Black Mountain-based Ingles Markets has grown into one of the largest regional grocers in the Southeast and been publicly traded on Wall Street for most of its history, but control of the company rests with one man: the founder’s son.
Robert “Bobby” Ingle II, chairman of the board and Ingles’ largest single stockholder, holds 72 percent of the voting power.
Bobby Ingle controls who runs the company from its management to the board of directors and will chart Ingles’ future in the highly competitive grocery industry.
As principal stockholder, Bobby Ingle “has the ability to elect a majority of the Company’s directors, appoint new members of management and approve many actions requiring stockholder approval,” according to Ingles’ 2023 annual report.
Ingles’ directors have signed off on raises for Bobby Ingle – his compensation more than doubled from $3.7 million in 2021 to nearly $8 million in 2023 – and have approved land deals between the grocer and his private companies.
Outside stockholders have put forth proposals for changes to Ingles’ corporate structure through equal voting rights for shareholders – proposals that Bobby Ingle defeated with his voting power.
“The golden rule is he (who) has the vote,” said Mario J. Gabelli, chairman and chief executive officer of GAMCO Investors Inc. of New York, an Ingles stockholder. “He controls the company, clearly.”
Ingles executives and board members did not respond to requests for comment made through the company. Ingles’ sister, Laura Lynn Ingle Sharp, the namesake of the Ingles brand, is an Ingles director.
Both the company and the family with one of the most recognizable names in western North Carolina typically avoid the media.
Asheville Watchdog caught up with Bobby Ingle at a South Asheville restaurant and bar where he was playing guitar and singing backup with Commodore Fox, a “party band cranking out rock and dance hits from 70’s, 80’s, to today.”
“I’ve played guitar since high school. I should be a lot better,” he said after a set that included songs by Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones and Bad Company. “Playing guitar, it’s the only thing I can really clear my mind and kind of do something totally different than what I do every day.”
The band plays local venues about once a week. “I’m relaxed here,” Ingle said.
He declined to discuss company business and said Ingles doesn’t give interviews because “we’re a public company and we’ve got so many people wanting to talk about so many different things, how to do this, how to do that.”
He said Ingles discloses “so much more information than any company would ever put out about us” in its SEC filings. “We don’t really go to market or talk about our strategies or talk about what we’re trying to do because then some investor goes crazy on us,” Ingle said.
“We just try to stay out of it all,” he said. “We want to sell groceries.”
Competitors expand, some with deeper pockets
Ingles is a large regional employer and the dominant grocery chain in the region with 18 stores in Buncombe, almost as many as all the other grocery stores combined. Ingles is also one of Buncombe’s largest private landowners of shopping centers, acreage and vacant property that in some cases has become an eyesore and irritant to neighbors.
Coming next: Real estate holdings play pivotal role in Ingles’ strategy
The company did not respond to multiple questions from The Watchdog, including about its real estate, its plans or whether Ingles would remain a family-run business. Ingles’ sales last year totaled nearly $5.9 billion.
Sharp is 67, and Ingle 55, and no other family member is on the executive team or board, according to SEC filings.
Asked if there were other family members coming up behind him, Ingle told The Watchdog, “We got a few people, but I wouldn’t even talk about something like that.”
“We hear rumors all the time and speculations,” he said, “and we just let them go.”
Ingles faces headwinds from a highly competitive grocery industry. The company’s annual report listed 13 grocery chains as its main competitors, including Walmart, Target, Aldi, Publix and Harris Teeter.
Several are expanding significantly. Aldi recently announced plans to open 800 stores nationwide by the end of 2028.
Publix is moving north from Florida and opened 45 stores in 2023, including 22 in the six Southeastern states where Ingles operates. Wegmans, a popular family-run chain based in Rochester, NY, is expanding southward into the mid-Atlantic states and plans to open its sixth North Carolina store – though none in the western region.
Ingles also plans to open new stores and has purchased 21 “store sites/land parcels” since 2022, the annual report said. But just three new Ingles have opened in the past five years and others closed for no net gain of stores, according to the report.
“We’ve been lucky to still be in it,” Ingle told The Watchdog.
Many family-run grocery businesses, he said, have been “grabbed up by the Krogers of the world or gone out of business. Now you’ve got all the big guys.
“Publix owns Florida,” Ingle said. “Fresh Market’s got private equity running them… Whole Foods are owned by Amazon. How much bigger do you get when you got Amazon as your parent company?”
From single store to Wall Street
Bobby Ingle is a fourth-generation grocer. His great-grandfather Franklin Pierce Ingle owned a dry-goods store in downtown Asheville as early as 1898 and his grandfather operated Elmer Ingle’s Food Store at 504 Hendersonville Road for 36 years until his death in 1956, according to a Facebook post by the Buncombe County Special Collections at Pack Memorial Public Library.
Ingle’s father, Robert, started what would become the grocery chain, returning to Asheville after serving in the Korean War and earning a business degree from the University of Miami. He opened the first Ingles at 570 Hendersonville Road in 1963 with his own savings and loans from his family, including a mortgage on his mother’s house.
“Everything was on the line,” Ingle said in a 1992 interview with librarian and local historian Rob Neufeld. “That’s why when we opened up, we opened seven days a week and our hours were nine in the morning till 11 o’clock at night, and we were there every minute of the day trying to make that first store go.”
The following year, Ingle made a deal with a farmer who owned the land at Patton Avenue and New Leicester Highway to open his second store in what became “one of the highest volume stores in the state of North Carolina,” he said in the interview maintained by the Buncombe County Special Collections.
Ingle purchased stores from an Atlanta-based grocer and continued expanding. By 1972, less than a decade after he started the business, Ingle had 16 stores and used a private plane to cross the region and visit them.
It wasn’t long before Wall Street came knocking.
“The telephone rang one day, and I answered it, and the lady at the front desk said, ‘Mr. Ingle, there are three people here to see you,’” he said in the interview. “There comes three guys in black overcoats and black hats. They said, ‘We’re with Drexel Burnham out of New York City and we’d like to raise you some money.’”
Ingles went public in 1987, selling shares of the company on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Ingle remained the CEO until his death in 2011 when his son, Bobby, who had worked at the company since 1985, took over the role.
Bobby Ingle was CEO until 2016 and has been chairman of the board since 2004.
“It takes a lot of hard work,” Ingle told The Watchdog. “We’ve had a very strong team that’s not had a lot of turnover.”
Tom Outlaw, who retired four years ago as Ingles’ vice president of sales and marketing, said in an interview that Ingles is a “wonderful company.”
“I have nothing but respect for Bobby Ingle,” Outlaw said. “He was there most every day that I knew about…He was very active in the company and did a lot of really good innovative things for Ingles.”
Outlaw said he didn’t know much about Ingle’s lifestyle or politics. “To me, he did not talk about supporting any political party or candidate,” he said. “Bobby is very private about things like that.”
The family has generally kept a low public profile.
“I would say they’ve been very good at being under the radar,” said Charles Worley, former Asheville mayor and City Council member. “You just never did see much of them.”
Robert Ingle’s widow and Bobby’s mother, Laura Laxton Ingle, 90, came to her son’s recent band gig, smiling and clapping. Bobby Ingle and his wife, Susan, live in Biltmore Forest, according to property records.
He has two sisters: Sharp of Atlanta and Maria E. Murphy. A third sister, Sheree Federico, also of Atlanta, died in December. Her husband, Anthony Federico, had been an Ingles executive before his death in 2005.
Board, company future up to Ingle
Ingles remains under family control by design. As of Sept. 30, 2023, Bobby Ingle owned 23 percent of the company’s total stock shares, which include Class A stock that is publicly traded and Class B stock.
Ingle is the majority holder of Class B stock “as a result of being appointed the trustee with sole voting” power established by his father’s estate plan, the company’s 2024 proxy statement said.
Ingle has influence over key decisions about the company, from its board composition to whether Ingles sells or merges with a competitor. He has “the power to elect a majority of the Company’s directors and approve any action requiring the approval” of the stockholders, “including adopting certain amendments to the Company’s charter and approving mergers or sales of substantially all of the Company’s assets,” Ingles’ annual report said.
Ingle’s sister, Laura Lynn Sharp, has less than 1 percent of the voting power. She regularly sells shares of Ingles stock – more than $7 million worth since 2019, according to SEC filings.
Sharp did not respond to requests for comment.
