Southeast Grocers Exploring Sale

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Re: Southeast Grocers Exploring Sale

Post by storewanderer »

The only reason Publix would want Winn Dixie is to keep a better competitor out of the market. It is questionable how many of those stores they'd even want to operate.

I guess we will see what happens. I try to approach Winn Dixie with an open mind every time I am in FL, but it just doesn't seem to work out. Lackluster perimeters, or something off putting (like that burning smell you describe; for me it is dirty looking cases in bakery/deli or sloppily prepared products). For instance one nice Winn Dixie I went to in Key Biscanye, I distinctly remember the impatient rude (but.. efficient and paying attention) self checkout clerk, in what was an otherwise nice store, where I bought some decent deli food for lunch, some produce, and overall was impressed with the place. I am pretty indifferent about Publix; sure, they run a clean store that is usually staffed adequately and has some good deli sandwiches and chicken, and aisles are neat and stocked; I think their produce is below average and overall I think they are quite over rated. They are fine, but nothing revolutionary going on. If I had a Publix in my area, it would not be even close to the top of my list for stores (given choices of Safeway, Smiths, Save Mart, Raleys, WinCo, Wal Mart, Sprouts, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Scolaris).

I think a lot of the same reasons Target is preferred by some customers over Wal Mart is the same reason why Publix is often the grocer of choice. Publix runs a more polished operation. But once you get past the polish the reality is there isn't anything special or great about Publix. And as Publix has expanded they go up against some sloppy Kroger divisions (like Atlanta- sloppy sloppy Kroger operation there and has been for years) and that clean neat Publix will capture a lot of customers just because it is bright, shiny, and orderly vs. a depressing, messy, cement floor dismal Kroger. Then they go up against Winn Dixie which just can't seem to help itself and of course they look better.
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Re: Southeast Grocers Exploring Sale

Post by cjd »

Winn Dixie is probably a chain that if Publix bought would divest 90% if it’s stores. Even the nicest ones are probably in markets that Publix still has a better store in.

It just seems to be a waste of money, unless as you say, Publix wants to keep out competition.

But then they’d need to find a buyer for them. Since most of them are still too big for an ethnic or small grocer to want to take over, most would probably sit empty I guess.

Somehow Winn Dixie has managed to outlive two chains (Sweetbay and Albertsons) that seemed to run a stronger store base and higher quality product.

There does seem to be a place for Winn Dixie in the market, people still shop there, and it seems traffic to their stores has increased lately. Especially the one to the north here that remodeled last year.

And people are getting a living working there. That’s far better than seeing them all sit shut and empty.
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Re: Southeast Grocers Exploring Sale

Post by pseudo3d »

Last month Winn-Dixie opened its first from-the-ground-up store in a decade, and intends to open a few more. Unfortunately, it's not very large, and for a grocery store, very ugly--warehouse ceilings, concrete floors, some pretty cheap décor.

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/photo-ga ... unty-store
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Re: Southeast Grocers Exploring Sale

Post by mbz321 »

pseudo3d wrote: January 9th, 2023, 9:52 am Last month Winn-Dixie opened its first from-the-ground-up store in a decade, and intends to open a few more. Unfortunately, it's not very large, and for a grocery store, very ugly--warehouse ceilings, concrete floors, some pretty cheap décor.

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/photo-ga ... unty-store
Seems to be par for the course these days with most mainstream grocery chains. At least Winn Dixie isn't trying to pretend to be something its not.
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Re: Southeast Grocers Exploring Sale

Post by storewanderer »

mbz321 wrote: January 9th, 2023, 6:26 pm
pseudo3d wrote: January 9th, 2023, 9:52 am Last month Winn-Dixie opened its first from-the-ground-up store in a decade, and intends to open a few more. Unfortunately, it's not very large, and for a grocery store, very ugly--warehouse ceilings, concrete floors, some pretty cheap décor.

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/photo-ga ... unty-store
Seems to be par for the course these days with most mainstream grocery chains. At least Winn Dixie isn't trying to pretend to be something its not.
I don't think it looks too awful. I've seen nicer prototypes out of Winn Dixie over the years but they've never been able to properly maintain said nicer prototypes. This prototype looks realistic and like something they may actually be able to maintain. Department sizes look like they will be able to manage them, keep them full, and rotate products even without very high sales volume. This is sort of what I'd envision a new Food Lion looking like, but it appears to have more SKUs/variety. It also doesn't look remarkably worse to me than new build Safeway or Kroger units as of late. Decor is perhaps cheaper looking.

My biggest complaint here: It needs windows on the front of the building. Also a covered walkway across the exterior sidewalk of the store would maybe be nice.
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Re: Southeast Grocers Exploring Sale

Post by veteran+ »

Awful design and sterile.

Looks like the insides of a Staples store.
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Re: Southeast Grocers Exploring Sale

Post by buckguy »

Looks like they ran out of "decor' when they got to the front end. You don't expect much there, but the effort seems feeble, nonetheless. The whole thing looks pretty weak.
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Re: Southeast Grocers Exploring Sale

Post by pseudo3d »

mbz321 wrote: January 9th, 2023, 6:26 pm At least Winn Dixie isn't trying to pretend to be something its not.
Winn-Dixie ran on lower prices, but they had pretty standard stores. Nothing too fancy as far as service went, but not deep-discount warehouse stores. Winn-Dixie had a bunch of problems but the core of their problem was getting crunched between Walmart downstream, Publix upstream, and Albertsons and Kroger were doing better at the "hey, it's a supermarket!" market (and kept their stores up to date). If they kept anything close to being par with Albertsons and Kroger (and they were up against one or both in most if not all of their markets) they wouldn't have gotten backed into a corner like they did.
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Re: Southeast Grocers Exploring Sale

Post by buckguy »

pseudo3d wrote: January 10th, 2023, 6:53 pm
mbz321 wrote: January 9th, 2023, 6:26 pm At least Winn Dixie isn't trying to pretend to be something its not.
Winn-Dixie ran on lower prices, but they had pretty standard stores. Nothing too fancy as far as service went, but not deep-discount warehouse stores. Winn-Dixie had a bunch of problems but the core of their problem was getting crunched between Walmart downstream, Publix upstream, and Albertsons and Kroger were doing better at the "hey, it's a supermarket!" market (and kept their stores up to date). If they kept anything close to being par with Albertsons and Kroger (and they were up against one or both in most if not all of their markets) they wouldn't have gotten backed into a corner like they did.
I remember being floored by my first visit to a Winn-Dixie. It was on a roadtrip with an overnight in Mississippi. The store was a converted Kroger greenhouse that they didn't seem able to fill with merchandise. No real attempt at remodeling although they had moved some perimeter cases around or taken them out. The dumpiest store I'd seen in memory. with questionable perishables. When they converted the Atlanta stores to Save-Rite, they did the same sorts of things to old Marketplace stores (which weren't that great to begin with). They were finished once Walmart got into groceries and it's a testimony to what you can do with cashflow using bankruptcy to get out of encumbrances that they still exist.
Last edited by buckguy on January 28th, 2023, 6:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Southeast Grocers Exploring Sale

Post by cjd »

storewanderer wrote: January 9th, 2023, 11:39 pm
I don't think it looks too awful. I've seen nicer prototypes out of Winn Dixie over the years but they've never been able to properly maintain said nicer prototypes. This prototype looks realistic and like something they may actually be able to maintain. Department sizes look like they will be able to manage them, keep them full, and rotate products even without very high sales volume. This is sort of what I'd envision a new Food Lion looking like, but it appears to have more SKUs/variety. It also doesn't look remarkably worse to me than new build Safeway or Kroger units as of late. Decor is perhaps cheaper looking.

My biggest complaint here: It needs windows on the front of the building. Also a covered walkway across the exterior sidewalk of the store would maybe be nice.
I think it looks pretty good, this is the standard decor that Winn Dixie has been using in its stores over the past 5 years or so. I think the white, gray and red scheme looks clean, and will probably not look dated over time.

I do agree it could use some windows at the front, that’s the major thing I noticed, it needs some natural light coming in.

Some of their stores like the Transformational ones are more eye catching and have a better wow factor but I also thought they were too extravagant to be practical. It didn’t make sense to me for WD to have a few of those while the rest of their stores were terribly outdated.

I remember their CEO at the time stating that having a transformational store in the area would also help boost their image and sales at their older stores which just didn’t make sense to me.

So knowing that WD had a high end store would make people feel better shooing at their outdated stores??
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