On Monday, September 21, the line at Dill's Food City in Lavonia started in the parking lot. Staff let shoppers in a few at a time and sent them out the far side of the store, and people left pushing carts piled with marked-down groceries. The building already had a new coat of paint where the Dill's sign used to hang, and the parking lot had just been resurfaced. According to WLHR's sources, every product had to be off the shelves by the end of that week.
Lavonia's part of this story is close to done. Royston's part is not, and Royston is where Dill's started. The sale that turned the Lavonia store into a Food Lion also gave Food Lion the empty lot on the original Dill's property. That site has had no grocery store since February 2024, and no one has published a date for building one.
Lavonia's switch took less than 12 weeks
Here is how quickly the Lavonia store went from rumor to grand opening:
- July 24, 2026. The Dilworth family announced the sale of its Dill's Food City stores to Food Lion. Employees got a letter the day before. Tracy Dilworth told WLHR News it was a long, hard decision. He also said last year's rumors about selling the Lavonia store had turned out to be false.
- July 28. The store cut its hours to 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. so crews could work overnight on the conversion.
- August 4. Food Lion said the converted store would have an easy-to-shop layout, a wide selection, Food Lion To Go pickup and home delivery.
- Week of September 21. Dill's held its final clearance, with deep discounts on every item, and emptied the shelves so Food Lion could restock.
- October 14, 8 a.m. Grand opening, according to Tonya Greganus, operations manager for Food Lion's Augusta Region, which covers Lavonia and Royston.
That opening is ten days from today. When the sale was announced, neither company had given a timeline for closing the deal or converting the store. Greganus said opening day will have "lots of fun activities" and suggested arriving early. WLHR's headline mentions gift cards and prizes. The article doesn't give amounts or a schedule.
What replaces the Dill's deli
Ask a longtime Dill's customer what they'll miss, and the deli is the usual answer. WLHR reported that many of them stopped there after church on Sundays to pick up lunch to take home. Greganus said the new store will have a similar Hot Bar.
Food Lion is also adding a virtual shopping app, along with the To Go pickup and delivery it described in August. Dill's ran on a different model, built on a deli counter and staff that customers knew by name. Food Lion's pitch adds ways to shop without walking the aisles.
Some details haven't been made public. As of this writing, coverage doesn't give the Lavonia store's regular hours after opening, whether it will have a pharmacy, or a full list of department changes. Employees are the other open question. The Dilworths wrote that opportunities for their associates were a priority, but the coverage doesn't promise that every Lavonia employee keeps a job.
The family's letter traces the business back to a one-room store in Red Hill run by their grandfather, Charlie. WLHR dates the Royston Dill's to Anderson Dilworth in the early 1950s, with the Lavonia store built later. The letter says the family is selling "with grateful hearts and mixed emotions." It calls the associates "the heart of this business" and says leaving them was "undoubtedly the hardest part." It ends with this line:
"We will be shopping at Food Lion, and we hope to see many of you there."
Royston has been waiting since February 2024
The Royston store had already been gone for more than two years when the sale was announced. Firefighters arrived on February 17, 2024, to find the original Dill's fully engulfed. No one was inside. In April 2024, the State Fire Marshal's office ruled the fire accidental and said an electrical cause couldn't be ruled out.
At first the family planned to rebuild. Three days after the fire, owner Stan Dilworth said the family was looking ahead. WLHR reported then that Dill's had about 150 employees and that Royston staff would not lose their jobs. In August 2024, co-owner Tracy Dilworth said the layout was finished, the deli would come back bigger, and the family hoped to start construction within weeks, depending on suppliers and engineers.
The next step was infrastructure. In June 2025, the City of Royston received a $400,000 grant to extend the water line that would serve the new store. WLHR reported that construction couldn't begin until the grant came through. Then nothing visible happened. The July 2026 sale announcement says the family had been working toward a newer, bigger store and had the state grant, "but construction on a new Dill's Food City stalled."
So Food Lion didn't buy a working store in Royston. It bought a site that already had a finished layout and a funded water-line extension behind it, but no building. Under the deal, Food Lion will build a new store on the original Dill's property. On August 4, the company said preparations for Royston were underway and described the planned store as new and bigger. Food Lion President Greg Finchum said more details on the Royston store would come later. No timeline was given. The family's letter says it is excited about a new, modern Royston store.
One company, two Royston addresses
Food Lion already had a store in Royston before any of this. It opened in March 2021 in the former Bi-Lo building at 1041 Franklin Springs St. Food Lion's store locator still lists it with daily hours of 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. That means the company now controls both of the town's main grocery locations: the store it runs today and the lot where the replacement Dill's was supposed to go.
| Location | Before July 2026 | Now | What's been announced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Former Dill's, Lavonia | Dill's Food City | Converting to Food Lion | Grand opening Oct. 14, 8 a.m. |
| Original Dill's site, Royston | Vacant since the Feb. 2024 fire | Owned by Food Lion | New store planned, no timeline |
| 1041 Franklin Springs St., Royston | Food Lion since March 2021 | Food Lion | Future not disclosed |
The last row is the one no one has explained. WLHR reported in July that it wasn't clear what Food Lion plans to do with its current Royston store. None of the coverage since then says whether that store will stay open, move or close once a new store goes up on the Dill's property. The locator page isn't dated, so the hours it shows only describe today.
Here's where things stand in Royston: one Food Lion is open on Franklin Springs Street, a second one is planned without a start date, and the family that ran Dill's for about seven decades says it will be shopping there too. In Lavonia, the doors open October 14 at 8 a.m.
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