Good Things Come in Small Supermarkets, but Aldi Isn't What I Meant!

Kash n' Karry #848 (Pre-Delhaize) / Kash n' Karry #1761 (Delhaize-era) / Sweetbay #1761 / Winn-Dixie #2444 / Future Aldi #2XX

1023 N. Tamiami Trail, Ruskin, FL

Today's post is a presentation of Hillsborough County retail

     While Winn-Dixie is on track to lose 220 stores to Aldi, which is sad enough, it's especially sad to see some of the unique Winn-Dixie stores that have/will have succumbed to Aldi's wrath. For example, we've lost the semi-flagship Swann Avenue Winn-Dixie in Tampa, two stores Winn-Dixie opened in 2022 (Westlake and St. Johns), and we're on track to losing the famous Publix Gourmet Winn-Dixie in Lake Mary as well. I also have been told on good accord that by 2027, we'll be losing a number of other special and unique Winn-Dixies such as the New Orleans flagship, a store that has survived since 1956, and the last preserved round Kash n' Karry (I'm particularly upset about that last one, as those round stores were so strange!). While the store we'll be touring today doesn't look like anything special from the exterior, I'd like to nominate this one to the list of rare and unique Winn-Dixies we'll be losing to Aldi's wrath, as it was quite impressive how this store managed to slip by without getting any major modifications since it was built in 1974.

     More specifically, the original tenant of this building, Kash n' Karry, opened on April 6, 1974 as the first major chain supermarket to open in the once small farming village of Ruskin, located in southern Hillsborough County. The Ruskin store was the 36th location for the chain, which at the time had stores as far north as Ocala, south to Sarasota, and east to Winter Haven. However, Hillsborough County was Kash n' Karry's home, with the Ruskin store closing another local gap for the chain.

     At only 23,800 square feet of salesfloor space, this new Kash n' Karry packed a lot into it. Not only did this store have a complete set of service departments including fresh deli, bakery, and meats, it also featured an in-store Kare Drugs department with a full service prescription pharmacy. Until I started researching this store, I didn't realize Kash n' Karry operated pharmacies back in the early 1970's, even beating Albertsons with the one-stop food and pharmacy combo stores in Florida! (Albertsons made its Floridian debut later in 1974, however, Albertsons' stores were twice the size of this Kash n' Karry). On the outside, this store featured Kash n' Karry's new modern mansard type roof design, a design trend that was all the rage in the 1970's.

      Outside of a decor swap or two, this store remained as-is until 2006, at which point it was included in Kash n' Karry's chainwide rebranding to Sweetbay Supermarket.

Photo courtesy of Google Streetview

      Even during the Sweetbay conversion, this store only got a new sign and yet another decor swap - that was it. Kash n' Karry's lack of interest through the years in doing any major work to this store is what made it so interesting to me, as Kash n' Karry was really big on heavy remodeling, expansions, and relocations of its older stores during the 1990's and into the early 2000's. During that time, the company was trying very hard to refresh its image both under independent ownership and into the Delhaize-era to better compete with growing rivals like Publix and Walmart. If a store like this one wasn't relocated or closed in the 1990's, it was usually expanded and renovated to look similar to this, including the usual curved stucco facade update when the Sweetbay conversion happened. None of that happened here though - no expansions (even though this store was built with plenty of room for one, plus space for a shopping center that never came to be), no facade modifications, nothing. What we see is the original 1970's mansard facade too, and inside is the original 1970's Kash n' Karry layout.

Photo courtesy of Google Streetview

     

     All of that originality carried over into the Winn-Dixie era too, although Winn-Dixie was pretty famous for not doing much to these former Sweetbay stores after taking them over in 2014.

     While this store did get a remodel by Winn-Dixie in late 2017 to the Down Down decor, nothing else was altered, continuing this store's streak of remodels over the prior 43 years that involved nothing more than a can of paint and some new signs. Sadly, after staying in practically unaltered, original form for over 50 years now (which is super impressive for a supermarket, as most stores of that age, especially ones part of a large chain, experience some kind of major remodel or expansion in that time), the streak will come to an end in 2025. The Winn-Dixie we see here was one of the 220 unlucky stores that remained in Aldi's hands following the sale of Southeastern Grocers' remaining assets to C&S Wholesale in early 2025, and I highly doubt Aldi's remodel to this building (for which a permit was pulled in February 2025) will be as gentle as all the others to this building have been over the last half century. I was hoping this Winn-Dixie would be safe from Aldi's hands, especially since Aldi took the much newer Apollo Beach Sweet-Dixie 2.5 miles north of here at Mira Bay Village, but alas, a 2.5 mile coverage gap was too much for Aldi.

