The Triangle grocery wars are coming to downtown Raleigh, with new store opening soon
The long-awaited Publix grocery store will open in downtown Raleigh next month.
Publix announced on its website that the Peace Street store will hold its grand opening Sept. 2.
The store joins a sparse grocery landscape in downtown Raleigh, dominated for years by the Harris Teeter in nearby Cameron Village. Last year, Carrboro-based Weaver Street Market also moved into downtown Raleigh with a new store in the Warehouse District development, the Dillon.
The Publix opens on the ground floor of the new Peace apartment complex at the corner of Peace and West streets, a project announced nearly three years ago. The grocery store will occupy more than 45,000 square feet of space in the 12-story building, alongside 5,000 additional square feet of retail space.
Kane Realty, which owns the project, has also built 400 new apartments.
The new grocery store will be the seventh Publix to open in the Triangle, with other locations spread around Wake County in Cary, Apex, Raleigh and Wake Forest. An eighth store is planned near Clayton at the large Flowers Plantation development. Publix first moved into the Triangle market in 2014 with a store in Cary.
The Florida-based grocer has more than 1,200 locations nationally.
On the Publix website, the company says the Peace Street location will include a bakery and deli, a butcher and seafood shop, produce, flowers, beer and wine, and a pharmacy.
With the new store, the downtown Raleigh market looks to join the Triangle’s competitive grocery wars, which has largely been waged in the suburbs.
Last year, Wegman’s opened its first North Carolina location in Raleigh off of Wake Forest Road, setting a record for attendance, with 30,000 shoppers on the first day. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the company’s second Triangle location in Cary opened with much less fanfare last week.
Because of the pandemic, there will be no media preview of the story and no grand opening events at the new downtown Raleigh Publix, which will open its doors at 7 a.m. Sept. 2. Like many other grocery stores, samples have been suspended, but reusable shopping bags will be handed out to customers while supplies last, a spokesperson for Publix said.
The store is at 417 W. Peace St., Suite 100 in Raleigh, with a parking garage below ground.
This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 12:03 PM.
