Franchise Opportunities in Raleigh, NC

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Check out the list of top grocery deals from the ads here in the Triangle this week including cabbage, chicken breast, ground beef, beef franks, strawberries, Mandarins, shredded cheese, frozen pizza, cereal, tortillas, peanut butter and more!

These deals are valid March 15-21, 2023 for participating Raleigh, NC area locations unless otherwise indicated.

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See the full grocery deal lists for Triangle area grocery stores on the WRAL Smart Shopper column HERE.

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Cut your grocery bill right now with these 12 techniques

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* Whole Boston Butt, pork, $0.99/lb at Food Lion

* Boneless chicken breast, family pack, $1.79/lb at Food Lion

* Ball Park Beef Franks, 14-15 oz, $3.49 at Food Lion

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* Harris Teeter Corned Beef Brisket, $4.99/lb at Harris Teeter

* Wild Caught Snow Crab Clusters or Wild Caught Dungeness Crab Clusters, $8.99/lb at Harris Teeter

* Hilo Fish Co Tilapia Fillets, 3 lb bag, $15.99 at Harris Teeter

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* Jimmy Dean® premium pork sausage, regular, 16 oz, $1.99 for myLidl members at Lidl

* Frozen bay scallops, 16 oz, $4.99 at Lidl

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* 80% Lean Ground Beef, 3 lb family pack, $2.99/lb at Lowes Foods

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* Corned beef brisket, select, $4.99/lb at Publix

* Oscar Mayer hot dogs and beef franks, select, 14 to 16 oz, BOGO at Publix

* Roma Tomatoes, $0.89/lb at ALDI

* Pineapples, $1.49 each at ALDI

* Mandarins from California, 3 lb bag, $2.59 at ALDI

* Pink Lady Apples from Washington, 3 lb bag, $2.99 at ALDI

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* Cucumbers, $0.69 at Food Lion

* Mangos, $0.89 each at Food Lion

* Green Cabbage: $0.25/lb at Harris Teeter

* Kiwi, 5 for $2 at Harris Teeter

* Iceberg lettuce, $1.67 each at Harris Teeter

* Jumbo Cantaloupe, $2 at Harris Teeter

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* Strawberries: $1.79lb at Lidl for myLidl members

* Red Potatoes, 5 lb, $2.99 for myLidl members at Lidl

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* Fresh Attitude Salads, select 5 oz, BOGO for $1.99 each at Publix

* Happy Farms Cheese Cubes, 8 oz, $1.89 at ALDI

* Happy Farms Deli-Sliced Provolone Cheese, 8 oz, $1.89 at ALDI

* Homemaker Premium Orange Juice, 59 oz, $2.50 at Food Lion

* Harris Teeter Shredded Cheese, 6-8 oz, Buy 2 Get 3 Free (reg price $3.49) = $1.40 each when you buy 5 (limit 10) at Harris Teeter

* Harris Teeter Cream Cheese, 8 oz brick, $1.67 at Harris Teeter

* Oikos Triple Zero or Dannon Light & Fit yogurt, 4 pack: BOGO for up to $2.65 each at Publix

* Mama Cozzi's Pizza Kitchen Original Thin Crust Pizza, 13.8-15.8 oz, $2.99 at ALDI

* Tombstone Pizza, 18.4-19.8 Oz., $4 at Food Lion

* Harris Teeter All Natural Ice Cream, 48 oz, BOGO for $2.50 each at Harris Teeter

* Casa Mamita Refried Beans, 16 oz can, $0.88 at ALDI

* Benton's Assorted Sandwich Creme Cookies, 25 oz, $1.88 at ALDI

* Cereal, select Honey Nut Oat Hoops, Cinnamon Crunchies and more, 12.3-14.5 oz: 5 for $5 at Lidl

* Harris Teeter flour and corn tortillas, select, BOGO starting at $0.80 at Harris Teeter

* Harris Teeter Spicy Brown Mustard, 12 oz or 14 - 15.3 oz. Sauerkraut can, $0.89 at Harris Teeter

* Harris Teeter Peanut Butter, 16 oz: $1.49 at Harris Teeter

* E-Vic Deal: Campbell's Chunky Soup, 18.5 oz, $1.77, limit 4 at Harris Teeter

* Northland 100% Juice Blend, 64 oz, select, BOGO for up to $1.95 each at Publix

* Flatout Breads, in Deli, 8.5-14 oz, BOGO for $1.99 each at Publix

* Peter Pan Peanut Butter, 28 oz: BOGO for up to $2.99 each at Publix

See the full grocery deals lists for Triangle area grocery stores on the WRAL Smart Shopper column HERE.