     With how much the Ruskin area has grown over the last 50 years, I'm surprised Kash n' Karry never bothered to expand, or do anything but a decor swap, to this store. I'm even more surprised the curved stucco wasn't installed for Sweetbay's sign during that conversion either! Until the newbuild Sweetbay in Apollo Beach I just mentioned opened in 2008, this was the only Kash n' Karry/Sweetbay store serving the Ruskin/Sun City Center area too, a decently populated part of Hillsborough County going into in the 1990's and 2000's (although there was a Food Lion about a mile north of here, which closed outright around 2001, meaning it never converted to the Kash n' Karry brand like the other Food Lions in the area did). Unless this was just an abnormally slow store, I really don't know why it's remained so original for so long. However, at least until Aldi begins its remodel, this store remains a very interesting glimpse into what a Kash n' Karry was like in the 1970's. Now that we've had plenty of time to admire that original facade (which looks pretty good in Down Down red, I'd say), let's head inside and see what the interior is all about:

     Entering through the right side doors, we find a small vestibule where the carts are stored (and over on the left side is a clone of what we see here, just flipped the other way). As typical of most Down Down remodels, Winn-Dixie included a historic store photo collage on the welcome sign, a compellation of some random photos from the company's archives.

     Stepping out of the vestibule, here's a look across the store's front wall, with the service desk located in the cut-out off to the left in the distance. We'll see this area again later in the post, but for now, let's turn around and get ourselves a better look at the salesfloor:

     The front right corner of the store is home to the combined deli/bakery department, the photo above looking at the "Bakery" part of said combo. Like many supermarkets with a combined deli/bakery space, the bakery takes a backseat to the deli offerings as far as space goes. However, this store does still have a small selection of baked-in house breads, along with a few tables and displays of other baked goods.

     Panning the camera a little more to the left, here's a better overview of how the deli/bakery space angles outward from the corner into the sales floor. The deli's hot bar takes up most of the space along the long angled stretch under the "Kitchen" sign, with the sliced cold cuts located closer to the left wall.

     Also to note since I mentioned the signs - the size of them had to be scaled down down to fit on this store's narrow wall spaces. While Down Down's wall signs were intentionally designed to be large for easy viewing across the store, that concept was lost in this store due to its cozy, low 1970's ceilings. Even Sweetbay just barely managed to make their usual signage work in this place!

     From produce, here's a final overview of the deli/bakery department. Officially, I took this photo in aisle 1, home to the PB&J supplies (the recipe for which comprises the aisle 1 sign), conveniently located close enough to the produce department that I only have to reach over if I want to turn my PB&J experience into an Elvis special!

     For a relatively small store, the produce department felt quite large in comparison, taking up the length of the right side of the store. The grand opening snippets even bragged about this store's "large" produce department too, although I wouldn't be surprised if a grocery aisle was eliminated at some point in a later remodel to make the produce department "large" for more modern standards.

     Wading through a sea of fruits, vegetables, and fall squash, I see the seafood counter lurking in the back right corner.

     Even for a small store, it still managed to maintain a tiny service seafood counter back here too, most of which ended up getting blocked by the price sign for those watermelons. Thankfully, the price of watermelons has come down a bit since the above photo was taken too, with Winn-Dixie's regular price on those being $6.99 as of last week (with Aldi's regular price being $6.95, for comparison). Being Memorial Day weekend this weekend, Winn-Dixie has the whole watermelons on sale this week for $3.99, the best deal I've seen around for a whole seedless melon so far this year.

     Seafood and watermelons behind us, we'll skip back over to the front of the store for this look across the grocery aisles and check lanes. From here, it's pretty easy to tell this store has a few different ceiling heights going on.

