Albertsons #4368 / Winn-Dixie #2328 / Aldi #238
961 E. Eau Gallie Boulevard, Melbourne (Indian Harbour Beach), FL - Ocean Springs Shopping Center
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| Today's post is a presentation of Brevard County retail |
Being the talk of the Southeastern supermarket blogosphere, you know it was only a matter of time before I brought to the blog full coverage of the conversion of a Winn-Dixie store into an Aldi (especially after profiling so many Winn-Dixie stores that have succumbed, or will succumb, to this very fate recently on the blog). However, there are a lot of Winn-Dixie stores on the conversion list, and I am only one person with a limited amount of time to dedicate to the matter, so I've been carefully picking and choosing my battles when it comes to these conversions. While I have visited and/or revisited a number of the stores Aldi is taking for themselves, I had to tell myself to limit the really extensive closing/conversion coverage to special cases as to not pile more onto my already large pile of blog backlog. As such, this was the only Winn-Dixie I've kept close tabs on all the way through the conversion process, from the closing of the Winn-Dixie to the opening of the new Aldi. Having begun its life as an Albertsons, and one of only 3 Winn-Dixiesons to have ever existed, I had to give this store a proper farewell and sendoff into its new life. Thankfully for my sanity (as far as coverage goes), the other two Winn-Dixiesons - #4324 in Holiday and #4467 in Hialeah - will press on as-is, as the Holiday store was sold back to C&S and the Hialeah location was converted into a Fresco y Mas in 2017 (that branch of the old SEG spun off into its own entity as part of the original sale of SEG to Aldi). Sadly, Aldi really liked the location of the Indian Harbour Beach Winn-Dixiesons, and this store received the sad news of its fate in September 2024. Our coverage of this store will begin shortly after that in October 2024, and continue through the new Aldi's grand opening in July 2025. There's a lot to see here, so let's start off this post at the beginning of the end, with a little coverage of its "Phase 1" liquidation:
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Part 1 - "Phase 1" - The Beginning of the End:
Before we get into the thick of things, first let me explain what I mean by the terms "Phase 1" and "Phase 2" (I may have explained this before, but I'll do it again here for completeness). When the first of the Winn-Dixie stores began to start their closures to be transformed into new Aldi stores, an employee at one of the closing stores explained the process to me as a two-part approach. She said the closings really began about 90 days out, when the stores would begin receiving smaller trucks, merchandise would slowly dwindle, and slower-moving items like non-foods and greeting cards would begin a markdown process. That initial process, which lasts for about 60 days, is what I began to call "Phase 1". About 30 days out from the expected final closure date, the stores transition into "Phase 2", which is your traditional store closing experience with store-wide markdowns, the service departments shutting down, and the merchandise beginning to consolidate and empty out completely. We've toured this store extensively in the past, so my coverage this time around was a bit more selective, primarily focusing on the changes Phase 1 brought along to the store overall. Above is a quick exterior photo of the store before we transition inside to see the changes happening in there:
One of the first tell-tale signs of Phase 1 is the emptiness that begins to form in areas of the store where displays of extra product would be housed. Being a rather large Winn-Dixie considering its origins as a 1980's Superstore-era Albertsons, aisles 2 and 3 were a double wide aisle holding drinks toward the back and seasonal merchandise toward the front. The view above looks toward the seasonal part of the aisle. After all the summer merchandise sold down, this store did not receive any new Halloween merchandise, which would have been placed on those empty shelves near the front of the aisle. Pallet drops of assorted merchandise (like soda, water and paper products) used to be stored in the middle of this aisle, but with deliveries of new product being slashed, those all disappeared as that product was being used to fill the thinning shelves.
Moving over to the grand aisle, as we look toward the produce department, a large empty area appears where displays of produce specials would have been.
The large empty areas just gave this store a strange feeling. Even though some areas like the bakery and deli were running normally at this time, you could tell something was off in here.
Moving along to the frozen foods aisles, this was the emptiest part of the store throughout Phase 1 of the liquidation. While most Winn-Dixies entering this phase will see some thinning out of the frozen food department during this time, the selection of frozen/refrigerated goods in this store was especially sad throughout Phase 1, mostly due to events not related to Aldi's meddling:
Right as this store was beginning its Phase 1 liquidation, Hurricane Milton made landfall on Florida's West Coast at Siesta Key, next to Sarasota. Over the course of October 9, 2024, Milton crossed the Florida peninsula heading on a northeast trajectory, exiting over the Atlantic near the Kennedy Space Center. While Milton was a much weaker storm by the time in came through Brevard County, it was still strong enough to cause a number of power outages in the area, including knocking out power to most of the county's barrier islands, upon which this store was located. Winn-Dixie lost power during the storm, and since this store appeared to not have a backup generator in place, lost all of its refrigerated goods too. Being this store just entered Phase 1 when its coolers went down, it never got back a large selection of frozen foods, and all the way to the end only had spotty amounts of frozen and dairy for sale since the refrigerated goods were only being replenished at 30-40%.
The rows of empty freezers with the lights turned off looks like a scene from the later days of Phase 2, but this photo was taken at the beginning of Phase 1!
The packaged meats had replenished to a decent capacity as you can see in the distance, with a little bit of lunch meat filling the coolers opposite the dark and empty ones we just saw up close.
Over in dairy the center display coolers were empty, with all the excess product being used to fill the main dairy cooler to my left with multiple facings to make that seem fuller than it really was.
Being so close to the end, I'm surprised all the refrigerated goods were restocked in any capacity, especially after taking such a big financial hit from losing all that product in the storm just to have all of that liquidated out in just over a month. Additionally, another hallmark of phase 1 can be seen in the above photo too - empty endcaps - especially rear-facing ones getting cleared out as the product selection dwindled.
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Part 2 - "Phase 2" - The Closing:
November 5, 2024 was the last day of (semi-)normal operations at this store, as November 6th would mark the start of Phase 2 - the closure sale. The weekend before phase 2 began, the cashiers were handing out these fliers to shoppers thanking us for our loyalty, and pushing the fact that in a few months a new Aldi would be appearing in this spot. I found these fliers interesting as it was one of the few times during Aldi's ownership of Winn-Dixie where you saw the marketing designs from both companies mashed together on the same page, and the acknowledgment of the two chain's relationship to each other. Even though Aldi and Winn-Dixie have officially parted ways ownership-wise, similar marketing materials are still used today at closing stores, not just on fliers, but also on other store closing materials like cash register screensavers announcing the transition and other banners and posters placed throughout the store as the closing sale picks up.
From afar things don't seem too different here yet, looking out at the Winn-Dixie building from the sidewalk of the neighboring Walmart store.
Besides the stucco "point" over the entryway and the consolidated entrance in the middle of the building, the exterior isn't all too much different compared to when Albertsons was here. Even after Aldi's hacking apart of the building, that Albertsons-esque facade still exists today too, and we'll see more of the current look toward the end of the post for comparison.
As we near the entrance, the universal sign of doom for a store appears in the distance: the store closing banner.
While I was specifically trying to capture the closing banner in this shot, I also managed to get a really nice reflection of Winn-Dixie's facade in the puddle. If only I had angled my phone up a little more to get both the full facade and the refection at the same time, that would have been a great photo! Oh well, I guess this is what happens when don't review my photos until after I get home. Anyway, as we can see on the banner, the mashup of Aldi and Winn-Dixie appears again, although Aldi's only contribution to the banner is a picture of one of their stores, implying the fate of this building next to the "This store is closing soon" message.
Looking from the cart corral toward the grand aisle, things don't seem too off, that is, until you notice all the % off signs poking out from all the display tables.
For all the markdowns, Winn-Dixie was using these "Clearance XX% off" signs, all of which appeared to be made in store, as they used Winn-Dixie's typical signage font. Other than some more of those closing fliers randomly taped to shelves and displays around the store, there wasn't much actual closing signage inside, so no tacky Kmart-esque scenes like this in here.
Our first walkaround of the store closing occurred roughly a week into the sale, so the store, while clearing out in places (like the wine department, where I was standing to take the above photo) was still decently stocked. At 35% off only a week in, the alcohol was certainly moving quick, however the deals elsewhere in the store were pretty lackluster, and honestly, the regular sale prices at the non-closing stores were a better bargain than most of the liquidation deals this early on.
The emptiest part of the store this early on was the very back, where all of the meat and dairy coolers were devoid of product and turned off, the seafood service counter closed too. Having had a very thin selection of chilled goods due to the power failure in October, it's no surprise those products were pretty much cleared out by this point. Interestingly, the store's deli and bakery were both still operational this far into the closing, mostly trying to get rid of whatever they had left. I'm sure it wasn't long after this visit when both of those departments were shut down for good.
Moving over into the dry grocery aisles, still a good amount of product here, with the thinning of the product not too much different from the late Phase 1 days when some small amounts of consolidation like this would occur.
Like I've said time and time again, it's not a true store closing until some product ends up thrown on the floor!
Aldi certainly put Winn-Dixie in quite the pickle, and you could have stocked up on those pickles at 15% off too.
While this Winn-Dixie was usually a pretty busy store considering its location in a busy shopping center across the street from the beach, it was very dead during the times I visited during its Phase 2 closure, and the same held true for my visits to other stores as they entered Phase 2 as well. Of the people I saw in here, many were leaving empty handed too, probably realizing the bargains weren't that great yet either. Between the lack of shoppers and the empty shelves, this once higher-tier Winn-Dixie was reduced to a sad sight.
The frozen food aisles were totally empty during my first closing visit, although the aisle had yet to be blocked off to shoppers.
Reaching the cereal aisle on the left side of the store, we enter the half of the building that would eventually became part of the new Aldi.
The tiny bit of dairy we see in the coolers to my right was all of the refrigerated goods left in this store, not counting any of the items from the service deli.
Being across the street from the beach, this store was given a dedicated "Sand & Surf" department, which was traditionally stocked with beach chairs, toys, souvenir shirts, sunscreen, and the like. The selection of beach merchandise was surprisingly well picked through just a week into the closing, with only some coolers, boogie boards, and a few cases of pool noodles rounding out the selection here. Being a rare Winn Win-era sign considering how few Winn Win stores there are so close to the beach, I had to get a final parting shot of it.
Back at the front end, that wraps up the interior portion of our first Phase 2 visit. Before we go to the next part, we'll take in an interesting sight that awaited me outside on this day:
Being that I made my first Phase 2 visit over Veteran's Day weekend, Texas Roadhouse next door was having a veteran's tribute going on that weekend too, which included the Indian Harbour Beach ladder truck outfitted with Old Glory herself at the top of the ladder for all to see.
The American flag display almost seemed like a final salute to the closing Winn-Dixie as it was about to transition into its new German ways, and made for a few interesting photo ops of the store too.
With the flag marking Winn-Dixie's last stand in Indian Harbour Beach, we'll skip ahead another week for our final Phase 2 tour of this store, where we'll see what's changed in that span of time:
Jumping right back in, we return to the store's grand aisle, where the service departments had been fully closed off by this time, all the deli cases empty and the lights behind the counter turned off. There were still a few thaw-and-serve bakery cakes for sale though, which one of the managers was setting out a display of by the front door as I was walking around.
In addition to those cakes, some pre-packaged rolls were also still out for sale, now discounted to 20% off compared to the 10% off from the last walk through. What was left of the alcohol was also consolidated to the front endcaps of that former department, although outside of the non-alcoholic mixer stuff, was mostly gone by this time, having a very generous 50% discount by this time in the sale. I remember when I was covering Kmart closings that beer/wine was one of the slowest moving categories during those closures, with discounts non-existent there, so it was interesting how Winn-Dixie took the opposite approach to get that stuff moving along the fastest!
Turning the corner to the back wall, it was still mostly empty back here, but now it appears some horseradish sauce and other seafood condiments found a home set atop that coffin cooler straight ahead.
Center grocery still had a decent amount of stuff for sale with two weeks left in the closing, as seen here in the soda aisle.
While there was still plenty of soda for sale, most grocery aisles looked like this, with the back halves mostly empty as product began to be consolidated toward the front halves. Even though we won't get to see it photographically, the way these recent Winn-Dixie closing work is all merchandise slowly consolidates to the front half of the aisle, and as the end nears, the aisles get closed off as they begin to dwindle and what' left to sell gets consolidated to display bins near the front doors as the store enters its final few days. By the last day or two the only parts of the store still open is the area in the very front right around the check lanes, with the rest of the salesfloor blocked off by assorted fixtures.
The discount on dry grocery was only 25% off at the halfway point in the closing sale. While the deals still weren't phenomenal (outside of alcohol, at least), stuff was starting to move, as you can see with all the empty space.
Even with the 25% discount, laundry detergent was still pretty well stocked, as I'm sure with the various BOGO deals stacked with the chronic coupons Tide, Gain, and the like always send out to the various coupon apps, this wasn't enough of a bargain to attract the extreme couponers out stock up just yet.
Even though it's called "Health & Beauty", the sight of a mostly empty department isn't very pretty!
From the left side of the store back toward the grand aisle, here's another perspective on all the emptiness back here.
I would say that Aldi buying Winn-Dixie was a bunch of bologna, but there's none left to buy back here in the old Lunch Meats department!
A tiny bit of dairy still remained this far into the closing sale, seen up ahead toward the right.
Here's one last look at the store's front end as we take in the interior one last time and make our final purchases.
With that, our next time inside this building won't come for a few more months, until Aldi officially opens in the left half of the old Winn-Dixie space.
My intention was to have one final walkthrough of this store before it closed for good, with a quick look at this store on its final day, December 1, 2024. However, when I arrived here on the afternoon of the 1st:
The store was locked up tight. It appears the store closed for good the day prior (November 30th) or was only open for a short time on the morning of the 1st before management made the call to end the run of Winn-Dixie #2328. Even though the store was closed, there was still one display of merchandise inside for sale, which I spotted through the window. I guess that was eventually written-off and tossed instead of having the employees wait around trying to find a buyer for the rest of that stuff, so my last-day excursion only yielded the photo above. A few other curious onlookers were staring inside the now-closed store too, a lot of people saddened to see Winn-Dixie was not open anymore. However, with a conversion shortly on the horizon, that means a fixture sale would happen soon. Let's jump ahead another week to see what that was all about:
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Part 3 - The Cleanout:
The intended closure date of Winn-Dixie #2328 was December 1, 2024. The very next day, December 2, 2024, was the fixture sale preview followed by the start of the auction, which was livestreamed online. With such a fast turnaround, all of the fixtures were already cataloged and prepped for sale before the store even closed, an odd sight if you ever walk around one of these stores in its final days. Anyway, due to some scheduling issues, I was not able to attend the fixture auction preview window. As a compromise (and to save myself from having to write about an additional 50 photos in what ended up being an already long post as it is), I popped by this store the week after the auction to see what was going on.
Per the auction listing, it said the fixture pickup window was only going to last 3 days after the auction ended, which would have been the following Thursday. Expecting to come by and just get a photo or two through the window of the empty store, it appears the pick-up window was extended, as there were still people going in and out picking up their purchases, and the front door was propped open too.
While walking right through this door was tempting, that probably would have led to some suspicion and questioning from the guy running the fixture pickup (who was sitting at a table just out of frame to my left). To avoid that awkward situation, I compromised and took two photos through the open door for an overview of what the dismantled store looked like. Even though the pick-up window was probably near the end, there was still a bit of stuff left in here, as we can see looking toward the former grand aisle.
Turning the other way, we see a few dismantled check lanes and some random fixtures piled up, as well as a forklift someone was using to remove some of the bulkier items via pallet.
While there were people inside the store picking up items, someone was preoccupied picking up his purchase from the roof with a crane! Our final fixture sale photo showcases that scene, as the store got ripped apart bit by bit until Aldi's people were sent in to finish the job.
Jumping ahead yet another week, the fixtures were all gone, the store was emptied, and once Christmas had passed work on the conversion would commence.
Papered windows, 'Store Closed' notices - all things I was never expecting to see at this once bustling Winn-Dixie store.
While some of the closure signage was homemade by the store, there were some official signs sent out by corporate to announce the closure too, such as the one above. Interestingly, there was nothing directing shoppers to their next closest Winn-Dixie store (which would be the West Melbourne Lucky-Dixie on the mainland), but plenty of advertisement touting Aldi.
Looking through the piece of paper on the center door that had peeled off, we get ourselves a quick peek at the empty interior. Nothing more than shelving scars and blank signs to remember this store by.
One interesting thing about these Winn-Dixie cleanouts (in particular with the Winn Win decor stores) is that while I've never seen the signage itself come up as an item for sale, all of the department sign wording disappears. I don't know if Winn-Dixie is removing that personally so no one else gets it or if people picking up other items are taking it for themselves, but it's a pattern I've been noticing at least.
In a few months, what we see above will be turned into a new Aldi. To see how all that came to be, we'll skip ahead to Part 4 of this post, the conversion:
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Part 4 - The Conversion:
Not long after Christmas and the New Year's holidays had passed, a green construction fence went up around the old Indian Harbour Beach Winn-Dixie, signaling that change was in the air.
These early January photos showed not much had changed on the exterior just yet (it appeared it was mostly interior demolition work happening at this time), but if we skip forward another month to February 2025...
…change was much more apparent now that we can physically see things getting ripped apart!
Other than on the liquor store (which would remain open throughout the whole process, as well as into the Aldi days), all of Winn-Dixie's signage had been removed, and the little point on the top of the building installed to house the Marketplace-era diamond logo was ripped off. With the point gone, the facade of this building was back to looking like it did in the Albertsons days.
Getting closer to the building, we can see Winn-Dixie's old doors had been ripped out (for the most part - the entrance doors were left behind, and there was a reason for that we'll see later in the conversion process) and some additional holes were carved out for Aldi's new windows and a door for store pickup employees to use.
