Summer News Updates

In my absence, a lot seems to have happened relating to Florida supermarkets. Since some of this is somewhat stale news now, I'll keep the commentary limited and provide everyone with some links to articles about some of the summer's biggest headlines in case you missed out on something. Also, a big thanks to those who sent in some of this news to me while I was away! Here we go:

Publix Opens Its First Stores in Virginia:

Photo courtesy of WTVR

Publix now has a presence in 7 Southeastern states as of July 15, 2017. The Nuckols Place Publix (which most of these articles reference) was built from scratch at the site of a planned Ukrops, and was not part of the 10 Martin's stores purchased last year (the first of those opened on July 30th). The store itself is the usual deluxe 54,000 square foot template, and is nearly identical to this inside. Check out these articles for more:

• http://www.richmond.com/business/local/first-area-publix-store-to-open-in-nuckols-place-shopping/article_fe5cc391-9266-57c2-add5-7301143d0237.html
• http://www.richmond.com/business/local/publix-managers-preparing-to-open-first-stores-in-area/article_4275bb48-be24-5095-bf11-17d21f69b392.html
• http://www.richmond.com/business/local/richmond-region-s-first-publix-grocery-store-opened-saturday-morning/article_59cdc85a-82aa-523d-a292-f01024e03ccc.html
• http://wtvr.com/2017/07/14/first-richmond-publix-nuckols-road-grand-opening/ (this also has a video tour of the new Nuckols Place store)

The Titusville Florida Choice Building Finds A New Life:

This one was a bit of a surprise. After sitting abandoned for nearly 20 years, the former Florida Choice/Gooding's building in Titusville will be repurposed into The Grove Church. This is a store that was covered on the blog back in January 2016 as a part of the "Tale of Two Krogers" series. That post can be seen here. The church is going to keep the old Florida Choice building and remodel it, even with extensive interior damage after 20 years of neglect and vandalism. The article linked at the end of this paragraph has a rendering of what the building will look like once the church moves in. The article also has a few interior photos and videos of the current state building so you can see what the place looked like inside, as I was unable to get much more than a photo of the floor during my visit to the place. Another interesting point is that the old Gooding's exterior sign was left inside the building, and the church would like to preserve the sign for display after the remodel in order to honor the building's history. I thought that was a nice touch. To read more about this building's new life, you can read the full article from the Florida Today here: http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/2017/06/28/massive-titusville-eyesore-undergo-2-m-renovation-convert-into-church/428772001/

McLeod's Out At SEG:

After two years as CEO, Ian McLeod has decided to part ways with Southeastern Grocers in order to pursue a new opportunity with an Asian grocery and retail company. McLeod claims that he has done a lot to turn around the struggling Southeastern Grocers, but that could probably be debated considering how the company isn't showing many definitive signs of improvement. So far, a new permanent CEO has yet to be announced. You can read more on this here: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/southeastern-grocers-announces-leadership-transition-300476120.html

Lucky's Announces a Central Florida Expansion:

Lucky's Florida expansion spree continues with their announcement of 8 new stores in Central Florida to open. Currently, Lucky's has two stores in Central Florida, located in East Orlando near UCF and in West Melbourne. These 8 stores are all expected to open by the end of 2018. Currently, only 4 of the 8 locations have been announced, and include:

• 7542 University Boulevard, Winter Park, FL (former Florida Choice/Gooding's/Winn-Dixie)
• 1700 E. Highway 50, Clermont, FL (Former Kash n' Karry/Sweetbay round prototype store - the address in most publications that shared this news is slightly off - 1700 E. Highway 50 is the correct address)
• 4161 Town Center Boulevard, Orlando, FL (Hunters Creek - former Winn-Dixie)
• Southeast Corner of South Orange Avenue and Pineloch St., Orlando, FL (Downtown/Southside - Will be part of a brand new mixed use development being built on the site of an old trailer park)

This is all part of Lucky's aggressive expansion plans in Florida. In addition to these Central Florida stores, Lucky's is also planning to open new stores in Oakland Park, Panama City, Sarasota, St. Petersburg, Port St. Lucie, and Bonita Springs, all of which were announced earlier this year. For more on Lucky's Central Florida expansion plans, this article explains them well: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/consumer/os-bz-luckys-market-new-stores-20170724-story.html

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I think that about covers all the news I wanted to share. If I forgot something, I'll put it in its own post. I'm going to try to see if I can get regular posting started again on August 13th, but I may have to postpone that a little depending on how fast I can get caught up on things. If any changes to that date arise, I will let everyone know beforehand.

So that's all I had to share for now. Until the next post,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger