Winn-Dixie #103 / Aldi #XXX
1545 County Road 220, Fleming Island, FL - Town Center at Eagle Harbor
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| Today's post is a presentation of Clay County retail |
After touring a Jacksonville-area Albertsons store last time, we can't leave the area without taking a look at a store run by the famous hometown chain, right? With all the news surrounding Winn-Dixie of late, it would only be appropriate too! Following my recent theme, the Fleming Island Winn-Dixie we'll be touring today is another Aldi victim, this store in particular having already closed this past January to begin its transformation into an Aldi. Not even Winn-Dixie's longtime hometown was spared from Aldi's wrath, and while some metro areas took a harder hit than greater Jacksonville, it's just another example of how no store was seemingly safe during that short period of ownership by Aldi. Like many of Aldi's other victims, the Fleming Island Winn-Dixie was a very nice store, serving as yet another one of the chain's higher-end prototypes (and one that didn't make it very far in the end either). I visited this store a number of years ago after noticing some of its unusual characteristics, adding this store as a stop on a day that included a number of other fun and unusual supermarket finds throughout the Jacksonville area (like this and this). For much of this store's early life, it was a pretty average Winn-Dixie, but its final remodel in the mid 2010's brought some interesting features to the table, features we'll talk about more once we learn about this store's origins:
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| Photo courtesy of the Clay County Property Appraiser |
Fleming Island (which is almost, but not quite an official island) is a small enclave located just south of Orange Park, and a southwestern suburb of Jacksonville located in neighboring Clay County. Fleming Island is one of the Jacksonville-area's more well-off communities, with it, along with other money pockets such as Ponte Vedra Beach and Jacksonville's Mandarin neighborhood known for their higher standards in living (and retail). Unlike Ponte Vedra and Mandarin, Fleming Island is a bit sleepier, with much of the enclave being residential outside of a small retail core surrounding the intersection of US 17 and County Route 220, at which a number of big-box stores appeared in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Alongside Publix, Target, Walmart, Home Depot, Kohl's and others, Winn-Dixie joined the party of Fleming Island retail in 1999, when the company built one of its upscale Food Pavilion stores as part of the new Town Center of Eagle Harbor development.
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All through its life, this Winn-Dixie was a classy looking store. With its rare (for the Florida Peninsula) brick facade and towering arched entrance, this store was designed to be a notch above the average Winn-Dixie. While Winn-Dixie has seemingly had troubles pulling off higher-end stores and appealing to higher-class clientele elsewhere in Florida, being the hometown hero, Winn-Dixie's track record for running successful nicer stores seems to be much higher in Jacksonville (with the Baymeadows and Ponte Vedra stores being very good examples of this success). Fleming Island seemed to share the success of those other stores I just linked to, as it was remodeled thoroughly twice during its run, first remodeling from its original Marketplace decor to Post-Bankruptcy in 2007 (the store seen during that remodel in the photo above), and then receiving one of the first remodels to the Green Interior in 2014.
The early days of the Green Interior were quite interesting, debuting in 2014 under the tenure of CEO Randall Onstead. Taking over as CEO in 2012 following the merger with BI-LO, I've heard that Onstead was the one who spearheaded the creation of the Green Interior as part of his new vision for the chain. Debuting in a brand-new Winn-Dixie that opened in Miramar Beach in 2014, that new store and the first few remodels to the Green Interior captured the final fleeting breaths of the company's Transformational era. With the Transformational era (spearheaded by previous CEO Peter Lynch) known for its elaborate remodels that practically reconstructed the store, Winn-Dixie took a similar approach with its remodel here in Fleming Island, as well as with another store in Lake Mary. Ponte Vedra's 2014-remodel to the Green Interior was a bit less thorough than what we'll see here in Fleming Island and what we previously saw in Lake Mary, but was still very nice and was a well-carried out application of the new decor in an upscale setting. Following the completion of the Lake Mary store's remodel in early 2015, all other Green Interior remodels to follow were mostly decor swaps, with some instances leaving original Marketplace-era floors behind (much like we've seen in the Down Down-era too). While the elaborate Transformational remodels were killed off by the BI-LO merger, that acquisition proved to be too much to keep such remodels going, seeing how the Green Interior cheapened out so fast after its debut. The departure of Randall Onstead in March 2015 didn't help matters much either - both for the quality of remodels and the future of the Green Interior in general. With the arrival of the CEO from down under, Ian McLeod, later in 2015, the Green Interior was phased out by the end of that year in favor of the Australian-born Down Down decor, which swept Winn-Dixie by storm from 2016-2020.