Aldi would eventually convert Winn-Dixie's original entryway into their main entryway, carving out yet another hole to install a door to access the right half of the building, which has yet to find a new tenant as of the original publication of this post.
The now-orphaned liquor store can be seen on the right edge of the photo, and even without its parent store next door anymore, still seemed to maintain a decent foot traffic over the span of the conversion (although I'm sure being the closest liquor store to the beach access across the street helps too).
From this angle, we can clearly see the Winn-Dixie labelscar on the front of the building, and we'll see more of this labelscar during the conversion process too.
Skipping ahead now to mid-February 2025, not much has changed since my last checkup, as visually, the exterior still looks the same.
Looking through the new wall cut-outs in the front of the building, it appears there was a giant hole carved out of the roof, as I see a tiny bit of sunlight shining through into the interior. Even with the building mostly gutted (at least on the left side where the new Aldi would be going), if you look closely through the holes in the walls, you can still see a tiny bit of the Winn Win red wall paint on the back wall.
Getting closer to the front of the building, if you zoom in on the above photo, you can see where the light was shining through the hole in the ceiling
Aldi's subdivision of this building almost perfectly divides this building in half, as you can see the partition wall going up in the middle of Winn-Dixie's former entryway. As we saw before, that single set of Winn-Dixie's original doors survived while everything else around them was ripped out and discarded.
Finding ourselves in early March 2025 now, again, not much more to report back on, at least from my vantage points in the parking lot.
All of the openings in to the building were covered over with plastic now, so no sneak peeks of the interior yet (not that the green tarp-covered construction fencing surrounding the building was helping with getting sneak peaks of the interior either). March was a pretty slow month for progress at the Indian Harbour Beach Winn-Dixie conversion, as most of the work at this time appeared to involve the build-out of the new Aldi's interior, which wasn't visible from the outside.
By mid-March an "Aldi Coming Soon" banner appeared on the construction fencing surrounding the store, this banner facing Eau Gallie Blvd. and the primary parking area for the next-door Texas Roadhouse, which is quite the hopping place from what I've seen.
Other than the banner, again, there wasn't much else to report on, so into April we go:
By early April, the plastic sheets covering the new wall cut-outs were removed, letting us peek into the building's interior once again (albeit from afar).
It's not much, but through the two openings on the left we see where Aldi's interior cart corral was being framed out, with cutouts for two interior windows on the other side of the cart corral visible too. The cut-out to the right, where Winn-Dixie's exit doors used to be, was being framed out for Aldi's new entrance doors and a vestibule, with the partition wall between Aldi and the future tenant of the right half of the building now completed.
Lastly for April, Aldi's sign had now appeared on the road sign facing Eau Gallie Blvd., replacing the old Winn-Dixie logo that had remained for all those months post-closure. The larger blank panel on the upper left will probably be for the future tenant of the right half of the old Winn-Dixie, with the smaller panel on the bottom most likely being the future space to the Winn-Dixie Liquors logo, which got knocked down to that after previously having the entire left half of the panel all for itself.
Much like March, April was another pretty slow month for updates here, so my pictures jump ahead to the beginning of May, when we'll start to see some serious exterior progress being made:
Aldi is in the building! Well, almost, that is. By the time May rolled around Aldi had installed its new facade and signage to the building, with that panel being the only major change to the exterior architecturally.
The Winn-Dixie labelscar poking out from behind Aldi's new signage made for quite the interesting sight too, as well as all the Winn-Dixie red that had yet to be painted over.
Getting closer to the Aldi side of the building, we can see above the fencing that the new doors and windows have all been installed, with a new paint job being the last major item on the list as far as exterior work goes.
With the signage up, the "Coming Soon" sign makes an even bolder statement looking out into the Texas Roadhouse parking lot. However, Texas Roadhouse isn't the only business left on this side of the Winn-Dixie building...
…Winn-Dixie's poor orphaned liquor store remains between the empty half of the Winn-Dixie and Texas Roadhouse, with no shortage of signs and banners out announcing that it was still open even after its parent store was murdered in cold blood taken over by Aldi. In addition to the banners out front, there were banners lining Eau Gallie Boulevard also announcing that the liquor store was still open - I guess anything to get the word out to folks in town that Winn-Dixie was still here as a destination for all things booze!
Looking back toward the former main Winn-Dixie store, here's one last look at the funky juxtaposition of new Aldi signage with a Winn-Dixie labelscar. However, moving along two more weeks to mid-May...
…that labelscar and the unnaturally red Aldi were but a memory, as everything was repainted a more Aldi-friendly beige.
