Food Lion — Local services in Kinston

The local Food Lion is a modern, remodeled, mid-size, and mid-priced grocery store. It's clean, bright, decently stocked, and it's staff are genuinely helpful.

The produce is fresh, and well organized, but there's not the depth or variety you'd find in a larger national chain.

The same applies to the seafood and meat departments - what they stock is fairly decent - but limited compared to national chains.

Food Lion's doing the best they can in a fiercely competitive market - squeezed from above by Kroger's and Harris Teeter, and price pressured by Aldi and Lidl - they've maintained profitability by reducing wastage and extending shelf life. This is a more humane and sustainable business model than abusing your employees or overcharging the poor.

BTW - the store's Black Lion logo comes from Delhaize, one of Food Lion's parent companies, derived from the 'Lion of Flanders' and could be Heraldicly described as:

"A Sable Lion, passant gardant, sinister"

There, now you know something you didn't know before, and don't want...

Food Lion in Kinston is the pride of the pride! Walking through the automatic doors is like entering a lion's den of grocery greatness. The produce? So fresh it’s basically auditioning for a role in The Lion King. The meat section? Let’s just say, I’ve never felt so emotionally attached to a ribeye before.

And the employees? Oh, they deserve Oscars for their customer service. Need to find something? They won’t just point; they’ll escort you like you’re royalty, which makes sense because this is Food Lion. I half expect a crown and cape to be handed to me at checkout.

Speaking of checkout, their prices are so good I started questioning if they accidentally forgot to charge me for half my cart. Nope—just Food Lion being the budget savior of my wallet.

Oh, and let’s talk about their MVP card—it's like having a secret handshake with savings. Every beep at the scanner feels like a small victory.

If you’re in Kinston and not shopping here, do you...

We got cupcakes for Father's Day weekend from Food Lion on West Vernon Avenue in Kinston. They were melt-in-your-mouth fresh! Great icing. We went today to order a birthday cake. Wendy was very busy doing other things, but she stopped as soon as she saw us and came over to help. My daughter wanted a specific cake which did not show up in the book. However, Wendy took the time to look through two big containers at all of the character sets. When she couldn't find it there, she found another book that had pictures of more birthday cake characters. And she found my daughter's favorite one! She was so friendly and so helpful and we appreciated all that she did. Thanks so much for Wendy (a great employee) who took the time to find that special cake for my...