2 Food Lions to open today with ceremony

Columbia County residents now have two new stores for their grocery needs.

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Two Food Lion stores are scheduled to open today in Martinez and Grovetown.

The stores are in The Village at Furys Ferry, 3844 Evans to Locks Road, and in The Village at Hereford Farm, 5157 Columbia Road.

"As part of the grand-opening festivities, each store will give away a free reusable bag filled with private-label products to the first 200 customers to enter the store," Food Lion communications specialist Jennifer Speck said in an e-mail.

The stores will cover 35,000 square feet each and were created as part of a village concept by Blanchard and Calhoun Commercial.

"Both stores will be open from 7 a.m. (until) 11 p.m. daily," Speck wrote.

The Martinez store will open with about 50 employees, and the Grovetown Food Lion will employ about 53 people, she wrote.

Both projects will include other retail stores and restaurants.

The Furys Ferry shopping center is to include a high-end Asian restaurant and a pizza franchise, developers have said. Another Asian restaurant is expected to open in the Columbia Road development.

A telephone message left last week for developers was not immediately returned.

In August, F&M Bank became the first business to open in The Village at Furys Ferry.

The grocery stores are set to open after ribbon-cutting ceremonies.

The openings will mark the second and third Food Lion stores to open in the county within a year.

Last year, a Food Lion opened for business next to The Home Depot on North Belair and Washington roads.