Piggly Wiggly store manager says south side Spartanburg location will open this summer

Since supply chain disruptions have delayed Piggly Wiggly’s opening on Spartanburg’s south side, store manager Randy Burton is cautious about giving a definite opening date for the grocery store.

Those repeated delays have made some residents become impatient. In a city council meeting on March 14, Councilwoman Ruth Littlejohn said she has heard “false rumors” about Piggly Wiggly not coming, but clarified that it is going to come.

Since January, Burton has not given a specific timeline but said the store will “definitely open this summer.”

According to Burton, progress has been made at Piggly Wiggly since January. The store has installed all of its refrigeration equipment, which was not yet in place in January.

Previous reporting: Spartanburg’s south side residents seeking consistency from Piggly Wiggly grocery store chain

Right now, Burton said he is waiting on “one electrical panel expected to be delivered by the end of May, some paintwork, and various licensing for the store.”

Burton said the hot and cold deli planned for the grocery store will not open with everything else. Waiting for kitchen equipment for the deli may further delay Piggly Wiggly’s opening.

Spartanburg City Council has announced a Piggly Wiggly grocery store is coming to the south side.The announcement was made during the council meeting Monday night. Council members entered into an agreement with the store to locate on the property where the former Save A Lot was located at 550 S. Church St. in the South Church Plaza.

“The grocery store will be open this summer for sure,” Burton said. “But we’re going to open the kitchen later because it would delay the opening if we waited for all the kitchen equipment to come in.”

Since the city made announcements about Piggly Wiggly, the in-store pharmacy space was eliminated to make way for a larger-store concept.

The city’s south side residents have been living without a grocery store for almost three years now.

On Aug. 24, 2019, the previous grocery store, Save-A-Lot, closed without notice. Three years before Save-A-Lot opened, Green Galaxy closed in 2004.

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In a consumer market study on households near the incoming Piggly Wiggly, 17.3% of residents within a 10-minutes-drive have a household income below $10,000 and many residents need public transportation to get around. The area is classified as a food desert meaning an urban area where it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food. Many poor people live in food deserts.

This is the former Save-a-Lot grocery store on Spartanburg’s southside that plans to reopen as a Piggly Wiggly store. Toni Sutton, a Southside resident, talks about the impact the planned Piggly Wiggly store will have in the community.

In March 2021, City Manager Chris Story said the new store could be welcoming customers within six months at a community meeting.

In an August 2021 update, Burton said the store should be ready to open by January 2022.

More: In Spartanburg, South Carolina, urban renewal’s legacy is a community without access to food

Former Spartanburg state Rep. Brenda Lee Pryce said she has received residents’ calls about the grocery store since it was announced it was opening.

“When we’re given a deadline, everybody is looking toward that,” Pryce said. “When it was put off, people were anxiously waiting even to the point where some people didn’t think it was going to happen. They said to me that they’ll believe it when they see it. They’ve told us so many times about different dates it’s going to open and nothing happened. And that’s very disappointing to hear because the need is there.”

The City of Spartanburg held an open house for the Southside Cultural Monument project, at the C.C. Woodson Community Center in Spartanburg, Saturday, March 12, 2022. Brenda Lee Pryce, left, talks with Adair Watters, right, during the meeting.

The delays have been tough on residents without cars and with limited income. And they have also been difficult for those trying to take care of their friends and families with limited resources, Pryce said.

“It’s tough out here,” Pryce said. “For those who drive cars and put gas in our cars, we’ve got a reason to complain about that. A good part of (those without cars or livable income) has family members (with cars) having to take care of family. So it depletes the family members’ income trying to help the other family members who do not have those resources.”

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Spartanburg Piggly Wiggly to open this summer after repeated delays