Wal-Dixie - Always The Beef People, Always (Until Aldi Shows Up)

Wal-Mart #613 (Original Location) / Winn-Dixie #2309 / Future Aldi #2XX

353 West Granada Boulevard, Ormond Beach, FL

Today's post is a presentation of Volusia County retail

     It's a Winn-Dixie kind of month I suppose, as fresh off the heels of seeing the detailed conversion coverage of one Winn-Dixie store, we're off covering another one of Aldi's victims. Unlike last time, today's post will focus only on the Winn-Dixie that was, not so much the Aldi part, although we will touch on that briefly at the end. Anyway, back in the 1990's when Marketplace fever was running through the chain, Winn-Dixie seemed to be on a crusade to replace every non-Marketplace store with one of these larger, fancier prototypes. While Winn-Dixie had no issues building new Marketplace stores from the ground-up, sometimes they had to get a little creative to fit a new Marketplace store in a town, a common tactic being to take over a former discount store space. There are a number of examples of Winn-Dixie taking over former Kmarts, TG&Ys, Woolworths, Zayres, and even a JCPenney as the company sought larger spaces in the 1990's. However, as far as I'm aware, the Ormond Beach Winn-Dixie Marketplace was the world's only example of a Wal-Dixie. Like most Winn-Dixie conversions of old discount stores, there wasn't much left behind from the previous tenant here, but I did find one small Walmart relic that Winn-Dixie forgot about poking around this place. Still, being the only Wal-Dixie was intriguing enough to get me to visit this store, which ended up being quite unique in its own right, even if there wasn't an obvious "We Sell for Less" labelscar to be found. Lots to talk about today, so let's get started on learning a little more about this store:

     Walmart first arrived in Ormond Beach in April 1984, when the company opened one of its new "Discount City" stores on West Granada Boulevard, just west of Ormond Beach's small downtown area near the riverfront. Walmart would remain in this building until 1995, when the company opened Volusia County's first Supercenter 4 miles to the west at the junction of Granada Boulevard and I-95, which was beginning to develop as Ormond Beach's new cluster for big box retail.

     After sitting empty for nearly 2 years, Winn-Dixie came along and took over the old Walmart store, using it to replace its much older store in Ormond Beach's Rivergate Village Plaza at the intersection of Granada Boulevard and Nova Road (which we'll also be touring today, over on MFR). For its conversion into a Winn-Dixie, the Walmart's old outdoor garden center was demolished, with the interior portion of the garden center preserved to be converted into additional tenant space (it's now a restaurant). The rest of the building Winn-Dixie used, with the main supermarket taking the majority of the main Walmart building. The left-most portion of the former Walmart became the liquor store, although I don't know if the space behind the liquor store was ever used by Winn-Dixie as a stockroom or if it was left empty ever since the conversion. Even with a portion of the former 70,000 square foot Walmart cast off for the liquor store and potential excess space of some kind, this was still a really big Winn-Dixie, easily coming in around 60,000 square feet (which was on the large end for a Marketplace-era store of any format, as the 53,000 square foot former JCPenney Winn-Dixie took over in Avon Park was considered gigantic when it opened). The Ormond Beach Winn-Dixie was certainly toward the top of the list when it came to being one of the chain's largest stores, although I really don't know what the largest Winn-Dixie ever was. Winn-Dixie did take over some former Xtra Super Food Centers that were quite large, and there are some expanded older stores that have a bit of width to them, but the typical 1990's Winn-Dixie newbuild hovered around 50,000 square feet, with these conversions being the anomalies. However, with all the extra space from Walmart to work with, Winn-Dixie was able to cram in a top-of-the-line Food Pavilion format into this building, adding everything a Winn-Dixie of the time could possibly offer (such as a wide array of prepared food bars, photo processing, etc.). The new Winn-Dixie opened in Spring 1997, bringing the closest thing Winn-Dixie ever had to a "supercenter" into this world.

     The only other example I know of (in Florida) of a supermarket taking over the entirety of an old Walmart was when Albertsons took over the former East Naples Walmart (store #4422) in the mid-1990's (following Walmart's move to a new store across the street). Albertsons certainly would have felt more at home with the 65,000-70,000 square feet a former Walmart came with compared to Winn-Dixie. However, Winn-Dixie made this building work, and while there were some places that felt quite spacious from trying to fluff out what's usually a 50,000 square foot format, I've seen worse!

     The facade design we see here is entirely from Winn-Dixie, as Walmart's original entrance was on the far-right side of the building (whereas Winn-Dixie shifted their entrance a little further to the left). The design of the exterior also shares many similarities to a traditional Winn-Dixie-built Food Pavilion too, although this building was given some additional Mission-style design cues.

