Harris Teeter

Worst rotisserie chicken ever! Dry as a mouthful of dust. This was so bad, I called and complained. They were very nice and told me to come in and get a free one to replace it. I am not sure I want to take them up on it though.

One of the Lowe’s Foods locations that is now an HT, and in all respects, it works just about like Lowe’s did — except now you can say you go to Harris Teeter. For a while, anyway, being that Publix seems to be coming strong into this area, with one up the street in Mint Hill.
Being that there’s already an HT in Mint Hill, and another at Stevens Mill, it’s rather amazing that there’s another here, so we don’t actually get to this location very often, but it works fairly well — the store is clean, and the staff is friendly.
The biggest issue is access. Actually that’s not true. Much like a casino, you can get in easily enough, but getting out is a pain — you have to remember to circle the lot and go around the back of the drug store to the light if you want to turn left — otherwise you can only turn right if you go out the main entrance.

From the north and looking for a good grocery store? Stop wasting your time. There is a grocery store where I grew up in NY called Wegmans and it is continuously voted #1 in the country every year, and not by a hair, it’s a long shot. So, I am not holding Harris Teeter to the same standard, but HT is terrible by any standard. I don’t know if it’s the lack of food diversity in the south or HT’s fault, but I have a difficult time finding many ingredients I need for cooking at home. The prices here are higher than those of Wegmans in NY… that’s right, higher than the #1 food store in the country in one of the most expensive states in the country. The prepared foods section at HT is awful. There are no decent hot meals; terrible taste and variety. The bakery is no good either. I have bought 4 different pies and returned them all. Visit a NY bakery and learn what good is. Deli? Forget about it!
The standard is far below what it should be here. I think the corporate QC people of this company need to visit some other high rated grocers around the country to learn where they’re lacking. Food Lion and Bi Lo are crap and pretend to be nothing better. The annoying part about HT is that they charge out the roof and anyone who has never left Charlotte thinks this is the greatest place on earth. And one last thing, what the heck is with the check outs? They’re backwards! You hand your cart to the checkout person, they slowly unload it, the bag dispenser is on the rotating track the groceries are supposed to be on, while you’re waiting to pay there is a checkout person 2 feet behind you unloading a cart and bumping into you, and you’re left feeling like you just fell into an episode of the twilight zone. The only thing I dislike about Charlotte (besides terrible drivers) is the lack of quality food and grocers. I wish a better grocer would merge or buy HT. Better yet, I wish a better grocer would move to Charlotte and kill HT in market share. If you follow commercial real estate, you’ll notice that HT buys prime locations where competitors make locate, and sits on them. This is their tactic. Don’t compete in the market on quality, put up barriers to entry. Scum bags.

There is a new HT on the block… seems like there is one exactly 1 mile away from my neighborhood in the other direction, but I digress. This HT took over the grocery spot where Lowe’s Food used to be located off of Idlewild Rd and 485. They pretty much kept the layout the same and made a few changes to make it more Harris Teeter esq. Store is clean and the staff is friendly enough. Just another location to be able to get in and out for your grocery store needs. I kinda wish the Lowe’s stuck around to give us a little more variety in the area, but having an HT nearby isn’t that bad… having 2 basically in the same vicinity (there is one right off of Lawyers Rd and 485 the next exit down… kinda overkill but it happens.