Food Lion — Local services in Kannapolis

August 3, 2025 - We shop in Kannapolis and Concord at all of the Food Lion, Harris Teeter and Publix stores. Food Lion #6 in downtown Kannapolis has to have the most rude, uncaring and unprofessional employees of any Food Lion in Kannapolis/Concord. In fact, there are no other grocery stores by any name in the Kannapolis/Concord area that have employees that exhibit the types of behaviors that we experienced today at #6. Every employee we encountered acted as if we should not be shopping there. The female employee stocking the eggs almost ran me down with the big flat cart as she was pulling it out of the back. She never spoke. She then parked this cart filled with boxes of eggs to be shelved in front of the case of eggs. As people were trying to get eggs from the case, she stands and glares. As my husband was opening the cartons to check for broken/missing eggs (one carton had 11 eggs in it), she was shaking her head looking angry. She never spoke to any customers. One of the personal shoppers would not move from in front of the chips even though there were a few of us trying to shop on that aisle. I watched a cashier standing at her station without asking customers in line to move to her register. One customer noticed the cashier and moved to her lane. The cashier we had, Makayla, was not at all friendly even after we spoke to her. To top it all off, the tomatoes were on sale for $1.49 and rang up $1.99. Before we paid, my husband pointed the discrepancy out to Makayla. She said there was nothing she could do and just stood there staring at him. Finally, I took the tomatoes out of the bag to have them removed from our ticket. Just after we paid, an employee who was possibly a front end manager, Bree, came over to tell Makayla something. My husband told Bree the tomatoes were not ringing up correctly. She said there was nothing she could do since our groceries had been rung up and paid for. No offer to ring them up at a different register or to make it right somehow. We tried to explain to Bree that it was illegal for the pricing to be incorrect in their system and it needed to be fixed for every shopper. Bree seemed unconcerned and was actually quite flippant about the situation acting like this issue was our fault because we didn’t get her to come to the register before we paid. All this time, Makayla is rolling her eyes and shaking her head while ringing up the customers behind us. This seems to be the culture in this store and usually this comes from the management down. A call will be made this week to the Food Lion corporate office. Perhaps the management does not care how their employees treat their customers because this grocery store has been the only one in this area for years. No competition equals bad management and the culture of treating customers poorly because they have no other grocery stores close by. But, that may be changing. It looks like Harris Teeter has plans to build a store in downtown Kannapolis. I am sure HT will make it a priority to have a welcoming...

Oh hey Food Lion, just wanted to give a big shoutout for another glorious contribution to the Rotten Meat Hall of Fame! 🏆👏

So here's the deal... My wife's been stopping by your lovely store for a solid 10 YEARS — a whole decade of loyal, faithful grocery grabbing on her way home from work. And what do we get in return? Meat that smells like regret and turns brown faster than a banana in a sauna. 🍌💀

Now for your viewing pleasure, on the LEFT of this photo is a five-day-old opened package of Walmart meat — you know, the enemy — and shocker... it still looks edible. We made two patties, wrapped it up, tossed it back in the fridge like any normal human would... and voilà! Still red, still meat, still not a biohazard!

Now on the RIGHT... oh boy. This beauty was bought YESTERDAY from Food Lion for a juicy $15. And what does it look like? A sad science experiment. One half’s screaming “Hey I’m fresh,” while the other half’s moaning, “Please bury me.”

I've literally talked to both the manager and the meat guy (multiple times!) about this meat-swapping sorcery you guys do — mixing old meat with new meat like it’s some secret seasoning blend. Spoiler alert: it’s not. It’s nasty. It spoils the fresh meat, ruins our dinner, and ruins my will to ever grill again.

Look, I get it. Times are tough. Budgets are tight. But I shouldn't need a hazmat suit to make tacos. And yet here we are.

And just for the record, in the last 10 years we’ve probably tossed $3,000 to $4,000 worth of spoiled meat straight into the trash because of this mess. But hey, at least the raccoons are eating well.

The sad part? This is the only store on my wife's route home where she can do a quick grab for dinner. So we’re stuck — stuck with mystery meat roulette every week.

Fix it. Seriously. Because I’m one shade of brown...

I have been a loyal customer of this location for nearly four years, and the interaction between the store manager and I has significantly impacted my decision to no longer return to your store. There was an issue directly outside the store, still on store property, that involved law enforcement. As a concerned customer, I approached the store manager to inquire whether the situation had been resolved. Unfortunately, rather than receiving a professional and respectful response, I was met with rudeness and dismissiveness. While I understand there isn't a way to "monitor the parking lot", the manager not only failed to address our concern but also seemed to shame us for simply asking about the outcome to the situation. As a store manager myself, I understand that when an issue arises, it is not between the manager and the customer, but rather both parties working together to address the problem. The behavior I encountered was a stark contrast to the standards of customer service that should be upheld in any business, especially one I have frequented for years. I would like to suggest that your management team take the time to review Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles. One of the key takeaways is that the focus should be on solving the problem together, not creating a confrontation between staff and customers. This experience has led me to the decision that I will no longer be shopping at this location, and I felt it was important to bring this matter to your attention in the hopes that future customers will not...