     The ceiling tapers upward slightly over the majority of the center grocery aisles, another common design trend from 1970's and 1980's supermarkets. The higher ceilings over the grocery aisles make the store feel much bigger than it is, which is probably what the designers were intending.

     Due to the differing ceiling heights, you may have noticed that aisle 1 (located in the lower ceiling portion of the store) only had 3 placards on its sign, while the rest of the aisles in the higher ceiling side have all had four. While that was purely done due to the ceiling heights here, there were many variants to the Down Down aisle markers depending on when a remodel happened, including choice of fonts and number of placards present. Even with all that variation out there, this was the only time I'd seen a Down Down Winn-Dixie use both the 3-placard and 4-placard aisle signs under the same roof - usually it was one size or the other in a store!

     Returning to the back wall, the prepackaged meats turn into lunch meats, which are then followed by the dairy department as we near the left wall.

     If you're curious about what this store was like during the Sweetbay days, Google Maps actually has a decent number of photos of this store taken in 2016 and early 2017 showing it with the Sweetbay decor. For such an old store, the Sweetbay decor didn't look too bad in here, and interestingly, I think Down Down suits this store pretty well too. While Down Down is pretty famous for having rather blank walls, with this store being so small, it crams the department names closer together to neutralize that a bit. The shorter walls for the signs also help keep the overwhelmingly blank feel at bay too.

     Getting closer to the left side of the store, we find some non-food items here in aisle 11, specifically paper products and kitchen gadgets.

     Aisle 13, the last numbered aisle in this store, is home to beer and wine.

     Following beer and wine, we find two more aisles, the unnumbered aisles 14 and 15. These two aisles are home to frozen foods, with aisle 14 marking our transition from the higher ceiling back to the lower one in the last aisle:

     Unnumbered aisle 15 is home to the remainder of frozen foods, as well as the remainder of the dairy department. Along the length of this aisle were a row of old vents protruding from the ceiling, which must be a relic from the Kash n' Karry days, as they don't look very new!

     Lastly, arriving in the front left corner of the building, we find the pharmacy counter. In addition to the pharmacy, the aisles in front of the counter house the store's selection of health and beauty products.

     From its origins as Kare Drugs in the 1970's, through the days of The Medicine Shoppe at Kash n' Karry and Sweetbay Pharmacy, this store's pharmacy ran for an impressive 49 years before it was shut down by Winn-Dixie in late 2023 when the company's remaining pharmacies were closed in preparation for the sale to Aldi. 

     The above photo taken from health & beauty looking across the front end does a nice job of showcasing the raised ceiling over the check lanes. While there wasn't an accompanying overhead catwalk, this design looks very similar to the front end of an early 1980's Albertsons.

     While Florida is home to some rather large species of spiders, those are just Halloween decorations you see hanging on the check lane light posts! No need to call the health department today! Anyway, looking through the check lanes, our final interior photo shows us the customer service desk as well as a portion of the "Thank you for shopping at your Ruskin Winn-Dixie" sign, which was painted directly onto the slant where the ceiling raises up.

     I was really happy to have discovered this store clicking around on Google Maps, as it answered some questions for me relating to Kash n' Karry's really old store layouts (something that will come in handy in the future when we tour a really interesting former Kash n' Karry of a similar vintage). I thought this was a quaint store overall, and for being 50 years old, still seemed like a well-cared for building. Since Winn-Dixie has only been in here since 2014, most of the credit for the upkeep landed on Kash n' Karry and Sweetbay, but even as a Winn-Dixie it seems like the proper maintenance was being done. In a year or so this store will certainly feel much different, as a modern Aldi isn't really a place I can describe as "quaint", much like I would describe this store today.

     Before we leave Ruskin, I thought I'd share a quick photo of this Winn-Dixie's lone outparcel building, a Kentucky Fried Coin Wash. Officially called "Laundry Depot" these days, I thought a Laundromat was an interesting conversion for an old KFC. I wonder if you wash your clothes in here, if they come out with an embedded fried chicken odor?

     While on the topic of old fast food places, as you wait for your clothes to finish up in the spin cycle at the Kentucky Fried Coin Wash, you can step outside and get a look at Uncle Joe's New York Diner Hut across the street. There's no question this building used to be a Pizza Hut!

