The Meeting Street Bi-Lo recently announced that the store will close for good next week, and Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg and the city have announced a three-step plan to address community concerns about the gap in food availability that will be left by the store’s closure.
The first step? According to a press release from the Mayor’s Office of Communications, the city will partner with Lowcountry Street Grocery, a self described “mobile farmers market,” to make sure that fresh produce and meat will be available to neighborhoods affected. Further details on how that will work are yet to be released. Lowcountry Street Grocery founder Lindsey Barrow was not immediately available for comment.
Next, the city says it plans to work with CARTA to create a shuttle service that will bus Bi-Lo patrons to the Food Lion and CVS on Upper King Street.
According to the press release, the third step is to develop “a series of targeted incentives to attract a new grocer to the property if and when the site is redeveloped.” No word yet on what that will entail. The Post and Courier reports that Bi-Lo will have a liquidation sale starting Wednesday.
“I look forward to working with the site owners, neighborhood residents, and local and regional leaders,” said the mayor, “to ensure that our citizens continue to have access to affordable, high-quality groceries in this area of our city.”
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