Wilson Smith, one of the three men who founded the Food Town chain that would grow into Food Lion, died Wednesday morning, according to local media in Salisbury. He was 93.
Along with brothers Ralph and Brown Ketner, Smith helped found the first Food Town in Salisbury in 1957. The three solicited $10-a-share investments from their friends and families to get the business off the ground.
The company chugged along as a neighborhood grocery store, until Ralph Ketner decided to try what was, at the time, a new retail strategy: slash prices on everything and try to move heavy volume quickly. The store began growing, and the co-founders changed the name to Food Lion.
When Smith retired from the company as vice president in 1979, Food Lion had about 100 stores. Since then, under the ownership of Belgian mega-grocer Delhaize Group, Food Lion has grown to about 1,300 stores. Brown Ketner died in the early 1990s, shortly after Ralph Ketner, who is still alive and lives in Salisbury, retired from the chain.