Murray's Cheese is expanding the retail footprint of its cave aged program into Charlotte for the first time, placing six exclusive small-batch SKUs inside five Murray's Cheese kiosks at Harris Teeter stores across the metro area. The rollout, timed to fall 2026, represents a deliberate channel move for the Murray's Cheese brand: using the specialty kiosk-in-store format — already deployed across 1,200-plus Kroger banner locations nationwide — to introduce high-margin, differentiated product to a market that has not previously had access to the cave aged line.
Five of the six SKUs in the Charlotte launch received recognition at the 2026 American Cheese Society Judging & Competition Awards, lending immediate credentialing to a set of products that will compete at premium price points against imported and domestic artisan cheeses already on Harris Teeter planograms. The lineup includes Murray's Cave Aged Reserve Cornelia (buttery cow's milk), Cave Aged Reserve Barnstorm Blue (raw milk washed-rind blue), Cave Aged Reserve Hudson Flower (herb-and-flower-coated), Cave Aged Mini Greensward (spruce-wrapped, cider-washed), Cave Aged Reserve Carpenter's Wheel (Alpine-style goat), and Cave Aged Original Stockinghall Cheddar — the last of which holds a Best Cheddar and Best American Cheese distinction from the World Cheese Awards.
The Affinage Advantage
The products are finished through Murray's affinage process at the brand's New York City cheese caves, where the team controls temperature, humidity, and ripening techniques to develop flavor, texture, and rind character on wheels sourced from partner creameries. Affinage-as-retail-differentiator is an increasingly relevant concept in the specialty cheese and deli category, where national brands are under pressure from both imported European cheeses and a growing domestic artisan tier. By proprietary-aging product that originates at third-party creameries, Murray's creates SKUs that are exclusive by definition — a structural barrier to direct competitive duplication on the shelf.
Nick Tranchina, President of Murray's Cheese, framed the launch around discovery and staff expertise: "Our cheese caves allow us to experiment with flavor and be endlessly curious about cheese, and we are thrilled to bring exclusive new offerings to cheese lovers at Harris Teeter." The kiosk model supports that positioning through daily cheesemonger staffing and guided sampling, a format that drives trial velocity on premium items that consumers would not typically pick up without assistance.
Charlotte Market Activation
Harris Teeter is supporting the launch with "Perfect Pairing" in-store tasting events across all five kiosk doors, giving the brand immediate trial opportunity and face time with the brand's affineur. The five Charlotte-area Harris Teeter locations — Morrocroft Village, Stonecrest, Rea Farms, Ballantyne Commons East, and Cureton Town Center — anchor a market entry that could inform a broader Southeast rollout under the Kroger banner if early scan data supports velocity targets.
For Harris Teeter, the activation plays into a broader deli and specialty food strategy of differentiating the in-store experience against club channel and mass competitors. Premium cheese is a high-turn, high-margin category driver in upscale conventional grocery, and an exclusive program with award-winning SKUs is a meaningful planogram story at a time when retailers are scrutinizing TDP allocation across the specialty case. Murray's integration into the Kroger ecosystem since 2017 also gives Harris Teeter buyers confidence in supply chain consistency and promotional support infrastructure that smaller artisan vendors cannot always guarantee.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
