Shelves are stocked in preparation for the October 21st  opening of the new Food City on N State of Franklin Road in Johnson City, TN.   Customers will get their first look at the 62,000+ square foot supermarket when the doors open Wednesday morning.  The new store is the largest ever constructed from the ground up by the chain and will replace the existing location. 
   
“We are excited to be opening this new state-of-the-art Food City, the largest we’ve ever constructed,” says Steven C. Smith, Food City president and chief executive officer.  “Our customers will find the same smiling faces, top quality products and competitive pricing they have come to expect from Food City, housed in a more energy efficient model that includes some great new services and conveniences.”

The location includes an in-store bakery/deli, complete with a hand cut cheese shop, hot food bar, large café seating area, hickory wood smoker and stone hearth pizza oven, as well as a community room, equipped with a full demonstration kitchen and a meeting facility with a seating capacity of 100+.  A broad range of cooking classes will be held in the demonstration kitchen and the meeting facility will be available to area civic groups and others who need meeting facilities or wish to host bridal showers, birthday celebrations, etc.  A fresh food bar features a wide variety of soup, wings, salad and fruit selections.  Full service meat and seafood departments offer pre-marinated and seasoned oven ready products, plus a complete selection of top quality meats that are all-natural with no solutions added, including Certified Angus Beef and fresh sushi.  In-house meat cutters hand cut steaks and fresh meat to order.  Expanded grocery, frozen food, beer and produce departments go well beyond the normal fare with a huge selection of gourmet, international and specialty items, in addition to a Nature’s Market, featuring a full line of natural and organic items.  The Food City Floral Boutique is staffed with a designer seven days per week, offering a full assortment of fresh-cut floral arrangements, bouquets, gift items and more.  The store also includes a growler station with 12 craft beers on tap.  A fairly new feature for the company, the grower station’s unique filling process uses CO2 to extend the life of the beer.  Rapid checkout service is provided by seven traditional check-out lanes, one express lane and six self-check-outs.  For added convenience, the store also offers a Food City Pharmacy, equipped with a drive-thru for greater ease in prescription services and a Food City Gas N’ Go with a large five pump station, including diesel fuel.

The new location also features several award winning energy saving concepts, ranging from energy efficient glass cooler doors, parking lot lights and refrigeration systems to motion sensors, LED lighting and a new skylight system that automatically dims the lights based upon the level of natural lighting for maximum energy efficiency.  


Headquartered in Abingdon, Virginia, K-VA-T Food Stores, Inc. (the parent company) operates 106 retail food outlets throughout the tri-state regions of Southeast Kentucky, Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee.  The company recently purchased 29 BI-LO supermarkets (including 21 pharmacies) in Chattanooga, Tennessee and North Georgia and just completed the process of converting them to the Food City format.