While the new paint scheme blends the new Aldi in better with the rest of the shopping center (which is also brown and beige), the facade now seems a bit unbalanced with Aldi's left-aligned signage on a mostly-original-to-Albertsons exterior design. Since a tenant for the right side is still unknown, what that side of the building could eventually look like is still up in the air, but I hope I don't get a repeat of the mess that was made out of the similarly-designed former Albertsons #4362 here! (And I can't say the situation at #4362 has gotten any better in the nearly 10 years since the photos in that post were taken either, but the landlord actually did find someone to rent out the odd sliver left in the middle of that place, which is something I suppose).
Along with the remainder of the former Winn-Dixie supermarket space, the liquor store was also included in the repaint. However, its red background changed to beige, the liquor store's white signage blends in with the rest of the building now, making it hard to see from a distance being white-on-beige.
While Aldi was busy on this side of the shopping center with one remodel, at the other end of the plaza, Aldi's future co-anchor Walmart was also planning to do a little work themselves:
The Indian Harbour Beach Walmart (which we toured during both its Project Impact and Black Decor 2.0 days, all of which can be seen in this MFR post) also began a remodel in April 2025, all part of Walmart's latest effort to remodel 650 stores across America in 2025 to its "Store of the Future" design. While Walmart did recently unveil a new prototype with a new decor package (that I happen to really like) at a store in Elm Springs, Arkansas, sadly, the Indian Harbour Beach Walmart is just getting the regular ol' Airport decor of the last few years, but with some of the fancier product display elements rolled out lately (which makes Walmart feel more like a Target, photos of which can be seen in the hyperlinked "Store of the Future" article). However, going the opposite direction, I've also been noticing that Target is becoming more like Walmart lately with how the stores are run, but that role reversal will be a discussion for a different post!
Anyway, when I heard this old non-Supercenter Walmart was selected for a big remodel, and with Winn-Dixie out of the way, I thought Walmart might have finally sprung for the chance to shove a Supercenter into this building somehow (as Walmart has made that happen before in some smaller spaces, like with this similarly-sized ex-Kmart in Tarpon Springs), but no, the classic Walmart will remain as-is, just spiffed up with new decor.
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| Photo courtesy of WKMG News 6 |
As if two remodels happening at the same time wasn't enough excitement for one shopping center, over Memorial Day weekend 2025, quite the crazy event unfolded at the Aldi site. Around 10:40am on May 25, 2025, a man walked into the Aldi construction site and set the interior on fire. A construction worker tried to intervene but was attacked by the arsonist, who fled the scene on foot. Around the time of the arson, a Texas Roadhouse employee who went on the roof of the restaurant to check on an air conditioning unit was also attacked by an unknown individual, with officers wondering if there was a connection between the two incidents. While there was a search of the area following the incident, I've yet to find any reports on a suspect being caught or a motive for the arson (a disgruntled former Winn-Dixie employee seeking revenge on Aldi, perhaps?). While the suspect remains at large, the fire that was set did cause $100,000 in damage to the soon-to-open Aldi, and set back the store's grand opening from the originally planned mid-June timeframe to mid-July.
I didn't get back to this shopping center until a week after the fire, and by that point, nothing seemed too out of place, at least from my usual perspectives from the parking lot (as most of the damage seemed to be inside the building, which I couldn't see due to the fence).
Some additional construction equipment was out in the parking lot, as well as that white van which was almost always here throughout the construction process (and I think was a spare vehicle left here by the construction company, unless there was one really dedicated construction worker always doing long hours in this place!).
I picked a rather gloomy day for photos this time, as shortly after I pulled out of the parking lot it began to pour here.
One plus about the dark and gloomy skies, at least, is that we can see the lights inside the new Aldi are on. While the damage from the fire knocked Aldi back by a month, at least the damage wasn't so severe to have caused structural damage to the property.
Considering that the arsonist was still (and may still) be on the loose, I was somewhat leery from here on out getting too close to this building for photos, as there was increased police presence throughout the plaza in the days after the fire. Additionally, a new security camera was installed on the light post right in front of Aldi's front doors, which you can see in the above photo. While that camera was installed before the fire, I wasn't sure who was keeping tabs on it and who might be alerted if someone was spotted poking around the fence taking pictures shortly after such an incident occurred, so I decided to keep my distance and stay in the car this time around.
Getting around to mid-June, construction is coming to a close as the fencing surrounding the store's entrance has been removed, giving us a clear view of the building for the first time since Winn-Dixie closed. However, while increased security kept me as bay during the previous photoset, something else held me back from getting any closer this time...