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Prices can vary from store to store within the same chain so you may want to check your ad to verify the sales. This list is not a guarantee of price. Sale prices and promotions are valid for reward members, if applicable.

Raleigh has enough money to keep its buses fare free for another year, but city leaders will have to weigh the long-term consequences.

GoRaleigh, the city’s transit system, will face a future budget shortfall of $8 million to $12 million due to rising inflation and labor costs, a new transit manager contract and the lack of fares collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fares generated about $3.5 million each year, pre-COVID.

“Even with reinstating fares, we would still have a gap,” Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said. “So we have a bigger issue.”

The Raleigh City Council learned this week there may be enough federal dollars to close this year’s shortfall but that the money will run out in the coming years.

“We can remain fare free,” said David Eatman, the city’s transit administrator. “So certainly that’s an option. It does come with consequences and decisions further down the road.”

City leaders are facing some pressure from bus operators and the Raleigh Transit Authority, which advises the city on transit issues, voted to reinstate the fares. Part of that is for the lost money but also out of concern for bus driver safety.

Several council members said they’d heard from bus operators concerned for their drivers’ safety with “parts of the population” riding the bus for several hours with no destination.

“I know that in speaking with some people on the Transit Authority that part of their motivation to reinstate the fares was concern for driver safety,” said Council member Megan Patton. “And I have a great deal of respect for that, but I was curious if other policies outside of reinforcing the fares had been explored.”

Most of the people who ride the bus make less than $35,000 a year and don’t have cars, according a 2019 study. About 64% of GoRaleigh bus riders use the bus for work trips.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, a bus ride cost $1.25 and a month pass cost $40. GoRaleigh, GoTriangle and GoCary, stopped collecting fares and had riders enter through the rear doors to enforce social distancing at the start of the pandemic.

The transit system received about $51 million in federal COVID-19 relief money that has been used to offset the budget in recent years. The transit system’s budget this year is $43.9 million.

“You know, 82% of our riders make less than $35,000 a year,” said Council member Jonathan Melton. “I don’t know how we can justify bringing back fares. I really don’t.”

There is a national trend to move toward fare-free transit, he said.

“I do think that for some of the riders who are looking for shelter or heat or air conditioning, we can do more to help connect those folks with the services that they need, because they need housing and food and employment,” Melton said. “And I know that’s an aspirational goal, but that should be our goal anyway. And so I think that there are some ways to work around these issues.”

The city could make up the fare revenue in different ways, such as making cuts elsewhere. If it were to pay for it out of taxes, the gap would cost the equivalent of less than a half cent on the city property tax rate.

Council member Christina Jones asked if there were ways to establish a fund for developers to contribute toward transit costs.

Before the fares became free, about 32% of the system’s ridership rode for free through current programs which include free rides for seniors, free rides for children under the age of 12 and from passes given people bought by nonprofits.

“I think that our riders don’t believe they have much of a say in what happens,” said Nathan Spencer, one of the two people on the Raleigh Transit Authority who voted against reinstating fares. “Like most decisions that impact folks with the least, they often see this stuff happen to them versus with them.”

The Raleigh City Council will decide whether to reinstate the fares when it passes its budget for the coming year. A vote on the budget is required before July 1, the start of the new fiscal year.

This story was originally published March 16, 2023, 3:41 PM.

As demand for high-quality and unique dining experiences grows in the Triangle, chef-owned and operated spots are leading the way.

Sunny Gerhart opened St. Roch Fine Oysters & Bar in Downtown Raleigh in 2017. Since then, he has grown the location into a nearly $3 million business and has a second restaurant opening soon.

Gerhart trained under two-time James Beard Award winner Ashley Christensen before venturing out on his own, and last year claimed one of the foundation’s coveted nominations himself.

The restaurant industry has taken major hits in recent years from the pandemic, supply chain troubles, inflation and labor shortages, but Gerhart has navigated St. Roch through it all. The restaurant saw about $1.5 million in sales in 2019 – the amount jumped to $2.7 million in 2022.

Though the restaurant has been popular since it opened, last year was the first time it turned a profit, Gerhart says – a testament to the industry’s volatility. He plans to keep building on the momentum this year at St. Roch and his upcoming restaurant in Wilmington.

What led you to train under Ashley Christensen? After I went to culinary school in D.C., I ended up coming to Raleigh. I’d read about Ashley in one of her first pieces of national press and I reached out.

I had worked at a couple of restaurants in D.C. and Baltimore that were good, the food was great and the people were wonderful, but they were a little bit bigger restaurants, so it was easy to kind of get lost and to lose sight of some of the details. Coming here, it was just a much different environment. It was smaller and much more focused — details like how you mince shallots and cut onions perfectly and the people were wonderful and thoughtful. They just treated people with respect. And I felt like the cooks that were there wanted to be there and were challenged by the work and wanted to be better. That was just the environment that I wanted to be in.

Closer Look

Education: Culinary school in Baltimore

Career start: Gerhart served as sous chef at Ashley Christensen’s Poole’s Diner

Fun fact: Gerhart’s father was a U.S. Marine and a large photo of him hangs in St. Roch behind the bar

How has it been owning your own business? In general, small business is very difficult. It was very much living paycheck to paycheck and very difficult every day for a very long time.

I’m always here every day. It’s very hard, but now we’re moving forward and we’ve made progress. But people don’t realize all the work that goes into it, and the years of literally losing money, paying myself like $25,000 a year. We feel very fortunate to be as busy as we are — we’re busier than I ever would have imagined. But I don’t take it for granted. I try and express to these folks that every guest matters, every day matters.

Why do you do it? I like the challenge. At the end of the day, I like working. I enjoy building teams and solving problems and trying to think critically. When the restaurant is full and people are happy, that’s why.

Is the industry still struggling? We’re still dealing with inflation – not as bad as it was a year ago, or a year and a half ago. But my sense is that it’s a lot more difficult to make a profit in the restaurant industry now than it was 20 or 30 years ago. Looking at the averages across the restaurant industry, if a restaurant is making a 10 percent profit margin, they’re doing really, really well.

How is business in Downtown Raleigh? I love Downtown Raleigh. I think it’s been a little tough down here for the last couple of years, especially with the pandemic. Downtown was making a lot of progress over the last like 10 years, then since the pandemic this part of downtown has been hit pretty hard. Red Hat and Citrix and all these people that were all working downtown, all of a sudden they disappeared. We lost a bunch of lunch spots and restaurant business and it really hasn’t started to feel like the downtown of a few years ago until the last few months.

But it’s nice to be downtown. It’s important to have some great restaurants and some good bars and some retail, it can’t just be offices and government buildings.

If you could make only one dish for the rest of your life, what would it be? Lasagna. Chicken pot pie is like my favorite thing to eat but I have zero desire to make it. I like making pasta from scratch, but like super simple, just cheese and sauce. And I love eating lasagna, hot or cold.

What’s your favorite Triangle restaurant? There are so many good ones. Garland was probably my favorite restaurant. They’re obviously closed now. I love Scott Crawford; Crawford & Son is a good go-to for me. Poole’s is always great. Mateo and Mothers & Sons Trattoria in Durham are two I go to a lot. And Cheeni Indian Food Emporium.

Ranked by Venue, Least Expensive Menu Item

RALEIGH, N.C. — The Raleigh-Cary area saw the 10th largest numerical growth of any metropolitan statistical area in the country in 2020-21, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. With that growth comes construction and rezoning, and that’s where the organization Livable Raleigh comes into play.

The group is made up of people who want the community’s voice to be heard when it comes to how cities approach development.

What You Need To Know

“If there's any property that's vacant, has a tree on it, it will be developed no matter where you live in Raleigh,” Larry Helfant, the chair of Raleigh’s Midtown Citizen’s Advisory Council, said.