Six of Ingles’ eight board members are elected by the Class B stockholders, of which Bobby Ingle is the majority holder, and the other two by the public shareholders. Half of the directors are family members or company executives: Ingle; Sharp; James Lanning, Ingles president and CEO; and Patricia Jackson, the company’s chief financial officer.
The company’s other directors are Fred Ayers, a retired senior officer of Wachovia Bank; Ernest Ferguson, a retired senior vice president at Wachovia; John Lowden, president and chief investment officer of NewCastle Partners LLC, a private investment firm; and Brenda Tudor, a certified public accountant and former president and CFO of Morgan-Keefe Builders Inc.
Ingles’ directors, excluding officers of the company, are paid for serving on the board. In 2023, Ayers received $42,500; Ferguson and Tudor, $37,508 each; Sharp, $20,000; and Lowden, $16,250, the proxy statement said.
Although Ingles said in the statement it is committed to diversity on its board, its current board – five men and three women – is all white, and the company has not had a person of color as a director for at least the last decade, according to its proxy statements.
“The Company believes that it is important that the Board is composed of individuals reflecting the diversity of our associates, stockholders and the communities we serve, and so the Board considers diversity when identifying director nominees,” the 2024 proxy statement said.
Committee approves raises, land deals
Under Nasdaq rules, Ingles is considered a “controlled company,” one with more than 50 percent of the voting power for the election of directors held by an individual or group. Because of that, Ingles is not subject to certain corporate governance requirements, including that a majority of the board members be “independent directors.”
Ingles’ board has “affirmatively determined” that directors Ayers, Ferguson, Lowden and Tudor – whose time on the board ranges from six years to 18 years – are independent, according to the proxy statement.
Three of them, Ayers, Ferguson and Tudor, comprised the company’s audit/compensation committee, the statement said.
Bobby Ingle’s compensation has grown significantly in recent years. SEC filings show his bonuses increased from $400,000 in 2019 and 2020 to $6.6 million last year.
He also receives rent from Ingles and has bought, sold and traded properties with the company – all approved by the audit committee, according to the proxy statement.
Ingles pays a limited liability company with Bobby Ingle as a principal $318,000 a year in lease payments.
Last year, the company bought two properties from Bobby Ingle’s LLCs for $5.8 million and in “an even exchange” swapped adjoining properties. Property records show “deeds of exchange” recorded on the same day transferring properties in and around a north Asheville shopping plaza, the site of a former Stein Mart on Merrimon Avenue.
Ingles said in its proxy statement that the company obtained independent appraisals of the properties and that the transactions “were on terms no less favorable to the Company than those available from unaffiliated third parties.”
Bobby Ingle owns other properties through LLCs, including a shopping plaza at Brevard Road and Ridgefield Boulevard, anchored by At Home, records show. That plaza and the former Stein Mart parcel are near Ingles stores.
‘Fortunate to be in Asheville’
Ingles’s corporate structure is not uncommon among similar, publicly traded companies, said Justin McAuliffe, an analyst at Gabelli Funds who studies grocery chains.
“It’s not unusual for some of these smaller supermarkets to have a significant family presence, family control,” McAuliffe said.
Gabelli is one of six stockholders listed in Ingles’ proxy statement as owning 5 percent or more of the company’s Class A stock. The others, which include BlackRock Inc. and The Vanguard Group, did not respond to messages about Ingles or said they do not comment on specific companies.
McAuliffe described Ingles as “very well run” and said it will be up to the family to determine the company’s future. “I’m not necessarily predicting any significant changes,” McAuliffe said.
Outlaw said that during his time at Ingles, “there was no talk of selling or anything, but that would be something that Bobby would hold close to his chest.”
And Bobby Ingle says he just wants to sell groceries.
“We’ve got shoppers that are from all walks of life and we want to please them,” he told The Watchdog. “We’re a hometown grocery, been doing this stuff since ‘63. And we’re very fortunate, very fortunate to be in Asheville.”
Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Sally Kestin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter. Email skestin@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/donate.
The North Ashville Ingles is a disgrace- old, worn out floors, roof leaks on the regular, coolers leak and break down frequently, produce is often past its prime and must be picked through, and shelves are ofen poorly stocked. Some real competition on this side of town would be a good thing.
Same with the store on NLH. It used to be my premier shopping spot but I avoid it now and go to their new location on Smoky Park. It’s a shame NLH store has deteriorated to the shape it is now.