…and that was the fresh coat of sticky tack that had just been splayed down over the parking lot on Aldi's half of the building, causing it to be roped off.
As such, all of my photos from this visit were taken from the right side of the building, where I wouldn't get sticky black stuff all over my feet. With an empty parking lot, I was able to capture a better photo looking toward the liquor store this time around. Other than the white sign blending into the facade, the new paint scheme doesn't look too bad, and is probably much closer to how Albertsons would have had this building painted too.
From mid-June, we jump ahead one last time to the end of that month, where we'll take one final look at this store in pre-opening form:
With a freshly painted parking lot out front, this store was looking good to go by the end of June! With only two more weeks until the grand opening, I'm sure most of the focus on this point was building the fixtures and stocking the shelves as the new employees adjusted to working in the new store.
This visit would also mark the first time I had ventured up to the building since the construction fencing was removed, so let's see what I can do about a sneak peek:
Unfortunately, as far as a sneak peek was concerned, we're not getting a very good one. With all of the exterior windows looking into the vestibule, which had more windows behind them, all I got was a bunch of glare. Working with what I got here, the carts are stored just to the left, with another door next to the cartwell for exiting patrons. In front of me is the inner entrance door leading into produce, with a tiny glimpse of Aldi's new decor visible on the wall through all the glare. (Yes, Aldi has a new decor package that's been rolling out, which all the recently converted Winn-Dixies have been getting, but more on that when we actually get to see the interior in more detail after the store opens).
As for the empty right side of the building, here's a look through the doors to see what's left in there. The glass on the doors (which were Winn-Dixie's original entrance doors, sloppily reinstalled in this new cutout a few feet over from where they were originally) was extremely dirty, but through the dirt we can see this side of the building was left mostly untouched, with the original ceiling and layout left behind frozen in time. The construction crews also appeared to be storing equipment in here too, as you don't want those big machines messing up Aldi's new floor on the other side of the wall.
One final exterior photo from late June concludes the conversion portion of this post. Up next, the part I've been building up to - let's check out the new Aldi:
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Part 5 - A New Life:
The new Indian Harbour Beach Aldi held a soft opening on July 9, 2025, with its official ribbon cutting and grand opening ceremony occurring the next morning on July 10th. While I was not able to attend the festivities of the first few days in business, I did visit this store in the days after it officially opened to see what it was all about, with plenty of these banners lining East Eau Gallie Blvd. to let everybody know the new Aldi was open.
Apparently, the people of Indian Harbour Beach were eager to see this new Aldi open too, as this place was mobbed the weekend after it opened! Even with Aldi only occupying half the space of the Winn-Dixie, the entire parking lot was full - more full than I'd ever seen while this store was a Winn-Dixie (and this was one of Winn-Dixie's busier stores too). Granted this was still within the first few weeks of operation, but even today the crowds haven't really died down much.
From the looks of things, this Aldi doesn't appear to be on a trajectory of failure, although I have to wonder how busy some of the other conversions are.
Aldi now open, the Winn-Dixie liquor store still hangs on, hopefully piking up some business from the new Aldi shoppers. Ironically, as I was leaving Aldi, an employee from the liquor store was walking into Aldi, probably to find something for their lunch break or just to see how their former parent store was ripped apart.
We've seen enough of this store's exterior from those many months of documenting the store's transition, so let's head inside and see how that's changed since we were last in this building:
Like many of the other recent Winn-Dixie conversions, this Aldi has an indoor cart storage area. The only other times I've ever seen the interior cart storage areas are in other conversions Aldi has done in the last 5 or so years (like this store). Interestingly, Winn-Dixie stores Aldi took over years ago (like this one) have the traditional outdoor corral, so this is very much a new thing for Aldi. Anyway, my quarter placed securely in the cart, let's pass through the next set of doors to take a look at the new salesfloor:
And...it's an Aldi. Unfortunately, there aren't going to be many surprises in here, as outside of the interior cart corral, this store was designed like just about every other Aldi that's been built over the last decade. However, as I mentioned earlier, Aldi did roll out a new decor package over the last year, so I guess that's something to break up the monotony, however, even the new decor is still pretty similar to the previous decor Aldi had been using for the last decade or so too.
As usual, you enter the store into Aldi's produce department, which takes up the first half of the first aisle. Continuing along the first aisle, you encounter the baked goods along the right wall (the new partition that chopped the old Winn-Dixie in half), with wine, beer, and snack foods on the opposite side.