     It's a shame that after so long, this nice little grocery store is going to get butchered up to become another Aldi, especially since Aldi is already opening a new store in another former Sweet-Dixie just up the road. However, the wrath of Aldi still has two more years to work its way through Winn-Dixie, and if you want to stay on top of what stores are safe and which ones will soon be chopped in half, be sure to keep a lookout on the My Florida Retail post covering the conversions. While it won't be long before we see another Winn-Dixie on the blog, we have another former Albertsons store to cover next time, so be sure to come back in two weeks for that!

So until the next post,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger

Former Albertsons #4477 - Parrish, FL

 

Albertsons #4477 / Publix #1305

9005 US Highway 301 North, Parrish, FL - Parkwood Square

Today's post is a presentation of Manatee County retail

     According to my count, this is the 42nd Publixsons store I've written about on the blog, and the 45th featured on the blog in total. There are roughly 60 Publixsons stores in Florida, so that means we're three-quarters of the way through covering all the various forms of Florida's favorite supermarket conversion. However, after 43 Publixsons posts, finding an interesting introduction to include with each new Publixsons store I write about gets harder and harder every time! I guess I'll spare everyone one of my desperate filler puns in this introduction and simply state we're on Florida's Southwestern coast today, checking out a former Grocery Palace Albertsons in the (once) small community of Parrish (which is located just north of Bradenton). Parrish was once semi-rural area between Tampa and Bradenton that is now home to a sea of new developments as progress works to connect those two metropolitan areas together. Albertsons was an early arrival to the area, seeing in the early 2000's how Parrish was about to boom into one of Tampa Bay's hottest new areas. That being said, let's dive into the history of Albertsons #4477 just a little more to see what the vision for this new store entailed:

     Construction on Albertsons #4477 began in Fall 2000, as workers began to clear an empty lot on the southeastern corner of US 301 and Old Tampa Road. While considered part of Parrish by its postal address, the site of the new Albertsons store was much closer to the community of Ellenton, an unincorporated Manatee County community located near the junction of I-75 and US 301. At the time of its construction, Albertsons #4477 was considered to be on the outskirts of Ellenton, in a lull of development before drivers got into the community of Parrish (whose center is located where US 301 has its junction with SR 62, 5 miles to the north of the Albertsons site). Most retail in this area was clustered near the I-75 junction at the turn of the new millennium, with Albertsons taking the lead in bringing more shopping options into the further-out areas that would eventually boom with development over the next decade.

     As described by the district manager, the new Parrish Albertsons would have some of the company's longtime offerings of a deli, bakery, video rentals, and a liquor store, but would also feature some new offerings like a Starbucks Coffee kiosk and a dry cleaners - all part of Albertsons' continued commitment to be a store for one-stop shopping (although not as much as back in the day, when Albertsons also sold automotive supplies, music albums, and even televisions, but I digress).

     After a year of construction, Albertsons #4477 held its grand opening on October 5, 2001, a new grocery superstore, or should I say, "grocery palace" to serve the shoppers of Ellenton and Parrish. In addition to store #4477, northern Manatee County would gain an additional Albertsons a few miles to the west of here in downtown Palmetto, when store #4484 opened 9 months later in June of 2002. Stores #4477 and #4484 were pretty much identical in most ways (including their exterior designs and having the same layouts and orientation), with the primary exception being that the slightly older #4477 opened with Grocery Palace, while #4484 opened with the revived Blue & Green Awnings decor.

     The pharmacy photo in the grand opening ad and the one above showing the pet department in 2008 are the only two photos I was able to track down of this Albertsons while it was open. Usually I just find an exterior photo and nothing of the interior, but this time it was the opposite case! (However, I do have a crummy 2008 Google Streetview link we can settle for if you want a glimpse at the original Albertsons exterior). Anyway, we still got ourselves two small glimpses at this store's original Grocery Palace decor, which was only able to grace this building for 7 years until someone had to come in and rip out the spinning chef and giant bowl of chips in favor of installing some Classy Market 2.0:

     The Parrish Albertsons was one of the 49 stores the company sold to Publix in 2008, with the August 2008 photo of the pet department we just saw taken not too long before this Albertsons closed for good. Publix used the acquisition of the former Parrish Albertsons as a means to replace its much older store, #354, about two miles to the west of here at the North River Village shopping center. Publix #354 closed on January 21, 2009, with its replacement in the old Albertsons, Publix #1305, opening the next morning on January 22nd.

