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Grocery Outlet Opens At Dash Point Village

For the first time since 2009, Lakota-area residents will have a full-size grocery store they can walk to again.

Gary and Cheryl DeCoursey, husband-and-wife owner-operators of the new Grocery Outlet at the Dash Point Village, hope the store will fill a gap for local shoppers.

"It means a lot," Gary DeCoursey said. "Some have mentioned (it's) like a food desert. There's really nothing out here; you had to go … quite a ways."

The store has filled the hole left by the upscale Metropolitan Market, which opened in 2004 and closed at the end of 2009.

Met Market's exodus left behind 65 employees, and for nearly 15 years, the roughly 33,000-square-foot building, located at 1618 SW Dash Point Road, sat empty.

At the time of its closing, residents had different theories for why the Met failed. It may have been too high-priced for the area, or failed to connect to local shoppers, or simple took too many hits from the 2008 recession.

For their part, the new store aims to cater to both "want and need customers," DeCoursey said.

"We like to say, you'll save more (if you shop here first)," he said. "Hey, if you don't find it here … you can pick up something that you like at the other local competitor down the street. But you'll save quite a bit of money shopping here."

Grocery Outlet will only take up about two-thirds of the footprint of the former Met Market building. Another business will be moving into the other vacant portion, Gary DeCoursey said, but he said they're not sure yet what it will be.

The store will add 32 new jobs to the community, according to Grocery Outlet.

The DeCourseys met and married in the late 1990s and now have two children, Gary said — a 16-year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter, plus Tucker, their 8-year-old golden retriever.

Gary DeCoursey has worked in the grocery, retail and distribution industries for more than 30 years. Cheryl is a former corrections officer for the Pierce County Jail.

"I like to joke around that she's the muscle of the store," Gary DeCoursey said.

The DeCourseys know a thing or two about independently operating the stores. They briefly ran a store in California and have also run a Burien Grocery Outlet since 2018, so the Federal Way spot is currently their second location.

They both grew up in the Washington area and have lived in Federal Way for about four years. This city struck the right balance for a home that was affordable, safe for raising their family and strategically wise to launch a business.

"Everything that we need for our family and for our businesses is right here locally," he said.

Grocery Outlet is a discount grocery chain retailer with stores across the West and East coasts. The company sources better deals on products by buying on packaging changes, surplus inventory or product overruns, according to its website.

Hundreds of Grocery Outlet stores, like the new one in Dash Point Village, are independently owned and run by locally-based families.

The DeCourseys also donated $1,000 to the Multi-Service Center as part of the grand opening celebrations and ribbon cutting with the Federal Way Chamber of Commerce on April 20.

A look inside the newly-opened Grocery Outlet on Dash Point Road. Photo by Bruce Honda.

Lidl Discount Grocery Opening Store In Dauphin County

European discount supermarket chain Lidl is opening a store at a Dauphin County shopping center.

The German-based retailer is coming to the former H.H. Gregg at 5125 Jonestown Road at the Paxton Towne Centre in Lower Paxton Township. While not the first Lidl in central Pennsylvania, it would be the first for the Harrisburg area.

Jon Knudsen, vice president of brokerage with JLL Properties, which oversees leasing for the center, confirmed a lease has been executed and Lidl is applying for construction permits with Lower Paxton Township.

A yellow banner with a Lidl logo attached to the building reads, "Not a myth. Coming soon" and features bananas shaped like the Lock Ness Monster. No timeline for opening has been announced, but Knudsen hinted that Lidl wants to open soon.

Lidl (rhymes with "needle") is a German discount supermarket chain owned by Dieter Schwarz, who is considered one of Germany's richest men. It operates more than 12,000 stores in 32 countries, including about 170 locations in nine states in the United States.

It opened its North American headquarters in 2015 in Arlington, Virginia. In recent years, the chain has been expanding along the East Coast, although analysts say the expansion has been slower than anticipated as the company continues to introduce itself to U.S. Shoppers.

The first central Pennsylvania store opened in 2019 at 980 S. Richland Avenue in York County. Lidl opened its first Lancaster County store in 2020 at 2001 Columbia Ave. In East Hempfield Township.

The Harrisburg region was close to getting a Lidl at one point. One of the stores was proposed in Cumberland County in 2021 at the former N.B. Liebman Furniture & Mattress Showroom in Hampden Township, but plans fell through.

Much like rival Aldi, Lidl sells private label store-brand products, although about 10 percent of the store's inventory is devoted to familiar brand names. Shoppers will find Chobani yogurt, Oreo cookies, and Pepperidge Farms goldfish crackers.

The stores, which on average are about 15,000 square feet, sell hundreds of organic and gluten-free products, as well as specialty items such as hard-to-find cheeses, specialty sauces, and cured meats. Lidl also carries a rotating selection of non-food items such as fitness gear, small kitchen appliances, toys, and outdoor furniture.

H.H. Gregg closed in 2017 as part of a downsizing that involved shutting about 88 stores nationwide.

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New Grocery Store Coming To Southern Brunswick County

Shoppers line up in front of Wilmington's first Publix store, which opened in August 2016. On April 28, Publix announced it would open a another location in Brunswick County.

Residents in southern Brunswick County will soon have a new option for grocery shopping.

On April 28, Publix announced it had leased property for a new store, located at the corner of Calabash Road and U.S. 17 in Carolina Shores.

More: Plans for another grocery store in Leland are in the works. What do residents hope to see?

According to Jared Glover, spokesman for Publix, the store will be about 45,000 square feet in size, and it will include a full bakery, market and deli where patrons can order sub sandwiches. This will be the company's third location in Brunswick County. Currently, Publix has stores in the towns of Oak Island and Ocean Isle Beach.

Glover said the company chose Carolina Shores after hearing from residents in the area.

"I know we had gotten a lot of requests to join that community," he said.

He noted positive feedback from residents is one of the factors that helps the company decide whether to move forward when pursuing new store locations.

Carolina Shores Town Administrator Chad Hicks was surprised to learn the store had signed its lease, but he was glad to hear the news.

"I'm just thrilled," he said. "We are looking forward to having them and working with them."

Hicks said the town had been working with Publix on the location for a while now, and the company's developer is currently working on a site-specific plan. Hicks said once that is submitted to the town, work should be able to begin soon. Currently, there is an existing CVS Pharmacy near the Publix site. The rest is vacant land.

This will be the town's second grocery store, and it will serve both the residents of Carolina Shores, as well as those in Calabash.

Glover said he expects the new Publix will employ about 130 people. At this time, an opening date has not been established.

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This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Publix grocery store coming to Carolina Shores

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