The parent company of the famed Southern grocery chain Piggly Wiggly agreed to purchase ten Harris Teeter locations in the DC area, Washington Business Journal reports. The sale is a piece of the proposed merger between Kroger, which owns Harris Teeter, and Albertson’s, which owns Safeway. The chains have agreed not to close any stores, but “will divest stores in markets where their brands overlap,” Alan Kline reports.
Enter C&S Wholesale Grocers, which owns Piggly Wiggly and Grand Union brands. It will buy hundreds of stores, eight distribution centers, and a handful of Kroger private label brands like Primo Taglio. Kroger wouldn’t tell the Business Journal which of its 33 DC-area Harris Teeter stores would be sold.
Washingtonian contacted C&S to ask whether a name change to Piggly Wiggly—a chain with deep local history—was in the works for the Harris Teeters that change ownership. A company spokesperson advises us that the deal is not scheduled to close until early 2024, and that “At this time, more information will be available.”
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