     When Publix made the move from North River Village to the former Albertsons, that put Publix within 2 miles of another existing store, #1152, which had only opened 2 years prior. With the move cutting the buffer between Publix's two stores in the area in half, that prompted the reporter who wrote the article above to ask about the future plans for Publix's practically new store up the road and what would become of it with the former Albertsons so close. To answer that question, the representative stated, "It's not uncommon for us to have multiple Publixes. We're all about serving customers with convenient locations." Considering some other situations Publix got themselves into following the acquisition of those 49 Albertsons stores, a 2 mile buffer is a pretty big gap between stores!

     Having been in this building for 16 years now (2009 was that long ago, yikes!), Publix #1305 has seen no shortage of remodels. This store remodeled away from its original Classy Market 2.0 in the 2015-2016 timeframe to Classy Market 3.0/Sienna, and then again in 2021 to Evergreen. Being that I visited this store in 2020, we'll be seeing it in all of its CM 3.0/Sienna glory, which will probably make some of my usual readers happy that we dodged an "Evergray" bullet! If you care to see what this store looks like with the current decor, just about all the Google Maps pictures show it with Evergreen (and its matching gray exterior paint job). A little fun fact: Evergreen made its debut to the world not far from here at the Gateway Commons Publix, store #1666. (And I had to link to the Yelp photos because someone decided to post pictures of many random Publix stores from Pinellas County to that store's Google Maps page - isn't it annoying when people do that!)

     The exterior of this former Albertsons isn't anything too out of the ordinary for an early 2000's Floridian Albertsons build. We have the distinctive arch over the entryway, but otherwise most Albertsons stores from this era were fairly nondescript.

      The exterior paint scheme we see here was Publix's doing, hailing from this store's original conversion in 2009. When Albertsons was here, the entire building was painted pale yellow like many other early 2000's Albertsons stores in Florida.

     Stepping onto the front sidewalk, we find the original entrance and exit mostly untouched since the Albertsons days, with the original Albertsons sliding doors still in place too. If you can ignore Publix's distinct recycling bins and the infamous green beans looking at us through the window, it feels a lot like Albertsons was still here from this view.

     Once we get past the green beans in the vestibule (home to the cart corral), we find this hallway created by the store's pharmacy island in front of the two sets of doors. When Albertsons was here the backside of that wall (which is now a staging area for Publix's online pickups and deliveries) would have been home to the dry cleaners and customer service desk, with the "Albertsons Reading Center" across from that on the wall between the two sets of doors.

     Turning around, we find the store's deli in the front right corner of the building - the first major department we encounter upon entering the store.

     Pictured above is the portion of the deli counter located along the front wall (former home to Albertsons' prepared foods counter), with the portion of the deli seen in the previous photo home to the main cold cut counter (as it would have been when Albertsons was here too). Grocery Palace Albertsons stores had rather large delis, enough room for our oversized friend here to spin happily above it!

     However, the Grocery Palace deli department included a bit too much space for Publix, so the majority of Publix's full-service deli operations (cold cuts, hot foods, Pub Subs) have been consolidated into the counter along the right wall. Albertsons' former prepared foods counter along the front wall has been blocked off with many of Publix's self-serve deli options, like the soup bar, fountain drinks, and a grab-and-go beverage cooler.

     Now that we've experienced the Publixsons deli, the next department we're off to is visible just beyond it: produce.

     I was able to produce this nice overview of the produce department, showing its expanse in the store's back right corner. Looking into produce, you can tell this store suffers a bit from being too large for Publix's tastes, as the grand aisle and front end in all seemed quite spaced out with void area like this. This former Albertsons is 61,000 square feet, and even though Publix has built stores that large on their own merit in the past, Publix's own 61,000 square foot stores never feel like they're at a waste for space like some of these similarly sized former Albertsons buildings are.

     Most of the main produce displays were pushed as far back into the corner as they could be, with the surrounding area near the deli and along the first aisle lightly filled out with some promotional displays.