And they pay their best employees less than new low quality hires. And they never pay anyone in retail enough. I know a few extremely good hard working employees who say they have almost never got a raise. Worked there 5 years as stop gap to retirement. What you are saying is true.
When the Candler INGLES store was being constructed, a couple people from Biltmore Lake tried to communicate with Ingles – to have them include sidewalks in front of their store- down by the road. With the growth in the area– the apartments nearby and Biltmore Lake Homes, we thought sidewalks would be needed. We did meet with the property owner next to Ingles that said he would try to have sidewalks as he developed that area- still vacant. We understood that if the Ingles store was across the street- the city would have required sidewalks. We didn’t think we were asking for too much. We don’t remember Ingles ever reaching out to the community – with information or to have a community meeting – before the construction began. Now- there is a path- sometimes in the mud- that those walking use
“Bobby Ingle’s compensation has grown significantly in recent years. SEC filings show his bonuses increased from $400,000 in 2019 and 2020 to $6.6 million last year.
He also receives rent from Ingles and has bought, sold and traded properties with the company – all approved by the audit committee, according to the proxy statement.
Ingles pays a limited liability company with Bobby Ingle as a principal $318,000 a year in lease payments.
Last year, the company bought two properties from Bobby Ingle’s LLCs for $5.8 million..” Bobby’s bonuses go from $400,000 in 2019 to $6.6 Million in 2023. Maddening. This (along with huge bonuses for other executives) is exactly what is causing prices to continue to be as high as they were during the Pandemic. They simply keep the prices high even when there are no long supply chain issues. This local company does employ a lot of people, and seems to treat them well, but other than donating food to Manna, they do little else for the community, and never have. They sit on large, empty commercial properties simply to keep out any competition. They COULD donate some of these properties to be used for housing for the homeless, and they would receive a hefty tax break for doing so. Some of these properties are perfectly located for such a project – they’re convenient to transportation, grocery stores, and all kinds of services. The old KMart property on Patton Avenue would be perfect for this kind of project. They would also get positive recognition for actually helping the community that has served THEM well. Of course, the nouveauriche do not do that sort of thing – they’d prefer to hoard their tons of money and to heck with the “little people”.
Nancy, you are a pillar of fresh and informative information.
Kinda like the Waltons
The Walton’s donate a ton of money to the Fayetteville/Bentonville corridor to improve the community. The Ingles family doesn’t do anything for us except for buy up properties to let them sit vacant and charge too much for groceries.
So, you going to beat this business up for being successful?
Looks to me like they contribute heavily to the Buncombe County tax base.
Family members have worked hard to build a highly successful business, more power to them and much continued success!
Current warning when shopping at Ingles: Check your bill carefully. Last night I was overbilled 53% for 3 small items with a total purchase price of $13.70, for an overcharge of $7.27. Finding errors apparently generated by their cash registers, is common.
They are know for mispriced items like all stores. They have just a couple items to sell so I find it hard to believe they missed one or two items but I guess it happens🥴. FYI: Like Publix, if you catch it, they give you the item for free! I’m sure they misprice on purpose.🙄
I have tried, really tried to like Ingles. Just can’t do it. I find their stores depressing, lacking in newer products and almost void of service. The cashiers looks so depressed and downtrodden. When I got to ANY of the competitors it a much more positive experience, especially Publix.
I agree completely!!!
You are SO correct!!! Plus Publix has quality customer service!
Bull! Moved here 7 years ago and this business only cares about owners, board members and Donald Trump with their million dollars donated to his last run. I go to Harris Teeters for the best quality. Walmart has better quality and prices are better. Publix’s and others should and need to come into this county. Who is/are Ingles paying off to be the only franchise having no competition. Then need somehow to be humbled.
Amen!!
They are sad. Low pay and often over-worked because of low quality no-show hires (making more than reliable workers) mean long hours and doing other people’s jobs or correcting their mistakes with tiny or no raises.. This certainly a part of why this is so.
“…his bonuses increased from $400,000 in 2019 and 2020 to $6.6 million last year.”
