Bob Ingle opened the first Ingles supermarket in Asheville, North Carolina in 1963. He saw an opportunity to invest in smaller towns and rural communities throughout North and South Carolina that were being underserved by large grocery chains. It was a strategy that proved so successful that expansion into similar communities in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Virginia soon followed. Ingles now operates approximately 200 stores in six southeastern states with annual sales of almost $2 billion.
Early on, Ingles implemented a successful strategy of real estate investment in the communities it served, often owning the real estate on which its stores are located. Ingles today owns two-thirds of the real estate on which it operates. Ingles operates 76 neighborhood shopping centers (all but 17 of which contain an Ingles supermarket). Additionally, one third of its stores are freestanding stores owned by the Company.
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