     When Publix first took over these former Grocery Palace stores, they were quite the sight with many Grocery Palace remnants repainted in the colors of Classy Market 2.0. By the late 2010's, most examples of those funky repaints were either remodeled away or obliterated (like the store at that link sadly was), but if you still crave a more authentic Grocery Palace Publixsons experience, there is still one out there on the other side of the Skyway to observe and enjoy (but as for how much longer Publix will leave something like that around for is unknown, as it's a bit crazy it's still there all these years later!). However, like most of its other Grocery Palace cohorts, Publix ripped out almost every last trace of that decor in this store's second remodel, leaving the layout as one of our only reminders of what was.

     Even though the original decor is gone, just this layout takes me back to the glory days of Albertsons in Florida. Grocery Palace was one of those decor packages that really leaves an impression on you, especially if you got to experience it back in the early 2000's in full force and not just in piecemeal or in shambles like most remaining examples of it are.

     As you can see in the distance, Publix has the grand aisle signed as Aisle 1. If you look really close at that sign, you'll see it only has one placard on it, reading "Produce". The sign isn't wrong though - produce is about the only thing down here, as the shelves to my left seem to be the home of assorted changing promo/BOGO deals - another sign that Publix was coming up with random ways to fill the space in here.

     The produce prep area lies along the store's back wall, and is still used by Publix (even though a tall drink cooler blocks part of the opening these days).

     Following produce, we find the store's bakery along the back wall. While still in its original Albertsons location, Publix reconstructed this department to match their usual design in the mid-2010's CM 3.0/Sienna remodel.

     While Publix's bakery design is nice, it's certainly more subdued than this! Why did oversized 3D plastic replicas of food have to go out of style?

     Now that we've seen the bakery, let's cut through one of the grocery aisles to return to the front of the store, where we'll take a look at the pharmacy island:

     While Publix's mid-2010's remodel stripped this store of what remained from the days of its Grocery Palace grandeur, the pharmacy island is a distinctive Grocery Palace trait that still sticks out amongst all of Publix's more modern treatments.

     While Publix has removed a few of these pharmacy islands in later remodels (particularly in older Albertsons stores that were remodeled to Grocery Palace, for whatever reason), this one survived CM 3.0/Sienna, and is still going strong in the era of Evergreen too (not the greatest photo in the world, but it shows the island is still there). There's a bit of debate about these Grocery Palace pharmacy islands, primarily concerning their placement being awkward in relation to the store's layout, plopped front and center at the front of the building. That awkward placement is supposedly why many others who've inherited old Grocery Palace stores have removed them (like Kroger) and moved the pharmacy to a more traditional placement along a wall. Having experienced the original Grocery Palace layout from Albertsons and other inherited variants with the island, the islands never seemed too obstructive to me. Entering and exiting is a bit odd being funneled though a hallway of sorts due to the placement of the island, but I never thought the island made the store feel cramped in any way (although a rush at the pharmacy counter could make navigating those grocery aisles out front a bit harder if a crowd built up, as there isn't much space between the island and the aisles). For those of you who've experienced Grocery Palace in some form, what do you think about the placement of the island?

     Whether you find it awkward or not awkward, the island lives on here in Parrish, with Publix having reconfigured the pharmacy counter into a design more to their usual liking by expanding it into the former dry cleaners space to the counter's left.

     Joining the pharmacy on the island is floral, which Publix also chose to keep in its original Albertsons placement as well.

     Similar to Albertsons, Publix kept the floral service counter within the island, with displays of flowers surrounding the service counter.

     Returning to the grocery aisles, here's one final look back toward the pharmacy island before we make the perilous journey into another part of the store, which involves...

     …a dangerous trek through the baby food aisle to the faraway land known for its abundance of meats and cheeses...

     …the International Deli! 

     Sadly, these days the International Deli isn't very "international" anymore, unless you consider bologna "international" since it was named after a city in Italy. I don't think Albertsons' version of the international deli was that much more international than Publix's version in terms of product selection, but the decorative flags and Eiffel tower prop over the coolers made you overlook that detail more in those days! These days, Publix left the old International Deli alcove as a fairly plain area with brown walls, which today are probably plain gray walls - that Eiffel tower prop long thrown in the trash.

