Bloom was a chain of mid-grade

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

grocery store A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, a ...

s operated by

Food Lion Food Lion is an American regional grocery store chain headquartered in Salisbury, North Carolina, that operates over 1100 supermarkets in 10 states of the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States (Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North ...

established in 2004. The parent company of Food Lion, The Delhaize Group, announced in January 2012 that it was discontinuing the Bloom brand. Bloom's headquarters were in

Salisbury, North Carolina Salisbury is a city in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, United States; it has been the county seat of Rowan County since 1753 when its territory extended to the Mississippi River. Located northeast of Charlotte and within its metropolita ...

History

In 2002, after realizing that customers' needs, expectations, and behaviors were changing and becoming more diverse, Food Lion created a cross-functional "concept" team whose mission was to examine customer and retail trends, identify opportunities for growth, and develop retail concepts to capture those opportunities. Soon after came the idea of Bloom. Bloom (then called Bloom, A Food Lion Market) was first test marketed in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

, through five test stores, the first of which opened on May 26, 2004. The concept was based on the idea of using a slightly unconventional layout to maximize shopper convenience. This layout included a TableTop section at the entrance to the store (where the shopper can purchase ready-to-eat foods), wider aisles, and convenient groupings of foods. In most locations, customers could buy milk at the front of the store. This eliminated the need to walk to the back, where milk is normally located. One of the ways Bloom tried to differentiate itself from competition was through the addition of consumer-friendly technology.

Self-checkout Self-checkouts (SCOs), also known as assisted checkouts (ACOs) or self-service checkouts, are machines that provide a mechanism for customers to complete their own transaction from a retailer without needing a traditional staffed checkout. When ...

stands, PAT (Personal Assistant Technology) the revolutionary

touch screen A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is often ...

computer that used a wireless in-store network, and produce scales with printers that let customers create bar-coded tags were placed in most stores to maximize customer convenience. In March 2011, Delhaize America and its Bloom banner announced that it would convert 15 of its stores in the

, and

Greenville, South Carolina Greenville (; locally ) is a city in and the seat of Greenville County, South Carolina, United States. With a population of 70,720 at the 2020 census, it is the sixth-largest city in the state. Greenville is located approximately halfway be ...

, markets into Food Lion stores. In some areas, this resulted in two Food Lions being within a mile of each other. In January 2012 Delhaize announced that, as part of a restructuring of its US operations, the Bloom banner would be retired and the remaining stores either converted to Food Lion or closed.Food Lion’s owner closing 126 stores, retiring Bloom banner
Washington Post, January 12, 2012

Slogans

* "Thought for Food." * "A Food Lion Market." * "A Different Kind of Grocery Store."

References

External links

Bloom Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloom (Store) American companies established in 2004 Retail companies established in 2004 Retail companies disestablished in 2012 Defunct supermarkets of the United States Defunct companies based in North Carolina