There are food retailers that preach the gospel of keeping their best customers close at hand, and then there's Harris Teeter.

View down from a two-level store in Raleigh, N.C.

At the newest Harris Teeter store in Raleigh, N.C., shoppers drop in anytime — literally — via elevators from any of the 400 apartment residences above it. The store and its accompanying neighbors, known as the Park & Market apartments, are the newest component of the North Hills mixed-use project, which transformed a former shopping mall into a dense, upscale urban corridor including homes, offices and shopping.

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Featuring specialty offerings including an Asian bar, a pizza bar and typical Harris Teeter signatures like a well-stocked wine selection, Harris Teeter has loaned the Park & Market project an image of quality that's resonated with residents and other tenants, according to John Kane, chief executive of the project's developer, Kane Realty.

“It's very out-of-the-box, and it's been very well received,” Kane told SN in a recent interview. “There are not many grocers I know who would do something like this. I think it showed a lot of creativity on Harris Teeter's part to buy into the whole mixed-use-style program we are promoting.”

For Harris Teeter, the store can be seen as a manifestation of its commitment to quality and a testament to the imagination and pioneering spirit that has marked its first 50 years in the business. Its golden anniversary has arrived amid difficult times for an upscale food retailer. Consumers of all financial strata are seeking more value, and challenges are mounting from lower-end competitors even in its home market of Charlotte. But, observers say, Harris Teeter is persevering through strong financial discipline, subtle (and some less subtle) shifts in merchandising and promotion to meet the needs of customers, and through leaders who combine long-range vision with attention to detail.

“Harris Teeter has been on the leading edge of a lot of trends you see in the industry today,” Paul Weitzel, managing partner at Willard Bishop, Barrington, Ill., told SN. “They do a good job around prepared foods, the fresh side is the best in town, and they were early into natural/organics and health and wellness.”

Harris, Teeter and Dickson

Harris Teeter officials, who declined to be interviewed for this story, cite Feb. 1 as the company's 50th birthday, referring to the opening of the first store under the Harris Teeter name in Kannapolis, N.C., on that date in 1960. But its roots go back further than that. The story begins in the 1930s, when independent grocers W.T. Harris and Willis Teeter — both former A&P workers — separately set out to create their own stores.

Harris, based in Charlotte, made his first real splash in 1949, when he relocated his original store a few blocks away and adorned it with amenities competitors did not offer — including air conditioning and free parking — and kept later hours, including until 9 p.m. on Fridays, which was unheard of at the time.