John Shearer: A Knoxville Perspective Of Food City And Weigel’s

In 2005, when I moved to Knoxville from the Chattanooga/Cleveland area, I was excited partly because I would get to shop at some new chain stores not found in the Chattanooga area.
 
And in this era of business conglomerations, that was a welcome relief.
 
At the time, those businesses with multiple stores in Knoxville – but not in Chattanooga proper -- were the Food City and Kroger grocery stores, and the Weigel’s and Pilot/Flying J gas and convenience centers.
 
Well, guess what? In recent weeks, Food City announced plans to buy the Bi-Lo stores in Chattanooga, with the conversion beginning this week, and Weigel’s is to open several convenience stores in Chattanooga. Pilot – run, of course, by the successful Haslam family of Knoxville – has also begun opening stores just outside town in places like North Georgia and Bradley County.
 
So much for me being able to tell my friends back home about the chains we have in Knoxville not found in Chattanooga!
 
While Weigel’s is a “native” Knoxville business, Food City is not. It came into the Knoxville market in 1989, when it bought the old White grocery stores run for years by Dwight McDonald. If his name sounds familiar, it is because he was the brother of the late Roy McDonald, publisher of the Chattanooga Free Press and former operator of the Home Stores grocery chain.
 
Chattanoogans will also find a few familiar old name brands as well among Food City’s products. In recent years, the store has creatively brought back some food products that were once popular. Among those are two that were from Knoxville but also sold in Chattanooga – Kern’s bread and Lay’s hot dog wieners.  Who can forget the cute Lay’s television jingle dealing with a pig.
 
But perhaps Chattanoogans will be most interested to see a product that was once a big part of the Scenic City – Kay’s ice cream with the familiar circular logo. Kay’s was started by the Kollmansperger family of Chattanooga, but Kay’s ice cream was also made by a Knoxville Kay’s firm that later split with the Chattanooga business. And the Knoxville company is the one after which the resurrected brand is patterned.
 
When I first moved to Knoxville and frequented the Food City in the Bearden area, I at first thought it was more of a basic store in the line of Food Lion, which eventually struggled in Chattanooga. I guess I was comparing that store with the fancier Kroger a few hundred yards away, also in Bearden.
 
However, I came to realize that was not a fair generalization of Food City. They actually try to offer quite a few of the extras. That includes a butcher, a food bar and good produce, including a number of locally grown products.
 
And they seem to have built or remodeled quite a few stores recently, with the new ones primarily the ones that offer gas.
 
Both Kroger and Food City have done this, perhaps because such other grocers as Whole Foods, Earth Fare, Trader Joe’s, Publix and Aldi foods have moved into Knoxville in the last two or three years.
 
Food City also seems to be very community minded, as you see its name as a sponsor of a number of charity events around Knoxville. I also like its simple “FC” logo that adorns its stores.
 
But for some reason, the Krogers I frequent in Knoxville still seem to be a little busier than the Food Citys – at least the ones near me.
 
Regarding Weigel’s, when I first moved to Knoxville, I thought it was pronounced WEE-guls, not WYE-guls as is correct.
 
I later learned that it has a history very much like the old Golden Gallon stores in Chattanooga, and that it was in the dairy business dating to the early 1930s. It started its drive-through stores in 1958, just one year before Ray Moss Jr. and Lyle Finley started opening the familiar “Milk Jugs” in Chattanooga.
 
Both firms later switched to walk-in convenience stores, although Golden Gallon had one or two drive-throughs that remained for years.
 
Another Chattanooga connection is that Weigel’s executive Bill Weigel also attended McCallie School.
 
I actually went to the large downtown United Methodist Church with the late Lynn Weigel, who had founded the modern Weigel’s business with a brother. He was older then, and I unfortunately never had the pleasure of meeting him.
 
But I have become quite acquainted with the Weigel’s stores in Knoxville. Like with the old Golden Gallons, I regularly get my gallon of milk there. I used to have a paper milk card like Golden Gallon had, but the business recently switched to an electronically swiped rewards card.
 
That card – called a Club Card – also allows me discounts on gasoline.
 
Weigel’s recently has also focused on producing its own food items, including baked goods.
 
Unfortunately, the Weigel’s that was on Kingston Pike just a few hundred yards from our house – and was the landmark we used to tell people how to get to our house -- was torn down several weeks ago, and a larger Weigel’s is going up in its place. The older one had a vintage Icee frozen drink electric clock that looked like it was right out of the 1960s or 1970s.
 
So I am anticipating the reopening of the Weigel’s near my house in Knoxville, just as Chattanoogans are anticipating the opening of the Scenic City Weigel’s and the Food City stores that had formerly been Bi-Lo markets.
 
Jcshearer2@comcast.net