     From the former International Deli alcove, the next department we find along the back wall is the meat and seafood service counter, which we'll take a closer look at after zig-zagging through a few grocery aisles:

     Entering aisle 8, we find health and beauty products, as this aisle aligns with the pharmacy counter in the island behind me.

     In another odd sight for a Publix store, aisles 9 and 10 serve as a double aisle for chips and water, with pallets of water used to take up space in the middle of the aisle. In case you needed another example of how Publix was running out of ideas on how to fill all the extra space in this store, here it is.

     Other than the aisle markers blocking part of it, the width of this aisle gives us a nice overview once again of the floral department in the pharmacy island.

     Passing the pharmacy island, the grocery aisles get extended by a few shelf lengths for the store's last 8 aisles, bringing those closer to the check lanes.

     I visited this store in the fall, so Publix had this display of fall foods out near the front end. This display must have intrigued me for some reason since I took a photo of it! Even though this post is going live in May, it won't be long until grocery store shelves are inundated with pumpkin spice everything again - the sign in this photo of another Publix pumpkin spice display proves that, as pumpkin mania seems to come earlier every year!

     Yes, we'll get through this post - we're over halfway there now! However, that banner sign wasn't installed as a warning for the ramblings I was going to make you endure during a future post - those were Publix's hanging banners from mid-2020, trying to use calming words to keep people at ease during peak COVID times.

     And speaking of the Publix banners - after reporting that they disappeared about a year ago, I have noticed they've reappeared recently. I guess Publix had a change of heart, either that, or their people read my recent posts and realized I was onto their scheme to try to get rid of them for good!

     That little detour through the grocery aisles complete, we return to the back wall for a closer look at the meat and seafood service counter. While the old fisherman's wharf theme from the Grocery Palace era will never be topped, Publix did a nice job converting what you saw at that link into what we see here. CM 3.0/Sienna actually looks really good here in its full form! I'll let you be the judge on the Evergreen variant though.

     Over halfway through the salesfloor now, here's a perspective on just how wide this building is, with produce way off in the distance at the end of the back aisle.

     Taking a few more steps closer to the back left corner, the photo above really makes the store feel wide from this angle! This photo was taken in alignment with aisle 16, which is about the maximum number of aisles you'll come across in the typical Publix store. However, there are still a few more aisles in this store beyond number 16. Will this be the store with the highest aisle count I've ever seen in a Publix? We'll find out in just a moment...

     Turning around from where that last photo was taken, here's a look at what we've yet to cover, with the packaged meats along the back wall followed by dairy all the way to the left.

     Back in the grocery aisles again, we find tea and soda in aisle 14. As you may recall, the water and water-based drinks were over in aisle 9, which is a bit of a gap between these items. It seems like most grocery stores like to keep the water, soda and tea in the same or in adjoining aisles, not 5 aisles apart like it is here.

     Skipping ahead to aisle 17, we find the soaps and cleaning products, stuff that's perfect for when you spill one of the items you picked up back in aisle 14.

     The meat coolers take up most of the remaining length of the store's back wall, with the exception of a small portion of the dairy department in the back left corner itself. That piece of the dairy department along the back wall was once home to the famous Grocery Palace milk barn. While milk still occupies that location these days, the barn was moo-ved along in Publix's initial remodel to Classy Market 2.0 in a similar vein to this (although wouldn't it have been interesting if Publix just repainted the barn like many other things in those cheap early remodels?).

     Getting close to the end, we enter aisle 18, which is home to the 3 B's: Beer, Bread, and Beach stuff - everything you need for a day trip down the road to Anna Maria Island. Grab a cooler, fill it with beer, and grab a loaf of bread, as what better place than the beach to enjoy a sandwich!

     Finally nearing the end, the last two aisles of this store are home to frozen foods. From the other side of the building, it's hard to tell where frozen foods are at first glance with the curved drop ceiling removed, but nonetheless, they're still here much like they were in the Albertsons days.

     The frozen foods aisles had a cut through between them about halfway through the aisle, visible in the prior photos and located just before the Takis display seen on my left above. Anyway, does something about this aisle seem a bit askew?

     I guess when you try to hang an aisle marker from a vent pipe, this is the result you get. I'm actually surprised Publix hung this aisle marker from the pipe itself and didn't try to run the cables to the sides of it like they did with the light, as you'd think a pipe is something you don't want any extra weight dangling from!

