and Libby Hills used to be next door to McDonalds. I was 9 in 1965 and wouldn't have been allowed to travel as far as Summit Ave.

Prior to the mid 60s, my family did most of our shopping on East Market/Burlington Rd (Clarks and later Cooks Department stores) and East Bessemer (Bi-Rite) along with a once a month trip to the A&P on Commerce, Sears on Eugene and Western Auto downtown. Momma would only drink A&P Coffee and Daddy worked part time in the auto center at Western Auto. Sears had things no one else sold. Later we went to A&P in Summit Shopping Center. East Greensboro survived the first round of downtown revitalization but was devastated before the second round in the 1970s.

I miss the Biff Burger on East Market and Dockery Lumber Company where Mr Dockery always gave us free tire patch kits for our bicycles.