The interior of this store is where all the interesting changes from its Green Interior remodel lie. The exterior wasn't touched at all during that remodel, with the exterior signage hailing from the Post-Bankruptcy days. However, with a classy exterior like this, there was nothing to change to compliment a fancy remodel inside.
The store's entrance was located behind me in this photo, located on an angle as you'd expect from a Marketplace-era build. On the other side of the cases of water are the exit doors, which replaced the original swinging doors during the Post-Bankruptcy remodel.
Stepping inside - one thing should jump out as being a very unusual sight for a Winn-Dixie, especially for a Winn-Dixie built in 1999. If you guessed the open ceiling was it, you'd be correct!
Walking through the entrance doors, the first department we encountered was floral, with produce expanding off behind that in the front right corner.
Winn-Dixie went all out with this store's Green Interior remodel, which spanned much of early 2014. This store's official grand reopening occurred on July 17, 2014, which featured the cleaned up store (only 7 years after its thorough Post-Bankruptcy remodel too), as well as the addition of a larger prepared foods selection and wine department.
From produce, here's a look across the front of the store. New wood-style tile floors were installed during the Green Interior remodel, the wood expanding the length of the grand aisle. The rest of the store received a brown vinyl floor, which mimicked the style of a concrete floor but without all the garish scars of an actual concrete floor a supermarket from the 1990's would have upon such a conversion.
While Winn-Dixie clearly pumped a lot of money into that 2014 remodel with all the new floors, fixtures, removal of the drop ceiling, etc., one thing didn't change at all here - the layout. While the new Miramar Beach store and the later Lake Mary remodel both included the service department island from the Transformational era, Winn-Dixie kept this store's layout from the Post-Bankruptcy days and shoved the Transformational-style service departments into that.
As such, the deli department is located along the store's right side wall following produce, with the bakery just beyond the deli toward going the back of the store. The deli department starts with the "Freshly Prepared" hot foods counter (a name also harkening back to the Transformational days), with the self-serve wing bar right in front of me, followed by the full-service hot meals counter (home to the stuff like racks of ribs and carved roasts, for example, although I don't know how much of that selection may have survived any cuts after my visit to this store in 2019).
After grabbing a "freshly prepared" meal, a small dining area was included as part of the remodel for those wishing to dine in-store.
Following the hot foods, we find the "delicatessen" counter with the bakery just beyond that in the distance.
The signage from the Green Interior always had those sub-categories printed below the main signs, like we see here in the deli. While simplistic in design, I've always liked the Green Interior's signage style.
Unfortunately, my phone camera hates dark stores, so a lot of my photos of this store's Green Interior seem more brown or gray at times than they should. In the above photo the colors look much like they did in-person, but the dark ceilings don't make this decor pop as much as it did in the stores with white drop ceilings.
Another holdover from this store's Post-Bankruptcy days is the specialty cheese counter. These specialty cheese counters included a variety of imported and gourmet cheeses from around the world, and in the Post-Bankruptcy days, even included fresh olive oil on tap too.
These specialty cheese counters were typically only included in the Post-Bankruptcy remodels of stores that skewed higher-end, so putting one of these in Fleming Island made a lot of sense.
Following the cheese counter, the alcohol selection is located in the back right corner, serving as the transition between the grand aisle and the back aisle. Also, there really isn't anything more American than seeing cases of Miller Lite stacked to form a picture of the flag, right?
