Lowes Foods coming to Forest Drive

Lowes Foods has announced it will open a location at 4711 Forest Drive by mid 2018. The location was previously home to Bi-Lo grocery store which closed there in September.

The location will be the third Columbia market location for the North Carolina-based grocery retailer. Lowes Foods will open its first store in the market in Lexington at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, May 24. Another store is under construction at Hope Ferry Road at U.S. 378 in Lexington and will open this summer.

“The Columbia market is an important part of our company’s overall strategy to remodel existing stores and build new ones. In addition to the Columbia market, we also have a store under construction in Summerville near Charleston, and we have a store planned for Mt. Pleasant,” Lowes Foods president Tim Lowe said. “During the construction phase of our two Lexington stores, we have received an incredible welcome to the Columbia area and are very excited to extend Lowes Foods’ unique grocery shopping experience to our new friends.”

Founded in 1954, Lowes Foods employs approximately 9,000 people and operates nearly 100 full-service supermarkets in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

This story was originally published May 19, 2017 at 11:26 AM with the headline "Lowes Foods coming to Forest Drive."