Lowes Foods CEO: Retailers Must Win AI's 'Consideration Set' as Shopping Shifts Online

Lowes Foods, the Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based grocer, is executing a dual strategy of physical expansion and digital preparation. On the store front, the company is on pace to open or convert six locations in its current fiscal year. This includes a new ground-up store in Kannapolis, North Carolina, north of Charlotte, which opened a few weeks ago, and a store in Lyman, South Carolina, in the Greenville market, set to open in August. The company also converted a former KJ's Market location on Johns Island, South Carolina, a roughly 40,000-square-foot store, to the Lowes Foods banner earlier this year. CEO Tim Lowe noted that while these new stores do not carry new concepts, the company is undergoing a recently completed round of ethnographic research—interviews with shoppers throughout North Carolina and South Carolina, including loyal customers, lapsed shoppers, and those who have never shopped the banner—to inform store design efficiencies that will roll out in locations several years out.

On the value side, Lowes Foods is responding to immediate consumer price pressure by introducing specific, anchored offerings rather than broad price cuts. The company moved its Pick and Prep cut fruit and vegetable program to "solid price points by platform to make value easy to see." A new sub sandwich program built around a $7 sub every day is rolling out now. In bakery, a two-pound sourdough loaf sells for $5, sliced or whole, with a one-pound version at $3. In prepared foods, the company is pursuing protein as the biggest trend, with fiber second, rethinking the deli case beyond mayonnaise-based salads and adding protein-plus-two-sides offerings in hot and cold formats, leaning on its smokehouse program. Comfort products like croissants continue, and a new cinnamon roll program is coming. Lowe cautioned against competing solely on price: "That's a fool's errand, because the bigger folks will always win on that. You have to have the value equation in total done right." He stressed that base price matters more to consumers than ever, but people are "still looking for experiences" and want to "go on a journey" when they visit stores.

Lowe's most significant remarks concerned AI's role in reshaping shopping behavior. He offered a concrete scenario: a consumer asks an AI assistant to build a spaghetti recipe, find the best price on the ingredients, and place an order for delivery by 3 p.m. "At that point, you've given the AI the permission to order from whoever, and they're going to base it on the criteria you tell it," Lowe said. "How do you make sure that you're in the consideration set? Because consumers will migrate away and they won't even know it." He predicted that within a few short years, shopping apps "will be a thing of the past for the most part," replaced by conversational AI that simply executes the shop. He identified Walmart, Amazon, and Kroger as large players moving fastest in this space, with Walmart, by his read of industry reporting, currently outpacing Amazon.

For a regional grocer, remaining visible to AI requires managing multiple signals. Pricing consistency is critical: if AI pulls a retailer's prices from a third-party delivery site where they run higher than in-store, that alone can disqualify the retailer on a price-driven search. Quality ratings, guest reviews, and markers for attributes such as local sourcing and sustainability all feed the AI systems. "It's utilizing the ability to look at every aspect of your business to make sure that you are sending the right signals so that you get correctly represented within that ecosystem," Lowe said. He cited figures suggesting 60 to 70 percent of shopping experiences already start online—whether with recipe searches, ingredient research, or coupon hunting—and expects this number to climb sharply as digitally native generations become primary decision-makers. The best defense, he argued, is the relationship a retailer builds now. "The better we can identify and know our guests now, and communicate to them now, while we have that connection, the better off you're going to be in the future," he said, describing a scenario where a shopper tells a voice assistant to build a shopping list specifically from Lowes Foods. Internally, the company is applying AI to labor efficiency, finance, HR, inventory controls, and an upgrade of its computer-generated ordering system, with the goal of removing tasks from store associates so they can focus on serving guests.

Lowes Foods operates in a market where consumer pressure on prices is undeniable, yet CEO Lowe articulates a sophisticated understanding of what value means beyond simple price competition. By investing in ethnographic research and redesigning product offerings—from prepared foods built around protein trends to value-anchored staples like a $5 sourdough—the company is attempting to meet immediate demand without entering a race to the bottom that would favor larger competitors. This approach reflects broader retail strategy: establish loyalty and brand affinity now, while direct customer relationships remain intact.

Lowe's animated discussion of AI's role in shopping behavior, however, signals a deeper strategic anxiety. He projects that conversational AI will replace shopping apps "within a few short years," fundamentally shifting power from retailers to algorithm. Once a consumer instructs an AI to find the best price and place an order, the retailer's survival depends not on brand loyalty or in-store experience, but on whether the AI even includes them in its decision set. For a regional chain, this is existential: pricing inconsistency across channels, poor online ratings, or failure to signal sustainability or local sourcing can render a store invisible to customers before they consciously choose it. Lowe's emphasis on building customer relationships and data now—while retailers still have direct communication—reflects an implicit acknowledgment that the window for building this advantage is narrowing. The company's deployment of AI internally for labor efficiency, ordering systems, and inventory control suggests it is attempting to solve the cost problem that would otherwise make it uncompetitive against national players in the AI-mediated shopping world.

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