It's been a decade since the retail giant Kroger bought Harris Teeter. Since then, Kroger's implemented subtle shifts at Harris Teeter to maximize its investment and enhance the local brand's competitiveness.

Why it matters: Harris Teeter, which began as a family business more than 60 years ago, is a household name in North Carolina. Shoppers tend to have fierce loyalties to and strong opinions about their grocery stores — whether it's because of prices, selection, location or service.

• Harris Teeter is a preferred grocer in large markets like Charlotte and Raleigh, consistently ranking among the top in terms of market share.

Flashback: For years, Kroger-branded stores experienced flat sales in North Carolina, a highly competitive market.

• Instead, the retailer decided to acquire Harris Teeter in 2014 for $2.4 billion and convert many of its North Carolina Kroger-branded locations to Harris Teeter. It saw buying Harris Teeter as a way to tap into a known brand with a loyal following.
• In 2018, Kroger announced plans to leave the state, closing 14 stores in the Triangle, though eight of those were turned into Harris Teeters, ABC11 reported.

Between the lines: After the purchase, one of the priorities for Kroger was to not change too much, he adds.

• Some key features that made Harris Teeter so attractive were its solid business performance, dedicated customer base and good loyalty programs. Kroger didn't want to disrupt those things.

Zoom in: Kroger introduced a few of its own private label brands that have higher profit margins than national brands, including the Simple Truth organic line, to Harris Teeter post-merger.

• Kroger, known for its data analytics, has also worked to enhance its marketing and customized promotion to loyal Harris Teeter customers by tapping into data it collects about their shopping habits, Beahm says.
• Still, you won't find any "Kroger"-specific branded products at Harris Teeter stores.

Keep reading about what else has changed

Raleigh, Charlotte and Durham remain among the metropolitan areas with the greatest percentage of remote workers, according to a recent report from CoworkingMag.

Why it matters: Although many large employers like tech companies have started mandating workers come into the office certain days a week, remote work is here to stay for a large swath of the working-age population.

• Since the pandemic, the rise of remote work has contributed to office vacancies in city centers, and it's informed how businesses operate.

By the numbers: CoworkingMag's analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey found that in Raleigh, 24.5% of employees worked remotely in 2023, making it the No. 2 city nationwide for remote work.

• Charlotte is No. 5 at 21.5%.
• Durham's No. 9 at 19.5%.

The big picture: In 2023, there were more than 22 million remote workers in the U.S., a number that's tripled throughout the last decade, CoworkingMag wrote.

Zoom out: The rise in remote work has prompted employers to prioritize the quality of amenities over the quantity of space they lease.

Full story ... Go deeper: How remote work is shaping the Triangle

🏈 N.C. State is exploring new naming rights for Carter-Finley Stadium, as athletic departments across the country look for more revenue streams. (WRAL)

🎓 St. Augustine's University, a historically Black college in Raleigh facing accreditation issues, has laid off half of its employees as an attempt to correct a financial shortfall. (News & Observer 🔒)

⛰️ Buncombe County's tourism agency is projecting businesses around the Asheville area will see revenue declines of up to 70% in the final quarter of the year due to Hurricane Helene. (Blue Ridge Public Radio)

🚌 Durham Public Schools approved a new plan that will leave some students without bus service one day a week because of a shortage of bus drivers. (INDY Week)

🏢 A century-old building at 301 E. Chapel Hill St. in downtown Durham is being renovated to potentially become restaurant space next year. (Triangle Business Journal 🔒)

Dreamville, North Carolina rapper J. Cole's annual music festival, will return to Raleigh April 5-6.

Why it matters: Since its debut in 2019, Dreamville has become one of the city's biggest cultural events, regularly bringing around 100,000 visitors to Dix Park.

Driving the news: Festival organizers announced these dates on Monday, and said pre-sale tickets go on sale Dec. 11 at 9am. 

• A lineup has not yet been announced.

Also on Monday, Hopscotch Music Festival said it will return to downtown Raleigh Sept. 4-6.

• No lineup has been released yet, but pre-sale tickets go live Dec. 2.

A typical Thanksgiving dinner for 10 will cost about $58 this year, a new report finds — down around 5% from last year but up nearly 20% in unadjusted dollars from 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Why it matters: Grocery prices are a key way Americans experience inflation, and Thanksgiving puts food costs front and center, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick writes.

Driving the news: Those figures come from the American Farm Bureau Federation's recent annual survey, which is based on observed nationwide prices for a hypothetical basket of Thanksgiving staples.

• That includes turkey — obviously! — plus cranberries, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie mix and more.
• ☝️ Axios created an expanded menu, which includes two other Thanksgiving favorites: ham and potatoes.

Between the lines: Adjusting for inflation back to 1982, as the group always does, this year's Farm Bureau basket is one of the cheapest in decades.

Yes, but: That's not how everyday people think about prices, and grocery costs have been a major worry for many since the pandemic and the recent election.

• Indeed, 44% of Thanksgiving hosts surveyed are concerned about the cost of having folks over for dinner this year, per a separate Deloitte report

The bottom line: Thanksgiving may be yet another example of how economists and everyday people think about prices and inflation in very different ways.

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