Following the alcohol, here's a look toward the store's seafood service counter, located along the back wall. That's a pretty good size Seafood counter for a Winn-Dixie too!
From seafood, here's a look across the back of the store where we see the transition from the wood-esque floors to the brown vinyl. However, we'll see more of this part of the store in a little bit, as I'm going to loop back through the far edge of the grand aisle before we press further into the left side of the building:
The back end of the first couple of grocery aisles in this store were home to the wine department. Being a high-end area, there was quite a selection to choose from in this store's wine department...
…including these $68 bottles of Moët & Chandon Imperial Brut in a locked display case. (And in case you were curious, "Imperial Brut" is French for "this wine is way out of my budget"!) While $68 is nowhere near the record for most expensive bottle of wine I've seen in a grocery store (high-end Publix stores have a number of $200+ bottles for sale), that's certainly toward the higher-end for your typical supermarket wine.
Leaving the wine aisle without knocking over any of the $50+ bottles, the last few grocery aisles off to the side of the grand aisle were home to organic and natural foods, with the main grocery aisles beginning off to my right.
Leaving the last bit of the grand aisle, here's a look across the store's front end. With the brown ceilings, brown floors, and the way the lighting is shining off the muted green walls making them look darker and brown-tinted, it makes this seem more like the Brown Interior than the Green Interior. I'm not saying that as a criticism, but the the brown-painted open ceilings and the special brown floors give the decor a much different feel than in the stores with drop ceilings and white tiles.
Our journey through the grocery aisles begins with the soda selection in aisle 2.
Beyond the seafood service counter, the back wall of the store is home to the meat coolers, with dairy even further down entering the back left corner. One of the unique traits of the Green Interior was its limited use of signage outside of the grand aisle, with graphics and stenciling used to fill the wall space instead of extra signage. As such, outside of the seafood service counter, the back and left walls lack any signage for the meat and dairy departments, although the meat department did get a "The Beef People" graphic to imply what items could be found below.
Skipping ahead a few aisles, frozen foods begin in the center of the store in aisle 7, with the remainder of the frozen products offered in aisle 8 next door:
Seen here is the remainder of frozen foods lining one side of aisle 8, with greeting cards keeping the frozen products company on the other side. Certainly an interesting aisle pairing, but convenient for picking up a birthday card and some ice cream!
Starting with those greeting cards in aisle 8, the non-food products continue into the next few aisles as well, with paper products, hardware, and automotive pictured here in aisle 9. While it may not have been the first store on most people's mind for this item, yes, you can grab a quart of motor oil at Winn-Dixie!
Staying in aisle 9, the half of the aisle closer to the front of the store transitions into health and beauty supplies, which continue next door in aisle 10. These two aisles were located in close proximity to the pharmacy counter, hence the reason for their placement in this location.
I always found the Green Interior to be a very classy look for Winn-Dixie, and that classy feel really comes off stronger in this store compared to an implementation of this decor in a converted Harvey's (which in turn was inside a converted Food Lion). It's a shame this decor only lasted for two years before Down Down made its grand rollout, only making it into roughly 15-20 stores scattered about before being retired.
In the back left corner of the store, we find a few category markers over the coolers to denote the various types of breakfast and lunch meats residing within them, although again, no prominent department signage on the walls. Instead, we find some stenciling of wheat alongside some posters depicting yet more wheat, a subtle way to fill some of the blank wall space in the area and denote a bit of farm-freshness (even though "wheat" and "meat" don't have much in common besides the word "eat", but I guess since you eat both of those items, it counts).
While we had some posters of wheat on the back wall, turning the corner into the dairy department on the left wall, we find posters depicting various styles of windmills, from the modern turbines to the traditional Kansas prairie style. The artistic photography and subject matter seems to suggest Winn-Dixie was going for a farm theme with the decor, which makes sense when trying to design a prototype built on the concept of freshness.
Panning over to the left just a little bit more, here's a better overview of the store's final aisle, aisle 11, home to dairy and the PB&J supplies. This aisle is a double-wide, with the traditional row of coffin coolers placed in the middle of the aisle for assorted weekly dairy promos.
The entire width of the salesfloor had a center cut-through aisle, pictured here, a common feature in these Food Pavilion-era Winn-Dixie buildings. Both halves of the aisles received their own aisle markers, although both halves of the aisles were numbered the same.
Getting toward the end of the dairy aisle, we find the store's pharmacy counter in the front left corner.
The Fleming Island Winn-Dixie pharmacy was another one that made it to the very end of Winn-Dixie's pharmacy operations in late 2023, leading up to the Aldi sale. Considering this store was on track to become an Aldi anyway, this store's pharmacy was destined for closure no matter what.
Next to the pharmacy was the customer service desk, also located on the angled corner wall like most Food Pavilion stores had.
I've always liked the Green Interior's check lane lights, being made of a single panel of frosted glass with an LED strip illuminating them from the edges. Overall, this store had 5 staffed check lanes and the bank of 4 self-checkouts, an average set-up for most Winn-Dixies in modern times.
Looking through the self-checkouts, the exit doors lie before us, reminding us this tour is just about over...
Back outside, I was intrigued by this store's offering of curbside pickup, including 4 designated parking spaces for those picking up grocery orders placed online.
While grocery pickup is fairly ubiquitous in 2025, back in 2019 when I visited this store, it was the first time I've ever seen such a feature at Winn-Dixie. Both Publix and Winn-Dixie were only experimenting with this concept back then, and like most retailers, frantically rolled out their pickup trials chain-wide following the outbreak of COVID-19 the following year. Most Winn-Dixies I've been to of late have dedicated pickup spots like this now, although denoted with a different style sign than these, and without the Target-eqsue custom parking spot paint jobs.
Another post, and yet another example of a really nice Winn-Dixie that succumbed to Aldi's wrath. As bad as Aldi's pillaging of the chain was, had they helped themselves to some of Winn-Dixie's not-as-nice stores, maybe there could have been a little benefit there to give Winn-Dixie an excuse to replace those stores with better ones nearby down the line. However, Aldi took a lot of stores that should have stayed with Winn-Dixie, like this one, and examples like this are ones that really disgust me about what has transpired with Winn-Dixie over the last two years.
Being that I can't change the past, here's a look at what is here now, as the new Fleming Island Aldi prepares to open on June 26, 2025. The timing of this post and Aldi's opening a few days from now is mere coincidence, as this post had been planned for this time slot for a while now, but I can't say I ever do better when I try! Many of the Winn-Dixie stores Aldi has been taking are in areas that skew higher-end, so it will be interesting to see how well Aldi does attracting that type of clientele. With Aldi being trendy now on Instagram and Tiktok, with viral product drops reminiscent of Aldi's semi-sibling (possibly soon-to-be full sibling) Trader Joe's, on top of quite the following of younger shoppers, I think Aldi will pull off a success of some kind with stores in these areas, however, I still think all of them would have been better off kept as a Winn-Dixie!
Anyway, before I wrap up this post, a brief programming note: Since I'm not doing anything this summer and have no shortage of stores to write about, I will be forgoing a summer break this year. However, due to a slight issue that arose with the store I was planning to post on July 6th, an MFR post will be going live that day instead of the post I was originally intending to publish to AFB (which will now be postponed until later this year). Other than that MFR substitution, things should be back to normal here on AFB to conclude July, with the regular posting schedule resuming on July 20th. That being said, be sure to check out MFR in two weeks for an interesting subject I've been meaning to write about for a while, which will have a tie-in to Winn-Dixie too (even though the original subject has nothing to do - directly at least - with Winn-Dixie). More on what that's all about next time over on MFR, and be sure to check that out before coming back to AFB later in July for more here!
So until the next post,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
