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| Satellite Image Courtesy of Bing Maps |
Thanks to Grafe Auction's many pictures of the closed stores whose fixtures they liquidate, here's another interesting store I stumbled across. This is the former Winn-Dixie located at 3201 W. Colonial Drive in Orlando. This Winn-Dixie has a pretty interesting past, beginning its life in 1985 in a converted J.M. Fields building as part of a short-lived warehouse store concept the company launched called Table Supply*. Table Supply, a nod to one of the company's early names from the 1920's, was one of many supermarket warehouse concepts to debut at that time, when warehouse stores were becoming all the rage. Like Table Supply, most of those concept stores flopped, and after opening 6 Table Supply Stores (5 in Florida and 1 in Georgia), the stores were converted to the Winn-Dixie name, much like the one here. The former West Colonial Table Supply converted to a Winn-Dixie Marketplace (Store #2300) in 1990. After spending a little over a decade as a Winn-Dixie Marketplace, this store was converted into one of Winn-Dixie's price impact stores called Save Rite (Store #2656) in the early 2000's, which is what the store was branded as in the satellite image above. This Save Rite managed to last through the bankruptcy, where many Save Rite stores were closed, and was one of 6 remaining Save Rite stores when Winn-Dixie finally decided to retire the brand in 2011. When the brand was retired, the Save Rite stores were converted back to Winn-Dixies (and this store was Winn-Dixie #2656 for its remaining few years). Winn-Dixie finally decided to give up on this store completely in November 2014. I remember when the news did a story on this store's closure, a bunch of people said it was for the best as this place was horribly old, outdated, and in poor shape. Well, thanks to the photographers for Grafe Auctions, who liquidated the fixtures at this store after it closed, we get to see just how outdated the interior at this store actually was. So let's take a peek:
*Thanks to The Sing Oil Blogger for finding all that information about this building's origins as a Table Supply! Information updated on January 13, 2024.
| This photo and all of the following images are courtesy of Grafe Auction and grafeauction.com |
Even after the store converted back to Winn-Dixie, all Winn-Dixie did was put a new sign on the front of the building and restock the shelves. They left all of the old Save Rite decor in place, which really doesn't compliment a full line grocery store very well. The Save Rite decor is pretty cheap looking.
But it was this next image that really got me:
The Deli retained its original Table Supply wall decor and neon until 2014! That means when this store converted to a Winn-Dixie Marketplace in 1990, Winn-Dixie didn't do much of a remodel to it, meaning most of the Table Supply decor probably lasted mostly in-tact until the Save Rite conversion in the early 2000's. When this store was a Save Rite, as part of Save Rite's discount-oriented format, service departments were either non-existent or an afterthought. That being the case, that probably explains why the deli retained much of its original decor while the rest of the store had much of the decor switched out.
There weren't too many pictures of this store in the album on the auction company's website, but here's the link to it if you want to take a look at the few other photos of this store there.
So that wraps up my two posts from the Grafe Auction pictures. If you want, Grafe's website has lots of pictures taken at closed stores from different brands all over the country if you're ever bored and want to look through some pictures.
So that's all I have for now. Until next time,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
You need to visit the store on E. hillsbourgh ave. in Tampa...so out dated...built new in 1998then closed sat empty for a year or two ..then reopened as save rite. then converted back to winn Dixie. all they did here is change the sign out side. still has original décor from 1998
ReplyDeleteSurprising that they didn't put in Save Rite decor before that store reopened. The exterior of the store doesn't look too bad with the new logo, and almost hints at the store have being remodeled, so it must be a shock once you go inside and see all of the old stuff still there.
DeleteWeird, the display cases here all look relatively new, maybe early 2000s. Most of the older Winn Dixies, even the ones that got the minor maroon/purple remodels, typically only got new produce cases at most with the rest still being from the 80s.
ReplyDeleteYet this store has all newer ones but the decor is what seems to date it.
I don't recall what the neon deli sign looked like, but it could be 80s. I don't remember any with those red lamps, but I do recall some from the 70s with stained glass lamps.
Some of the newer cases could date back to when this store was converted to Save Rite in the early 2000's, or Winn-Dixie could have sent some of them over from a closed store when this store was reconverted back to Winn-Dixie in 2011. There was am 80's Winn-Dixie near me which just closed this past November, and it still had all of its cases with the red/orange/etc. trim from the 80's until the very end.
DeleteThere was definitely something strange about this store. The neon deli sign looked more 80's to me, but the now painted over wooden texturing on the wall is what didn't look right to me for the 80's interior. Maybe it was a slightly modified 70's deli.
This store was called table supply in late 80’s early 90’s
ReplyDelete