     Not wanting to linger too much longer in aisle 19 to test the weight capacity of that pipe, we'll loop around into the store's last aisle, aisle 20. Aisle 20 is partially home to frozen foods (in the coolers to my left), with the remainder of the dairy department stocked in the coolers to my right along the store's left wall.

     So to answer my question from before, at 20 aisles wide, is this the highest aisle count I've ever seen in a modern Publix? Actually, the answer is no! The highest aisle count I've ever seen in a modern Publix is 21 aisles, located at #4477's sibling store the Palmetto Publixsons. Still, finding a Publix with a numbered aisle in the 20s is pretty rare these days, and hasn't been common since the days when Publix numbered the pharmacy aisles in the early 1990's 56N (and similarly laid out) stores (a practice that was discontinued after those stores remodeled away from their original Wavy Pastel decor). I feel pretty confident that 21 is the highest numbered aisle in any Publix in modern times, although if anyone knows of a really weird, oddly wide Publix out there I missed with more than that, let me know!

      Leaving frozen foods, our last department to explore is the wine department, located in the front left corner of the building.

     The wine department is located in what was once the Albertsons Pet Center, which we saw pictured at the beginning of this post, featuring the same pet photos on the wall we see at that link. That version of the Grocery Palace pet decor was a later variant, as the original Grocery Palace pet decor used a different wall graphic. Both wall designs, I believe, were accompanied by a hanging rotating sign, which you can see repurposed (and no longer rotating) at that second link.

     While I can sit here and wine about how all the Grocery Palace decor was ripped out, I'll just use this photo to segue us into the final part of our interior tour: the front end.

     Much like this store's impressive width at 20 aisles, the front end was rather large too, complete with 12 staffed check lanes - that's a lot of check lanes for a Publix (and register 12 is the highest numbered check lane I've ever seen in a Publix too, so this store does get to have the highest count of something in the chain)!

     Beyond all the check lanes, we see Publix's customer service desk in the distance along the front wall. When Albertsons was here, customer service would have been located on the back of the pharmacy island next to the dry cleaners, with the wall in front of the checkouts home to the video rental department, the photo counter, and sometimes a bank. One of Publix's largest alterations to this building was ripping the former home of all of those special services out of the front wall and construction a new service desk near the exit door, with the remaining space along the front home to new employee offices.

     Leaving the store, here's a look from the exit door back toward the entrance door, the back wall of the pharmacy island to my left to create this little hallway of sorts.

     Back outside, we find the attached liquor store located on the right side of the building, designed to match the rest of the facade too with its own arched entryway.

     Publix replaced Albertsons' original swinging doors with a single sliding door, although it appears a little bit of Grocery Palace detail survived inside, at least before whatever modifications were made during the store's Evergreen remodel.

     I always love a good Grocery Palace Albertsons tour, even if the Grocery Palace remnants are a bit lacking these days. At least Publix left this store's original layout behind, which still keeps this building's Albertsons-ness alive years after its original decor met its demise.

     Facing US 301, the original Albertsons road sign still stands, now advertising the Publix that lives on in this building.

     With that last piece of this former Albertsons covered, let's spend a moment to go through some of the historic satellite imagery relating to this store, beginning with some Bird's Eye aerials courtesy of Bing Maps:

Front

Right Side

Back

Left Side

     And now the historic satellite imagery, courtesy of Google Earth:

Former Albertsons #4477 - 2022

Albertsons #4477 - 2008

Albertsons #4477 - 2002 - Still a relatively new store here, the pavement still fresh.

Future Albertsons #4477 - 1999

     Having covered both Albertsons and Publix in today's post, how about we cover a few different Floridian supermarkets in our next post, maybe a 3 for 1 special involving Kash n' Karry, Sweetbay, and Winn-Dixie perhaps? Sound interesting? With all of Winn-Dixie's drama still going on, that sounds like a good choice for me, and I have a really interesting store coming up next time that will cover all three of those chains in one interesting bundle, as only AFB is crazy enough to offer a buy 1 get 2 free special like that, but these deals will only last for so long!

Be sure to come back in two weeks for that, so until the next post,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger