Ingles Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ: IMKTA) is a 198-store supermarket chain headquartered in Black Mountain, North Carolina, generating $5.3 billion in annual revenue. It is controlled by the Ingle family, with Chairman Robert P. "Bobby" Ingle II holding 72.5% of voting power.
But Ingles is not simply a grocery company. It is one of the largest private landholders in the Appalachian region, owning approximately 3,700 acres of property — roughly 21 times more land than it discloses to shareholders in its SEC filings. It owns 84.3% of its store locations outright, the highest rate among publicly traded U.S. grocers.
This document presents evidence that Ingles Markets' real estate practices systematically harm the communities in which the company operates across four interconnected patterns:
These are not isolated incidents. They represent a deliberate corporate strategy in which real estate control — and the profits it generates — is prioritized over the welfare of the communities Ingles was founded to serve.
Engineered Monopolies
How Ingles uses land to eliminate competition
Unlike virtually every other grocery chain in America, Ingles does not merely operate stores — it controls territory. The company systematically acquires land and imposes legal restrictions that physically prevent competing grocers from entering its markets.
The strategy follows a consistent playbook: buy competitor properties when they close, impose deed restrictions that prohibit grocery use, purchase adjacent parcels to block new construction, and hold properties indefinitely rather than sell or develop them.
Documented Examples
Purchased for $8.5 million in 2019. The sellers signed a restrictive covenant excluding grocery or food store use on any property they owned within five miles. The building has sat vacant ever since.
Bobby Ingle's personal LLC purchased this center in 2021. The seller agreed not to sell or lease any portion for grocery use. Ingles Markets is listed as a "third-party beneficiary" of the restriction.
Another Bobby Ingle LLC sold this parcel in 2021 with a covenant barring grocery or food store use on the land.
Purchased for $6.25 million in 2021. The store remains vacant, leaving residents without a convenient grocery option.
Bought in January 2021. Appraised at $5.1 million. Sits vacant with broken windows.
In Buncombe County alone, Ingles and its related entities own 427 acres across 76 parcels. In many of the small towns where Ingles operates, this land control makes Ingles functionally the only grocery option — not because the market demands it, but because the company has engineered it.
Companies have "gotten in trouble" with this kind of behavior "because of antitrust laws, especially if they're taking advantage of deed restrictions that stifle competition."
University of Connecticut food systems researcher
Community Blight
Vacant properties that damage neighborhoods
When Ingles acquires a property to block competition, it typically does nothing with it. The buildings deteriorate. The parking lots empty. The communities around them suffer. This is not an occasional side effect — it is a consistent, decades-long pattern.
1001 Patton Avenue, West Asheville
This 17-acre former Kmart, purchased by Ingles in 2019, has become a case study in corporate neglect:
250+ police calls in a two-year period, including break-ins, a kidnapping, gun discharge, and reckless driving.
18 fire department calls, including three for actual fires.
The site has become a homeless encampment. Security now patrols the lot at ongoing cost.
Charlotte Street, Asheville
A 2.2-acre site near I-240 housed an Ingles store that burned down in 1994. It has been vacant for over thirty years.
Community Voices
We like to pretend the free market is going to regulate real estate prices. But when you have an actor like Ingles sort of meddling in the normal flow of transactions, I think it has a lot of ripple effects that are sometimes hard to pinpoint but can be pretty far reaching.
Transylvania County official
The Waltons donate a ton of money to the Fayetteville/Bentonville corridor to improve the community. The Ingles family doesn't do anything for us except buy up properties to let them sit vacant and charge too much for groceries.
Asheville community member
Manufactured Food Vulnerability
When the only grocery store disappears
The most consequential harm from Ingles' monopoly strategy became visible on September 27, 2024, when Hurricane Helene struck Western North Carolina. In community after community, when the Ingles closed, there was simply nowhere else to go.
Swannanoa: A Community Without Food
Swannanoa, a town of approximately 5,500 people east of Asheville, had one grocery store: Ingles. When it flooded, the nearest grocery became 8–10 miles away — an insurmountable distance for many residents with damaged roads, destroyed vehicles, and no public transit.
Bounty & Soul, a Swannanoa nonprofit, saw a 280% increase in food distribution, serving approximately 34,000 people per month.
Residents on Bee Tree Road faced an 11-mile drive to the nearest grocery store.
Nine months after the storm, NPR reported people still lining up for free food at a church parking lot.
Prior to the storm, one in six adults and one in five children in western North Carolina was food insecure. And now it's worse.
Bounty & Soul deputy director
The hurricane didn't create the vulnerability. Ingles' land strategy did. When you're the only grocery store because you've bought up every competitor's property and deed-restricted it against grocery use, you've created a community with zero resilience.
The Timeline of Inaction
For a company with $5.3 billion in revenue and $83.6 million in net income, the inability to restore food access to a community of 5,500 people for two years is a choice, not a constraint.
Corporate Stonewalling
Refusing to answer to the communities it dominates
A consistent thread running through every pattern of harm is Ingles' refusal to communicate. This is not occasional media shyness. It is a systematic practice that leaves residents, local officials, and economic development professionals unable to plan for the future of their own towns.
Media silence. Ingles routinely ignores requests from the Asheville Watchdog, Carolina Public Press, NPR, and local outlets.
Investor opacity. In 2018, management stopped taking calls from Wall Street analysts. They don't hold earnings calls — virtually the only public company of their size to do this.
Community disregard. After Helene, it took months of pressure and a 1,000+ signature petition before Ingles even acknowledged its plans for Swannanoa.
Development obstruction. In Transylvania County, the Economic Alliance director would "love to work with Ingles" on vacant properties, but "Ingles has other plans." No one outside the company knows what they are.
We don't really go to market or talk about our strategies or talk about what we're trying to do. We just try to stay out of it all. We want to sell groceries.
Bobby Ingle II, Chairman and CEO
But the company's own actions contradict this claim. Ingles is not passively selling groceries. It is actively acquiring land, imposing deed restrictions, blocking competitors, and holding vacant properties — all while refusing to explain itself to the people who are affected.
A Company Accountable to No One
Ingles Markets was founded in 1963 as a single grocery store in Asheville. Robert P. Ingle built the business by cutting prices, extending hours, and serving communities that larger chains ignored. Sixty years later, the company's relationship with those communities has fundamentally changed. Ingles no longer grows by serving communities better than the competition. It maintains its position by ensuring there is no competition at all.
The evidence is drawn from publicly recorded deed restrictions, county property records, SEC filings, on-the-record statements from officials and food security experts, and independent analysis of 10,000+ data points from 400 county tax offices.
Potential Avenues for Accountability
Vacant property ordinances that impose escalating taxes or maintenance requirements on long-vacant commercial properties.
Antitrust scrutiny of deed restrictions that prevent grocery competition in markets with limited food access.
State food access legislation that creates obligations for dominant grocers in food desert communities.
Community organizing that brings public pressure to bear on a company that has historically avoided accountability.
Shareholder advocacy that pushes for greater transparency in Ingles' real estate practices and their community impact.
Ingles Markets is a profitable company. It could be a good corporate citizen. But as long as land control and profit maximization take precedence over the communities that made this family business possible, the harm will continue — one vacant lot, one deed restriction, one food desert at a time.
Sources
- Ingles Markets, Inc. Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Fiscal Years 2024 and 2025. SEC Filings.
- Ingles Markets Quarterly Earnings Press Releases, FY2025. BusinessWire.
- Andrew R. Jones, "Ingles Relies on Real Estate Holdings, But Sometimes Leaves Properties Vacant for Years." Asheville Watchdog, May 7, 2024.
- Andrew R. Jones, "Ingles, a Dynasty: Founding Family Still in Control." Asheville Watchdog, April 30, 2024.
- John Boyle, "Opinion: Ingles Markets Often Raises the Ire of Locals." Asheville Watchdog, October 20, 2025.
- Sally Kestin, "Which Asheville Grocery Store Has the Best Prices?" Asheville Watchdog, February 8, 2024.
- "Officials: Vacancy of Ingles' Properties Stymies Economic Development." Brevard News Beat, May 10, 2024.
- Carolina Public Press, "Ingles Reels From Storm Damage; Food Options in NC Mountains Limited." October 25, 2024.
- NPR / WUNC, "9 Months After Hurricane Helene, Food Scarcity Is Still Real in Western North Carolina." June 14, 2025.
- Karrigan Monk, "Swannanoa Residents 'Miserable' as Post-Helene Ingles Closure Spurs Food Insecurity." Black Mountain News, April 15, 2025.
- 828 News NOW, "Renovated Swannanoa Ingles Announced After Months of Closure." July 21, 2025.
- WLOS, "A 'Food Desert': 3 WNC Ingles Stores Still Closed Nearly 9 Months After Helene." June 24, 2025.
- Asheville Citizen Times, "Swannanoa Ingles Rebuilding Plans Released." September 30, 2025.
- Gwen Hofmeyr, Ingles Markets Independent Research Report, 2024. Analysis of 10,000+ data points from 400 county tax offices.
- FJ Research, "Ingles Markets: The Grocery Store Hiding a Real Estate Empire." May 20, 2025.
- Buncombe County, NC and Transylvania County, NC Property Records.
- U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Desert Analysis, 2019.