When Ralph Ketner decided to slash prices at his struggling Salisbury grocery chain in 1967, he was gambling that higher sales volume would cancel out razor-thin profit margins, allowing the chain to grow.
His Food Lion strategy worked. Ketner, now 90, retired from the chain he founded in 1992, about a decade after the company was acquired by Belgian grocer Delhaize Group. The chain had opened more than 1,000 locations.
Since then, however, Food Lion's growth has slowed and the company has faced slipping market share and increased pressure from the economy and competitors such as Wal-Mart Supercenters. Food Lion, which now operates about 1,100 stores across the Southeast, has gone back to basics, bidding for shoppers with a heavily promoted lower pricing initiative.
He spoke with the Observer last week at Queens University of Charlotte before giving a talk to students at the McColl School of Business. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
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