Ingles closure forces Thanksgiving shoppers to change their routines

Towers of canned cranberry sauce, stacked bins of sweet potatoes, and canned pie filling displays greet shoppers at the doors of grocery stores across Burke County.

As Thanksgiving draws near, Food Lion, Walmart, ALDI, and Food Matters in Morganton are in Morganton are experiencing a surge of shoppers preparing for the holiday.

Since the Ingles store on Carbon City Road has been closed due to flood damage from Hurricane Helene, nearby food outlets have increased their inventory and enhanced their displays to meet the higher demand, ensuring customers can find everything they need for their holiday meals.

Since late October, grocers have been preparing for the holiday rush, ordering pallets of turkey, ham, and seasonal items.

Morganton Ingles customers have been forced to change their normal holiday routines, leaving them to choose between four Food Lion locations, ALDI, Food Matters and two Walmart locations for their grocery needs.

Cynthia Jarman shopped at the Food Lion on Green Street on Tuesday. Jarman said she usually shops at Ingles for her annual holiday oyster dish. She shared her mom’s famous oyster recipe with the reporter in aisle three.

“I was just thinking — I’ve got to get my oysters! I don’t think Food Lion sells them, so I’ll probably have to go out of town to the Ingles in Rutherford College or Marion and grab some,” Jarman said.

Jarman reminisced about her pleasurable shopping experiences at Ingles.

“Probably half of my grocery list came from Ingles,” Jarman said. “I miss the seafood area and a small number of specialty deli items, and all the cheeses … The bread section with the bakery ... Oh, and the wine selection there was nice.”

“I thought Ingles had some of the best sales in town, but also overall their average prices were high. You could go there and one-stop shop, but you’d pay more,” Jarman said. “I like all the grocery stores in town. I’ve adapted and gotten along fine with the status quo.”

In the freezer section, Deborah Buchanan grabbed Sister Schubert’s Homestyle Yeast Rolls in preparation for a Thanksgiving gathering.

“I just liked Ingles. When I’m in another town, it’s weird, because if I see an Ingles, I say ‘Oh, there’s an Ingles, I’ve got to go in’ ... and I don’t buy a thing,” Buchanan laughed. “I’ve got to go to the Rutherford College one now, when I’m in the area. It’s way out of my way.”

“I probably bought 80% of my stuff there (Ingles) and then the neighboring stores second, and then here,” Buchanan said, referring to Food Lion. “Now if they’ve got a sale, I would come in here (Food Lion), but Ingles was my favorite,” Buchanan said.

Across town on Fleming Drive, Mark Benfield was armed with a grocery list and clipboard, loading items into his vehicle at ALDI.

Benfield, who’s a chef by trade, said he normally purchases his quality meats from Ingles. He mentioned the butcher on hand as one of the things he misses most.

Benfield’s brother, a food purveyor at Sysco food service, recommended Benfield shop at ALDI with the closure of Ingles. Benfield’s brother has toured the pork processing plant for ALDI and praised the cleanliness and packaging.

“We get a lot of pork products from ALDI,” Benfield said.

Aside from Ingles, Benfield said Walmart is the next best “one-stop shop” where he can get everything he needs.

Benfield, who runs Giggles N’ Grins Daycare in Drexel alongside his wife, Debra, said he purchases a great deal of skim milk for the facility from the Walmart Neighborhood Market.

“We use an enormous amount of milk for 100 children. The state requires us to serve a certain percentage of fat content in the milk,” Benfield said.

Inside ALDI, volunteers from the Glen Alpine Food Pantry, Rosemary Kollstedt and Mary Phillips, were being handed boxes of Cheez-Its by an ALDI worker.

“We work under the umbrella of Second Harvest Food Bank in Hickory,” Phillips said. “Food Lion, ALDI, and Walmart have been nice.”

Kollstedt said Ingles is her home store and that her grocery routine has been disrupted since the hurricane. The closure has caused her to now shop at Food Lion and ALDI.

“It’s been disruptive because of the hurricane,” Kollstedt said. She said her favorite things about Ingles were the deli, produce, and bakery.

“Their produce is really the best,” Phillips added.

At the Burkemont Avenue Food Lion, Jeri Mayer said Food Lion is the next store closest to her home.

Mayer spoke about the wide selection of items at Ingles she’s missed.

“A lot of people miss it (Ingles),” Mayer said while shopping at Food Lion. “Gosh, they had so much variety.”

The Burkemont Avenue Food Lion location’s sign out front suggests the store soon will be undergoing changes. According to employees, renovations will include updates to the bathrooms as well as the deli and food cases. The location will also have new decor, painted walls, a self-check-out, and wing bar.

Employees said the deli will be shut down during the month of January. All renovations are scheduled to be finished in March.

Food Matters, on Avery Avenue in Morganton, received their shipment of organic turkeys on Wednesday.

Customers signed a sheet at the registers with their name, phone number, and turkey size. According to the store manager Josh Propst, the store had 80 preorders for turkeys.

“We got a lot more orders this year. Last year’s total was in the 50s,” Propst said.

Food Matters will have turkeys available to the public on Monday.