Members of Livable Raleigh are focused on construction in the City of Oaks.

“I’ve said for years Raleigh has issues that a lot of places would love to have debates about. We're a very healthy city. We're growing rapidly, and with growth comes some growth pains,” Michael Lindsay, the chair of the Hillsborough-Wade Citizen’s Advisory Council, said.

“I think we were successful with the North Hills project because we have an active CAC and we have an active community and people see how it directly affects them,” Helfant said.

Donna Bailey has lived in Raleigh for almost three decades. She’s active in public input opportunities because she believes it will help better shape the future of the city.

“There's got to be a balance because when you have community input, it's a win-win for everybody. So even if things have to slow down and even if there are some compromises, it makes Raleigh a better place to live,” Bailey, a member of Raleigh’s Community Engagement Board, said.

Wanda Hunter was born and raised in Raleigh. She’s seen construction project after construction project and wants to make sure there’s a place in Raleigh for families like hers.

“If you're not at the table, you're on the menu, you know? So I'm at the table. I'm invested. I just purchased the home. I'm a first-time homeowner and I'm invested in my community. I love Raleigh and I want to see more of people that look like me, that have lived here, be able to continue to live here because we're continuously wiping them out,” Hunter, a member of Livable Raleigh, said. “Stagger the development from like 40 stories down to single-family homes so that you're not in a single-family home and you're right beside a 40-story building.”

“These 40-story buildings are just being plopped everywhere. There's no strategy behind this building. There's no sustainability behind the building. The community benefits that are being left on the table. There's no affordability in what's been built and so these are the crises that we face in the city,” Hunter said.

These four members of Livable Raleigh believe the four newly elected city council members are off to a strong start when it comes to listening to the public’s input on growth and development. However, they would like to see the city reinstate Citizen’s Advisory Councils.

The former city council voted to no longer support the groups. But Raleigh officials say city staff still regularly attend CAC meetings when invited to provide updates on certain items.

The city’s community engagement board recently conducted a poll about the public input process. Those results will be shared during the March 21 city council meeting.

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- The economic impact numbers are out from the 2023 NHL Stadium Series game in Raleigh and the numbers reflect that the event was a hit on the ice and in the community.

The numbers released Wednesday by Visit Raleigh show that the outdoor hockey game at Carter-Finley Stadium between the Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals generated $13.6 million in total economic impact.

Numbers also show that the economic impact generated by that entire weekend amounted to $20.1 million.

That number includes revenue from the game, which was played on Feb. 18, a Saturday, as well as connected events such as Hurricanes FanFest, a Hootie & the Blowfish concert, and an official fan festival on Saturday. It also includes the men's basketball game between North Carolina and N.C. State placed Sunday at neighboring PNC Arena.

"We could not be prouder of the efforts of so many people in putting on an unforgettable week and weekend in Raleigh," said Hurricanes Chief Marketing Officer Mike Forman. "The Carolina Hurricanes brand was on full display to national and global audiences to rave reviews from those who attended the week's events or tuned in from afar. We can't thank our funding partners (City of Raleigh, Wake County, NC Department of Commerce, Centennial Authority, Visit Raleigh), NC State University and the NHL enough for making this week a reality and laying the groundwork for the economic impact it made to our city, county and state to the tune of over $20 million."

"To the Caniacs - we hope that the Stadium Series game will forever be a lasting memory, and we're so excited that the rest of the world had the opportunity to see the best fans in the NHL on display at Carter-Finley Stadium," he added.

Dennis Edwards, President & CEO of Visit Raleigh, said the event gave an "incredible economic boost to our region."

No NHL Stadium Series game has ever sold as much merchandise in one day as the one in Raleigh.

"Raleigh was buzzing with activity throughout the entire weekend," Edwards said. "We are thrilled with the level of support from our local partners, residents and visitors for the game and all of the ancillary activations that made this a true city-wide experience ... Thanks to the NHL, the Carolina Hurricanes and NC State University for leading the way and making this unforgettable weekend a reality."

"Everyone who attended this year's Stadium Series game knows the impact of this event was tremendous; the excitement and anticipation were palpable all weekend, and the atmosphere in the stadium was just electric. Now we have the total economic impact number to demonstrate it even further,"