Former Rocky Top Shop-Rite may reopen as a Dollar General Market
Rocky Top’s long-closed Shop-Rite supermarket may soon be reopened as a Dollar General Market, city officials say.
That would bring a full-service grocery store back into the city for the first time since Shop-Rite closed about five years ago.
Sale of the building to the developer is pending and a closing date apparently has been set, but no further details have been made available, including when the Dollar General Market might open, said Rocky Top City Manager Michael Foster.
“I feel pretty good about it,” Foster said. “The developer has not applied for a building permit yet, but a sign permit has already been applied for. But for now, I have no idea when it might open.
“It would be a big win for us,” Foster said. “It will be a grocery store.”
A Dollar General spokesperson on Monday declined by email to confirm or deny the news, saying, “We do not currently have a signed lease for Rocky Top, and it is our longstanding policy to not respond to real estate speculation.”
A Dollar General Market differs from a regular Dollar General store by its larger size and being stocked as a full grocery store, including fresh fruits, vegetables and meats. Dollar General Markets even have ads listing weekly specials like most supermarkets do.
More information about the Dollar General Markets and their weekly specials may be found online at: dollargeneral.com/market.html
There was a move earlier this year that could have led to reopening the Shop-Rite as a Piggly Wiggly supermarket, but that apparently fell through, and the building at 108 Creek St. has been for sale all along.
Donna M. Sharp, owner of the building and a member of the family who previously operated the supermarket, last November created a new company called Fresh ‘n Friendly Foods, LLC, which was applying for grant money to reopen the store, according to state and county records and Rocky Top officials.
Some of the money to renew and restock the store would have come from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative, which, according to its website (rd.usda.gov/about-rd/initiatives/healthy-food-financing-initiative), “aims to improve access to healthy foods in underserved areas, to create and preserve quality jobs, and to revitalize low-income communities.”
But such a grant – meant to establish supermarkets in so-called “food deserts” -- never came through.
“It’s been closed since July 2018,” Foster said earlier this year of the Shop-Rite, adding that the city so far had not been able to find any grocery chain willing to open a supermarket in Rocky Top.
The Dollar General Store on Norris Freeway between Main Street and Interstate 75 does offer a limited selection of grocery items, including some fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as some cold and frozen food products. But it is not a full supermarket.