No wonder their grocery prices are offensively high – and getting higher. I’m making more and more trips to Aldi, which is five times the distance from my home as Ingles. Maybe if more of us did the same thing…
I’m doing exactly the same thing. Thank goodness for Aldi, but it’s really annoying to have a nearby Ingles be virtually unusable due to such high-end pricing. Robert Ingle may say his customers are “from all walks of life,” but the vast majority must be strictly rich white people, just like his board of directors. Any shoppers in a different demographic are getting painfully bled at his cash registers.
Looks like BOBBY is a real SKINFLINT !!!! Do the math!
But he certainly makes a nice pay check! 8 + million and about 200 stores 26,000 employees
PUBLIX CEO “TODD” makes whopping 2,500,000 and about 1408 stores in 8 states and 240,000 employees
I try to use PUBLIX when I can.
Thanks for the info
Bobby Ingle isn’t a CEO anymore, He is head of the board as the sole decision vote. Ingles CEO I’m sure makes way less the bobby
Nice hit piece. Not sure John understands how economics work. Start a small store, invest in it, work hard, develop a following, take risk, make smart decisions and maybe in 70 years you make it big. Sounds so easy, everyone should try it. Ingles is not a charity or a non-profit. Grab a glove and get in the game, socialists. Fortune favors the bold. And for comparison:
“Based on his company’s SEC filings, Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen got a 2018 pay package totaling $11.5 million.”
Good post Paul K!
These folks posting derogatory comments toward Ingles need to look at Aldi’s balance sheet, year after year blow out profits plus another major expansion investment in the UK alone to the tune of 1.5 billion dollars.
At least with Ingles you are spending locally as opposed to handing money to an overseas concern.
Sad, you work hard, become successful, donate to local charities and you are considered an evil villain!
I like the fact that a local family controls the biggest grocery store in the area. Much better than some huge corporation like Amazon or Kroger owning them. And I really don’t mind if Bobby Ingels earns a nice salary running the business, he deserves it.
Ingles is a blight on Asheville. The company buys up properties seemingly to prevent competition from moving in. Fine. But the company leaves the properties vacant and in disrepair, creating eyesores for our neighborhoods. The K-Mart property could be redeveloped into a mixed use retail/residential plaza with a little vision. Instead it’s a daily horror to look at as the boarded up property deteriorates. Sad that Asheville can’t do anything to force Ingles to improve properties in north and west Asheville. Neighbors can send a message by boycotting the stores until the company decides its cost effective to do the right thing.
Remember that line about his compensation nearly doubling to $8 million a year whenever you’re deciding whether to pay $5 for a bag of potato chips that used to sell for maybe 3. My motto is “let it rot.”
Or $2.50 for an avacodo!
$3.48 for a bell pepper
I love the Oteen Ingles. It is smaller than many. Ingles owns the old Sealtest plant and the dairy products are excellent. Ingles buys much from local farmers and is involved in local charity events.
I know a little bit about the grocery industry and I can assure you Ingles is not in a good place. They’re coasting on their laurels and have been for a couple of decades. This won’t last.. even with their premium pricing that keeps them propped up. Aldi is literally eating Ingles’ lunch. Ditto for almost every other grocery chain where they have a store in proximity to an Ingles. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.. nor are they interested in changing anything of consequence regarding their stores or brand. Bobby Ingles will be selling the Ingles chain to the highest bidder before this decade is out …and he won’t be getting a premium for it ( …nor does he care ..he’s made his money and then some).
Very good company to work for I worked in different stores for over 32 years some stores better than others depending on the manager l retired in 2019
Okay. But why is shopping there so expensive. Ask them that. Watchdog, how about doing a comparison with Kroger.
They did that a few months ago: https://avlwatchdog.org/which-asheville-grocery-store-has-the-best-prices/
Might be a good question to ask the current WH Administration on why groceries are so expensive, they seem to be Masters at making the price of everything go up since The Big Guy has been in office!
I have a one word answer: Aldi.
With only a few exceptions, I can get everything I want and need there. And, I think they have better produce.
Do your own comparison. It’s not that hard.
Ingles practice of buying commercial real estate, then letting it sit vacant, often to keep other grocers out, as the old Bilo in Black Mountain, is not in keeping with what is best for the community. That site could have been donated to Bounty and Soul with a huge write off for Ingles. Would also be great for BMT Parks and Rec. I fully understand profit, but sometimes it’s nice to be a good neighbor and give back to the community that supports you.
