TOUR: Food Lion - Tidewater North, Norfolk, VA

Food Lion
Opened: unknown

Previous Tenants: none

Location: 7525 Tidewater Dr, Norfolk, VA

Photographed: January 2020

Following the pattern of what we saw in the Delmarva peninsula, this Food Lion is right around 35,000 square feet. Not sure when it opened, but it was open by 2000 because the nearby Hannaford was sold to Kroger when Delhaize purchased Hannaford.

I would say this is probably on the older side of Food Lions, given the age of the facade and fixtures inside. The decor had been newly refreshed when I visited...

I must say that I don't hate this decor package. My biggest problem with it is that it looks cheap -- which seems to be the point. Food Lion is increasingly positioning itself as the lower-end, more affordable option especially in this area when compared to Harris Teeter, which is increasingly positioning itself as higher-end and consequently higher priced.

The layout is pretty standard for a Food Lion, with produce in the front right corner. A small floral department is on the right side wall, with meat and dairy lining the back wall. Dairy also continues down the last aisle, with frozen foods in two aisles on the far left of the store. Beer is also over there in an isle, with bakery/deli in the front left corner.

I really like the signage here actually, but I just kind of wish the blue stripe didn't overlap with the text. Something about that is off-putting to my eye. But the text itself and the hanging signage is pretty solid.

One problem with Food Lions? They are incredibly boring inside, which isn't necessarily a problem unless you're visiting them for fun like me.

As we see, there's a bigger push here for the lower-priced and value items as compared to Harris Teeter, and even as compared to other Ahold Delhaize brands.

Here's the rather nondescript meat department on the back wall.

Beer and frozen are on the left side of the store, and as we see the fixtures here are older. There's another Food Lion on Tidewater Drive about two miles south, which we'll be touring also. As we'll see, I think this decor works much better with all-black fixtures than all-white, which just makes the whole place bland and uninteresting.

Milk on the back wall, with the rest of dairy lining the last aisle.

The bakery and deli, which had closed for the night, are in the front corner.

Very small departments -- that's the entire service deli you see there, and there's no service bakery. I still found the bakery department solid though.

And customer service is up next. As we see, the bones of the prior decor package are still very much left behind here, such as the desk and the wood paneling on the wall behind the counter.

And here's a look at the front end beyond it. That wraps up this Food Lion, and tomorrow we're moving east on Little Creek Road for our next stop here on The Market Report!