One of the biggest changes Aldi's new decor brings about are these new department signs, which include the department name on a faux wood background. While the new decor is stylistically similar to its predecessor, the department names replace the assorted slogans that used to be placed on the faux wood panels, with refreshed food stock photos placed on the lightboxes in between the department signs.
In between the department names and photo lightboxes, Aldi still found room for some extra signage advertising their products and pricing. In addition to regular signs, there were a few of these "logo walls" placed in the larger swaths of blank wall space, featuring Aldi's current slogan "Low Prices, Every Aisle, Every Day" next to a large printout of Aldi's logo.
Like most Aldi stores, deli items and meats are located along the back wall, with a few random columns in the middle of the main aisle stemming from this building's many lives. For an interesting comparison, here's what this same viewpoint looked like barely a year ago.
Another new thing I noticed was that Aldi's meat and deli coolers, which used to be the open-face type, now feature the modern glass doors. Like most places, this is probably a move to reduce energy costs, as even Publix has been installing similar coolers in their own new stores.
From the second aisle, here's another look toward wine and beer as well as produce, with the entryway visible in the background too.
Moving along to the third aisle, we find more cases of pantry staples...
...as well as the famous "aisle of shame". You go to Aldi to buy milk and eggs, and leave with that plus a greenhouse, a cat perch, an area rug, and a new sweater. That folks is why this aisle became known as the "aisle of shame", because you feel ashamed about that extra $30 you spent from having walked down this aisle.
Now that I've found 5 new things I couldn't live without in the aisle of shame, we'll move over to the store's last aisle. The last aisle features bulk drinks on the grocery side, with dairy toward the back along the left wall, and frozen food just to my left in the alcove.
As usual, Aldi's frozen foods department features the traditional coolers along the wall, as well as the European-style sliding glass door coolers in front, home to the chilled version of the "aisle of shame" (from which the constantly rotating flavors of frozen pizza a certain retail blogger succumbs to every time he looks in the frozen aisle of shame).
Now that my 25 cent investment into a cart has somehow lead me into $40 of groceries and Aldi finds I didn't realized I needed, we return to the front end for a look at the check lanes. Over the last 2-3 years, Aldi has been installing banks of self-checkouts in most of their stores, reducing the number of staffed lanes from the previous 5-6 down to 3-4 these days, although those two staffed lanes end up being replaced with 6-7 self-checkouts. Over the last year or so, Aldi debuted this new self-checkout corral, with all the self-checkout registers in a ring shape, much like some Walmarts have them placed. With Aldi's entire checkout system designed around speed, I've always felt self-checkout was a step backwards, as people at the self-checkouts still take their sweet time like at every other store, whereas the Aldi cashiers are trained whip everyone though to keep the line moving. With 7 lanes open at all times though, at least self-checkout is reducing the number of calls for back-up at the staffed lanes, leading to floor employees to focus on stocking instead of cashiering, which works out in Aldi's favor.
From the front end, here's one final interior photo looking toward the exit, through which we will head to wrap up this very long post:
While the residents of Indian Harbour Beach seem excited about their new Aldi, they seem to still be on the learning curve for how Aldi works! During my visit here, I saw the most stray Aldi carts stranded in the parking lot of any Aldi I've been to - I probably could have made a whole $2 if I wanted to bring them all back inside! Either these people are new to Aldi, or the folks out this way just have so much money, they can forget about the quarter and just drive away like this!
While one conversion is done, there are still many more of these to come, as we still have two more years of conversions to deal with. While I don't plan to cover any more conversions to the extent I did this one, we will be seeing many more of Aldi's victims on the blog in their Winn-Dixie forms (possibly as soon as next time too), with a little bit of selective coverage from during and after the conversions as well. While it sucks to see so many nice Winn-Dixie stores succumb to Aldi (like this one), here's to hoping Winn-Dixie will give us some good news over the next year, and that I can finally switch to covering Winn-Dixie grand openings once again!
I started this post with a before-and-after sketch of the building from Aldi's leasing brochure, so I'll end this post with actual photographs of this store from before and after the conversion, both taken from a similar angle. I have a feeling that most of these stores Aldi converts will be successes for Aldi, and I feel that will very much hold true for this store at least. If you've been to other stores after reopening as an Aldi, let me know your impression of them and how they compare to the Winn-Dixie that preceded it.
While I can go on and on about how terrible the sale of Winn-Dixie to Aldi has been, this post has been long enough, so I'll end it with that (as I'll have plenty more opportunities to vent about this in the future). I hope you all found this detailed coverage interesting, and I'll have a slightly shorter post next time for everyone!
So until the next post,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
