Winn Dixie back on expansion/remodel campaign

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Re: Winn Dixie back on expansion/remodel campaign

Post by storewanderer »

Romr123 wrote: September 12th, 2021, 12:54 pm If there was a geography more appropriate for keeping relevant a marginal operator, Florida would be it...
There was more (better) competition in the markets where they were trying to run Bi Lo. Plus, Bi Lo was even more damaged than Winn Dixie. FL is a rather interesting situation. You have population growth, yet so many new entrants go in there and end up failing. And it has been going like that for decades now. Publix always comes out on top.

And I include Harris Teeter in that list. They had a few stores in FL 15 years ago, but are down to one store now which is very close to the GA line.

I'd like to see Kroger put a dozen Marketplace Stores in FL and run them well... I think they could do very high volumes if they tried. Then again high volumes do not equal high profits as Safeway in Florida learned (especially when you are sending out $10 off $50 coupons every week and using a distribution center 15 hours away). Not sure how the online thing is going to go.

FL needs all the competition it can get. Winn Dixie is serving a purpose.
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Re: Winn Dixie back on expansion/remodel campaign

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote: September 12th, 2021, 1:29 pm
Romr123 wrote: September 12th, 2021, 12:54 pm If there was a geography more appropriate for keeping relevant a marginal operator, Florida would be it...
There was more (better) competition in the markets where they were trying to run Bi Lo. Plus, Bi Lo was even more damaged than Winn Dixie. FL is a rather interesting situation. You have population growth, yet so many new entrants go in there and end up failing. And it has been going like that for decades now. Publix always comes out on top.

And I include Harris Teeter in that list. They had a few stores in FL 15 years ago, but are down to one store now which is very close to the GA line.

I'd like to see Kroger put a dozen Marketplace Stores in FL and run them well... I think they could do very high volumes if they tried. Then again high volumes do not equal high profits as Safeway in Florida learned (especially when you are sending out $10 off $50 coupons every week and using a distribution center 15 hours away). Not sure how the online thing is going to go.

FL needs all the competition it can get. Winn Dixie is serving a purpose.
Kroger Marketplace development started slowing to a trickle in the late 2010s, not like the early to mid-2010s when they were really taking off. I don't think Kroger will budge with physical stores in Florida unless the Ocado delivery venture is a massive and sustained success.
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Re: Winn Dixie back on expansion/remodel campaign

Post by Romr123 »

I was literally meaning geography---a 400 mile long peninsula is not amenable to casual distribution incursions (or putting in a few locations). We get it to an extent here in Michigan...there's a reason Kroger is only in 1/3 the state, for instance, and Jewel withdrew 30 years ago.
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Re: Winn Dixie back on expansion/remodel campaign

Post by veteran+ »

A complicated market with a complicated history and logistic issues and major cultural changes.

And more........................................

I lived it 8-)
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Re: Winn Dixie back on expansion/remodel campaign

Post by buckguy »

Winn Dixie failed in Nashville, a growing market without tons of competition and that was back in their glory days. The post-Olympic resurgence of Atlanta and the increasing density of inner neighborhoods and suburbs did nothing for WD’s intown Atlanta stores. Publix was the beneficiary. Walmart and Publix have been the big winners in the Southeast and particularly in Florida.
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Re: Winn Dixie back on expansion/remodel campaign

Post by storewanderer »

buckguy wrote: September 13th, 2021, 6:15 pm Winn Dixie failed in Nashville, a growing market without tons of competition and that was back in their glory days. The post-Olympic resurgence of Atlanta and the increasing density of inner neighborhoods and suburbs did nothing for WD’s intown Atlanta stores. Publix was the beneficiary. Walmart and Publix have been the big winners in the Southeast and particularly in Florida.
Anywhere where others are developing better/new stores, Winn Dixie has failed. But that is the issue in FL: only one party is developing new stores there: Publix. So you need them as a competitor in the market to balance out Wal Mart and Publix. We will see what kind of mass of stores Sprouts gets in FL; maybe they will get FL up to 100 stores. Still a long ways to Winn Dixie's 350 stores in FL.

Others were opening around Nashville when Winn Dixie exited over 15 years ago, they did not bring anything to the table, and they were not needed as a competitor as there were other competitors. Harris Teeter was expanding in there and I suspect others were as well. Kroger also ran a bit of a better operation in Nashville based on my observation. Far better than the Atlanta Division of Kroger. It is also my observation that Publix does not perform particularly well in Nashville.
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Re: Winn Dixie back on expansion/remodel campaign

Post by veteran+ »

I am surprised about Nashville and Publix!
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Re: Winn Dixie back on expansion/remodel campaign

Post by Knight »

buckguy wrote: September 13th, 2021, 6:15 pm Winn Dixie failed in Nashville, a growing market without tons of competition and that was back in their glory days. The post-Olympic resurgence of Atlanta and the increasing density of inner neighborhoods and suburbs did nothing for WD’s intown Atlanta stores. Publix was the beneficiary. Walmart and Publix have been the big winners in the Southeast and particularly in Florida.
I only know of one Winn-DIxie store in the Nashville area: Lebanon on West Main Street. A mile west of that store was another supermarket that failed in the Nashville area: BI-LO.
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Re: Winn Dixie back on expansion/remodel campaign

Post by buckguy »

W-D entered Nashville around 1970 from Louisville and left around 1987/88. They had at half a dozen or more locations when they exited. The pattern was a little odd---they had 2 stores in the Bordeaux area. They also had an awkwardly located one in the Melrose/not quite Green Hills area, so I have to wonder about their location strategy. A local independent, Stevens, took over some of them, others were empty even a few years later.

Bruno's was about to enter the market shortly after W-D left--I don't think that lasted long---the death of several execs in a plane crash begin a long downward spiral for them. If any Bruno's in middle Tennessee survived the 90s, Ahold would have combined them with Bi-Lo. They also consolidated Red Food, which had entered the Nashville market in the 90s, with Bi-Lo.
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Re: Winn Dixie back on expansion/remodel campaign

Post by Knight »

buckguy wrote: September 18th, 2021, 6:42 am W-D entered Nashville around 1970 from Louisville and left around 1987/88. They had at half a dozen or more locations when they exited. The pattern was a little odd---they had 2 stores in the Bordeaux area. They also had an awkwardly located one in the Melrose/not quite Green Hills area, so I have to wonder about their location strategy. A local independent, Stevens, took over some of them, others were empty even a few years later.

Bruno's was about to enter the market shortly after W-D left--I don't think that lasted long---the death of several execs in a plane crash begin a long downward spiral for them. If any Bruno's in middle Tennessee survived the 90s, Ahold would have combined them with Bi-Lo. They also consolidated Red Food, which had entered the Nashville market in the 90s, with Bi-Lo.
One of the locations in Bordeaux was on Clarksville Pike. That is operating as a Dollar General.

Another store in Nashville was on Dickerson Pike south of Interstate 65.

I wonder if Winn-DIxie could not compete with Kroger in Nashville through the 1980's. Winn-Dixie was present in Knoxville, Morristown, Newport, and Greeneville areas through its then-Greenville (South Carolina) Division; in Kingsport-Bristol l and Johnson City areas through the then-Charlotte (North Carolina) Division; and in the Chattanooga area through the then-Atlanta (Georgia) Division from the mid-1990's into 2005.
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