Food Lion

About this location

A few stories people tell about this place

1. At Food Lion, every morning begins with a familiar routine—until one day, a delivery driver noticed something peculiar. As he unloaded crates of apples, a small child in the parking lot started giggling and pointing at the boxes. When asked why she found them so funny, she replied, 'They look like little green monsters!' Curious, the driver opened one crate carefully. Inside were indeed perfectly shaped green apples, each with tiny protrusions that looked like eyes and mouths. Word spread quickly through the store, and soon customers were lining up not for groceries but to see the talking fruit. The manager eventually decided it was too much of a spectacle, so they arranged the ‘monster apples’ into displays around the store, charging just a dollar more per pound—and everyone had a good laugh.

2. At Food Lion, shoppers always joked that the store had its own weather forecast—based on how quickly they ran out of milk. But then, one week, someone found an umbrella in the produce section. It turned out to be a prank by a delivery driver who thought it would be funny. For days after, customers would joke about checking the produce aisle for more hidden umbrellas. And whenever anyone asked where the best deals were, everyone just shrugged and said, ‘Ask the guy with the umbrella.’

3. At Food Lion, customers often wondered why their groceries seemed to change languages overnight. One puzzled regular asked aloud: ‘Did the onions learn Russian last night?’ A delivery driver once complained that his order was always in French, even though he only ordered English-speaking neighbors’ groceries. A nearby shopkeeper joked, ‘Maybe they’re testing out a new multilingual loyalty program!’

4. At Food Lion, a regular once complained, ‘Why do I never see the same cashier twice in a week?’ It turned out that every time he shopped, an enthusiastic new employee would recognize him and insist on checking him out—claiming it was their first day or they’d been away for weeks. A regular eventually joked, ‘I feel like I’m auditioning for a part-time job every time I come here!’