I still remember the old Ingles that was on Charlotte Street which burned down in the early 90s. The property has sat vacant ever since while historic homes nearby were recently torn down for new development (but also still sitting vacant). Why are they sitting on so much vacant land around town? Also, the employees at Ingles always seem miserable, probably because they’re paid so little.
Thus article talks a good game but being an employee of 18 years, it’s come to a point to where I’m thinking of leaving because of the pay. The competition pays better.
Did not know this many Karens live here. If you want to spend $10 on gas to save $5 go for it. Ingles is homegrown local, convenient, and provides lots of employment. But go ahead and contribute to the Bezos/Walton retirement funds if that makes you feel relevant.
Having lived in Rochester, NY for 30 years, I can vouch that there is no grocery store compared to Wegmans. I just wish that they would build a store in Asheville. If you get to visit one of their stores in NC–do–it is quite the grocery shopping experience!
You are right, Sue. Wetlands is outstanding. The ones I have shopped at in Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina are consistently exceptional. Consumer Reports ranked them #1 a couple of years ago (will send the link later) taking into account quality, pricing, customer service to name a few of their rating categories. Harris Teeter and Publix were in the top 10. Sams and Wal-Mart were at the bottom. LOVE Wegman’s!
As someone said above, Ingles is a blight on Asheville. They talk a big game about all of their charity, but ask anyone who has to work for them or with them what it’s like to be a slave to the Ingles overlords. They love to paint a rosy picture of all they claim to do for the community, but it is often overstated and misrepresented. But the charities are probably afraid to tell the truth about it. I hope Sally digs deeper.
So big grocers are bad, family owned grocers, also bad. Maybe the government should take them all over and distribute food for free to the masses. What could possibly go wrong? Besides bread lines and rationing, of course.
The great think about capitalism is it allows for choices. Ingles fits the bill sometimes, then sometimes not. No need to be so critical, just go somewhere else. It is amazing how many want to tell others how to run their business or what to do with their land. I wonder how those so critical or the Karen’s would do if someone was looking at their business or property…or maybe they are just jealous and don’t have either.
We very rarely shop at Ingles anymore. Too expensive compared to the other chain in our area. And, the Fairview store is so outdated, decades outdated. 🙄
It’s nice when a business invests in the local community and believes in corporate social responsibility (apparently not a priority for Ingles), but I don’t count on it. I dislike Ingles’ practice of buying up vacant properties to keep out competition, but rather than blame Ingles for this, I’d ask local government to do more to incentivize Ingles to sell properties for uses that don’t threaten it (e.g. the proposal to turn the Ingles-owned Bi-Lo site in Black Mountain into a rec center. There are things I like about my local Ingles (well-stocked, convenient) and aspects I don’t (poor quality produce, high prices). So I shop there when I have to and avoid it when I can. The choice is yours.
Looking at the cost comparison previously posted and doing my own cost comparison as one reader suggested, I found Ingles to be competitive while convenient. Not to mention the number of my neighbors who livelihoods are derived from their employment. It is too easy to bash and find fault in local generational business who have work hard, invested and risked their personal assets (Father Ingle mortgaging his mother’s home), and then take pot shots for their perseverance. I can only image the number of sleepless nights in the early years wondering how they will be able to make ends meet.
If I had the entrepreneurial spirit, smarts, and good fortune, I would do the same for my future generations and then laugh at the number of pundits sitting on the sideline make their wise cracks.
Love the line that Ingles has the power to land lock all the competitors out of the market. Yet, I have seen new competitors manage to find their way to Buncombe County over the past decade. While always room for improvement, I am glad that Western North Carolina can claim this company a native son.
Ingles could pay their employees (eg cashiers, stockers, etc) a true living wage and make it a more desired place to work amongst the grocery store competition if they wanted to. Their bottom line would allow that. Yet they don’t, and they don’t really contribute to the WNC communities. So tired of seeing their property-grab buildings sit and decay. That alone should tell everyone they’re in it for their shareholders and NOT the local patrons who shop at and live near their stores.
Really???
Why don’t you ask Manna Food Bank if Ingles does not contribute to WNC communities?
You are ill informed !!!
The fact that he pays himself so well and doesn’t pay his employees a decent wage is shameful.
Seems like they need a union to make him a decent human being