     Entering the store, an interior cart corral was set up between the two sets of doors, a carryover from this store's Post-Bankruptcy remodel from the mid-2000's (when the vestibule was reconfigured to have two sets of sliding doors compared to the original concave design). Another interesting thing to point out about this store is that the welcome sign we see here (as well as on the thank you sign over the check lanes), Winn-Dixie kept referring to this location as the "Granada" Winn-Dixie instead of the Ormond Beach Winn-Dixie, opting for the name of the road instead. Winn-Dixie hasn't operated two stores simultaneously in Ormond Beach since the early 1990's (when the store on US 1 closed), so I don't know why this wasn't just called the Ormond Beach store on the signage, as it was the only Winn-Dixie in town for many years, especially by the time of the Down Down remodel!

     And speaking of Down Down, that's the decor we'll be seeing throughout the store today. While originally opening with the Golden Girls-esque Rose and Teal Marketplace (heck, the name of a Golden Girl was even in the name of the decor!), this store was eventually brought into the 21st Century with a remodel to Post-Bankruptcy, capped off with the Down Down remodel in early 2019. Looking over the store's BOGO displays just inside the entrance, we get a taste of the Down Down decor in the background beyond the check lanes. While looking toward the check lanes, another interesting feature about this store was the recessed lighting around the signature Marketplace-era "wedding cake" dropped ceiling over the checkouts - usually you don't see that touch in one of these stores.

     Turning the opposite direction from the previous photo, we find the floral department located in the alcove next to the front doors. Floral would have originally been located between produce and the service departments, with the relocation to this alcove (formerly the wine department) happening during the Post-Bankruptcy remodel (if not a little earlier as the Food Pavilion's features were scaled back in the early 2000's).

     Following Floral is the Natural & Organic department, and yes, that's the entirety of it on those shelves directly under the sign. In most Winn-Dixie stores with the special Natural & Organic department, that usually follows produce in the grand aisle walking toward the back of the store, with a short aisle or two of natural foods that comes across as much more than what we see here. However, with this store still having the Food Pavilion island, that led to this department's unorthodox placement up front, where most Winn-Dixies would usually keep a wall of seasonal merchandise.

     Continuing past the Natural & Organic foods, we find produce in the building's front right corner (as well as another special and rare department poking out that we'll look at in more detail in just a moment). The wall to my right would have been where Walmart's main entrance was during their tenure in this building, with the Food Pavilion service island in what used to be Walmart's clothing departments.

     In addition to the main "Produce" sign on the building's right wall, the produce department got a secondary sign on the front wall reading "Fruit & Vegetables" (although why "Fruit" was left without the plural, I don't know). The secondary sign helps add a little character to what would otherwise be a large expanse of red paint, considering how the Down Down decor wasn't particularly known for its use wall embellishments.

     From the building's front right corner, here's a look across the store's width from end to end. A pretty big store, isn't it?

     While the cut fruit bowls were certainly picked over by the time I got here, I actually took this photo to showcase the tiny Down Down produce category markers installed at the top of the coolers, as it's not often you find a decor package that includes category markers for produce!

     Zooming out a bit from that last shot, we get ourselves a close-up of the "Produce" sign above the coolers.

     Finishing off in produce, here's a look down the store's "grand aisle", complete with its original Food Pavilion island to my left (home to the deli) and the bakery to my right. When this store first opened in 1997, the grand aisle would have lived up more to its "grand" name. Gone are the International Cheese Shop, the coffee counter, and the melon bar, and in came a dis-used salad bar (although to be fair, these pictures were taken in 2020, so COVID was the reason for that being empty - not Winn-Dixie cutting corners like the empty salad bars mean these days) and a standard Winn-Dixie deli and bakery offering.

     What used to be the International Cheese Shop was now home to the "Kitchen", and a rather large one at that. The Kitchen is home to Winn-Dixie's deli hot foods, including the wing bar, rotisserie chickens, and a Transformational-esque dinner plate area (behind the tallest glass case) with ribs, carved meats, and other sides. While this may pale in comparison to the prepared foods served here in 1997, this was the deluxe offering for a Winn-Dixie of the 2020's!

     Tucked between produce and the grand aisle (which we'll return to in a little bit) in the original home of floral is a rare department for Winn-Dixie - the Kosher department. Winn-Dixie once had three special Kosher stores in South Florida (Boca Raton and Aventura, both Aldi victims, and Tamarac, which closed in the 2018 bankruptcy) complete with Kosher service counters and a selection of over 1,000 Kosher grocery items. There was even a promo video (made in the Aventura store during its Transformational decor days) showcasing the special Kosher department and all of its offerings. Quite impressive, and I know there were a number of people upset when it was announced the Boca Raton store was converting into an Aldi, mentioning how Aldi would never carry that much Kosher product to make up for the loss of that store.

     Other than lacking the service Kosher bakeries and delis (and pizza) like those South Florida counterparts, Ormond Beach still had a full Kosher grocery, dairy, and frozen food selection, complete with special Down Down wall decor and hanging signage too (and see here for a glimpse of the pervious Post-Bankruptcy variant). In most other Winn-Dixie stores, Kosher items were relegated to a small section of the international foods aisle, with the only other examples I can think of where Kosher was given its own department like this (outside of the South Florida stores mentioned previously) being the S. Apopka Vineland Road store in Orlando and the now-closed Mandarin Winn-Dixie with the prototype white decor. The former Swann Avenue Winn-Dixie in Tampa gets an honorable mention, but didn't have the Kosher refrigerated products from what I can remember.

     The Kosher refrigerated and frozen foods were located along the wall that baked up to the side of the bakery, upon which the "Kosher Dairy" sign was placed. In trying to angle this shot to get the entirety of the phrase "Kosher Dairy" in it (which I just barely managed), I ended up cutting off the entirely of the actual dairy coolers! (Those were just out of frame to the left).

     From Kosher, here's a look back toward produce, with the Kosher wines located along the wall.

     Beyond the refrigerated goods and wines, the remainder of the Kosher section was stocked with various other Kosher grocery and pantry items, as well as disposable Kosher dinnerware too. While I never made it to one of the more expansive South Florida Kosher stores before they closed, what I saw here was still pretty impressive for a Kosher store-within-a-store, and I can't say I've seen anything similar from a Publix before either. Certainly a shame Aldi had to take the last two deluxe Kosher Winn-Dixie stores, as well as this one in Ormond Beach, as Aldi will for sure not be able to provide such a Kosher offering like folks mentioned when the Boca Raton store closed.

     Leaving the Kosher section, we return to the grand aisle with one final look at the Kitchen before we move on to the rest of the deli island:

     The deli occupies roughly two-thirds of the island, with the part of the island closest to the back of the store containing the modern beer and wine department.

     I can only imagine that these Food Pavilion stores were quite impressive in the late 1990's and even into the early 2000's, as they typically offered food services like pizza, Chinese food, and even an ice cream and coffee bar! Unfortunately, I never got to experience a Winn-Dixie Food Pavilion before the concept was watered-down into its modern form, as all the Winn-Dixies I lived near during that time were either the plainer standard Marketplace stores or really, really old.

     Across from the deli is the bakery, located along the building's right side wall. While there may not be obvious 1980's Walmart interior relics in here, the awkwardly placed ceiling poles are a clue that this building wasn't built from scratch as a Winn-Dixie Food Pavilion. I'm sure the placement of those poles made much more sense when this used to be Walmart's clothing department!

     The bakery at this Winn-Dixie even featured a bread warmer for loaves of fresh Italian bread - not something you find everyday at the run-of-the-mill Winn-Dixie!

     From the back of the grand aisle, here's another perspective into how the deli and bakery are situated. I can see why Winn-Dixie had a tendency to remove these islands going into the 2000's, as the removal made the salesfloor feel larger and less cramped than this channel created by the island. The island removals also allowed Winn-Dixie to consolidate unused counter space and blend the deli and bakery into one area, also allowing for a reduction in staff as the deli and bakery would work together as one team.

     Under the awning from the deli island, we find extra lighting built into the zig-zag the drop ceiling makes. From my understanding of these stores, the original service counter followed the contour of the zig-zag, with the built in lights acting as a spotlight for the glass cases that used to be below. With all the fancy features reduced to this, Winn-Dixie straightened out the deli counter in later remodels and added some self-serve coolers for items like deli teas and pre-packaged cheeses to fill the space all the prepared foods used to occupy.

     At the end of the grand aisle, we enter the wine & beer department. Occupying the former cafe and dining area of this old Food Pavilion, this department used to be located near the front of the store when it first opened.

     Beyond wine & beer, the service meat and seafood counter occupied the back right corner, and we'll take a closer look at that momentarily.

     Opposite the meat and seafood service counter in the same corner are the beer coolers, which got its own wall signage in addition to the hanging sign touting "Wine & Beer" over the wine aisles. Certainly no shortage of beer here!

     Returning to the meat and seafood counter, we get a good look at just how large this counter was. Most Winn-Dixie stores have a service meat and seafood counter about half the size of what we see here, but being a Food Pavilion, Winn-Dixie had to kick things up a notch just a bit, as they are "The Beef People", and the meat department is one area a store who calls themselves that shouldn't skimp on in a deluxe prototype!

     Here's a full overview of everything that was going on in the store's back right corner, and turning around from that perspective...

     …we get this look across the meat coolers on the back wall. Way off in the distance is the dairy department, but hopefully this photo serves as another example of just how wide this store is!

     My visit to this store occurred in 2020 when Down Down was still all the rage, with the famous "Big Red Hand" pointing to all the savings in store. It was hard to miss all the Big Red Hands pointing to these dump bins of sale items in the back of the store to promote the Summer of Down Down (which would end up being Down Down's last summer too, as by the next summer, these guys were out promoting Winn-Dixie's "winn-ing" deals in full force).

     Leaving the back wall, we'll divert into the grocery aisles with this look down aisle 1. Aisle 1 was home to assorted beverages, and with this aisle abutting the back of the deli island, Beverages also received a formal department sign on the island wall too. While the cases of water were quite picked over (and not spilling out into the aisle like we've seen at Winn-Dixies before), the rest of the aisle was well-stocked, the lack of water just a byproduct of the stockpiling madness that mid-2020 brought about.

     Leaving beverages, aisles 2 and 3 acted as a double-wide aisle. The front half of those two aisles served as the home to a large Dollar Shop department (added in this store's 2019 Down Down remodel).

     Getting to the back half of aisles 2 and 3, soda occupies this large expanse, with the Chek products taking up most of the soda shelf space on the aisle 3 side alone!

     From soda, here's a look back toward the Dollar Shop. With the columns running down the middle of the aisle, it worked out nicely that this ended up being the double aisle in the store.

     More poles appear on the middle of the back aisle, with frozen foods slowly coming into view in the next few aisles.

     Now that we've previewed the back wall, here's a taste of the front end as we press onward, with the check lanes to my left, and the service desk and pharmacy up ahead in the distance.

     Ducking into aisle 4, we find the aisle of temptation, also known as the cookie and candy aisle. And to make things even more tempting, all those Chips Ahoys were on Down Down too - curse you Big Red Hand!

     At least I managed to take a photo of the many Big Red Hands on display in the cookie aisle, being that these guys were slowly on their way out come the next year. Even though the Big Red Hand itself went away early in the Winn Win era, the "Down Down" branding lasted on shelf tags until early 2023, when "Price Hold - Check Marks the Savings!" finally replaced the last of the Down Down references.

     Like most of Winn-Dixie's 1990's stores (Food Pavilion or not), Frozen Foods were located in the center of the salesfloor, in this particular store those aisles being numbers 6 and 7.

     The set-up of the tall freezers with doors and the row of coffin coolers in the middle is original to this store's 1997 opening. Many stores would later have the center row of coffin coolers replaced with more of the tall freezers during later remodels, but a good number kept the original set-up like this into the 2020's as well.

     Being this is the original freezer arrangement, I would also have to guess all of these coolers are original to 1997 as well, just painted white during the Down Down remodel to appear more modern. The flooring, however, is not original, and features the Post-Bankruptcy tile pattern, which matches the Down Down decor much better than a scene like this!

     For some reason I took a lot of photos of this store's Frozen Food department, but I guess it worked out having so many different views of this department frozen in another time.

     Leaving the Frozen Foods department, we find that department's sign on the back wall, lined up perfectly with the two frozen aisles to be seen all the way from the front of the store. In addition to that, the frozen meats in the coolers below the sign also match the description - talk about a Winn Win for Down Down!

     After Frozen Foods, we enter the international foods aisles. While Kosher was clearly the star of the show in this store with its own dedicated department, the back half of aisle 8 contained the remainder of the international goods, ranging from Hispanic to European to Asian items. The opposite side of the aisle was pasta, transitioning into canned goods as you got closer to the front end.

     As we start to near the pharmacy in the front left corner of the building, we find ourselves in the Beauty department in the front halves of aisles 10 and 11.

     As usual with Down Down remodels, the Beauty department gets a large light blue hanging sign, with more bright blue signage throughout on the category markers. The bright blue is a stark contrast to all the red in the rest of the store, so this department does stand out (which was probably the intent of the color contrast).

     It would have been a beautiful sight had Aldi spared this store, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. What's even worse is that Aldi is only taking approx. 25,000 square feet of a 70,000 square foot building. Heck, Aldi could have taken a chunk of this store for themselves and left Winn-Dixie with plenty of room to stay open in a space more in-line with the size of a modern Winn-Dixie. While I highly doubt Aldi would let Winn-Dixie reclaim the 45,000 square feet in this building still up for grabs, wouldn't that be a sight to see, and one big "back at you!".

     Behind the beauty department, the remainder of aisle 11 was home to hardware, automotive, and pet supplies.

     After all that time, we've finally made it to the left side of the store. Here's a look back at everything we've seen so far, and all the ground we've covered in this large store!

     Even with this store being on the larger side for a Winn-Dixie, it still maxes out at only 14 aisles - hardly anything compared to some of those really wide expanded 1980's stores with 20-21 aisles. However, the deli island took up a good amount of space, and some of the grocery aisles were wider than normal, which helped Winn-Dixie keep this store in alignment with the typical aisle count of a 1990's built store.

     Within aisle 14, we find the majority of the dairy department, which spills over onto the back wall where the "MILK" wall sign is (partially cut off in the above photo). Like most 1990's-era Winn-Dixies, the dairy aisle contains open coolers down the middle for dairy promos, repainted gray during the Down Down remodel to hide any possible traces of their original rose and teal trim colors.

     Entering the store's front right corner, we find the pharmacy counter, the greeting card and office supply nook, and the service desk, all in that order from this vantage point.

     As was typical in most Food Pavilions, the Pharmacy counter was built on an angle in the store's front left corner. This was quite the spacious pharmacy counter too, complete with a full waiting and consultation area off to the side. The Ormond Beach Winn-Dixie pharmacy remained in operation until all of Winn-Dixie's pharmacies were closed in late 2023, following the chain's sale to Aldi.

    Beyond the pharmacy was the greeting card and consultation nook, and as you could probably imagine, that was not the original use for that space. In a typical Food Pavilion newbuild, both the pharmacy counter and the service desk would be located on this angled wall, with the service desk originally being located where the greeting cards are now. In addition, where I was standing to take the above photo would have been the original home of the photo counter when this store was new. Either during the Post-Bankruptcy remodel or possibly at some point prior, the service desk was moved to its current location in front of the check lanes next to the exit, most likely taking over a space that once housed the in-store bank branch (which were fittingly called Marketplace Bank, all of which were closed by 2002).

     So when the math teacher said I needed to use pi to calculate the circumference of an object, that's what she meant! Thankfully Winn-Dixie keeps their pie with all the stuff I need buy to calculate the circumference!

     Calculations aside, we'll keep this tour going and take one final look into the front left corner and the former pharmacy, both that counter and the store the victim of an irrational business deal.

     Between the exit doors and the greeting cards, here's a look at the cus-mer service desk, the placement of that pole not helping my photo taking any! Gotta love a repurposed building, right?

     Being that we've made it to the customer service desk, we're back at the store's front end once again, the photo above giving us a nice overview of that area.

     Looking at my photos, it appears 4-5 of the store's 7 check lanes were open throughout my visit. That's a really good number of lanes to be open at once at a Winn-Dixie, especially for a weekday afternoon when my visit occurred! I should also note this store did not have self-checkout either, which could have skewed the number of open full-service lanes higher, but either way, this must have been a decently busy store to justify that much front end staffing.

     According to this diagram I linked to earlier in the post, this store would have had around 12 full-service check lanes when it first opened, with the possibility of having a few self-checkouts as well (a feature Winn-Dixie did experiment with in the late-Marketplace era). Most Winn-Dixie stores had their number of check lanes reduced through the years to 5-7 full-service lanes on average by the late 2000's, and you can always tell these old Marketplace stores once had many more lanes considering how the drop ceiling over the front end is always much longer than the modern number of checkouts - the original check lane configuration would have completely filled the area under the lower ceiling. It's also interesting how this store never received self-checkouts during either the Post-Bankruptcy or Down Down remodel, although I have seen other examples of stores from those eras where self-checkout was not included. Transformational and Winn Win remodels were the only times where installation of self-checkout was a standard practice and not just an occasional option.

     As it was phrased on the sign, thank you for shopping your Granada Winn-Dixie, and until we meet again as the Granada Aldi (or should I say, Granada Aldi #2 - Aldi already has a store on Granada Blvd. 2.7 miles to the west of here near I-95. That being said, was this conversion even necessary?).

     While I don't agree with any of these conversions, I really question some, like this one, where an Aldi already existed less than 3 miles away. Seems like a total waste to sacrifice a Winn-Dixie so Aldi can have another store in a town where one already existed not too far away, but I guess Aldi is taking inspiration from Publix with the "strangle and saturate" method of expansion. Thankfully it seems like most Winn-Dixies under 2 miles from an Aldi were spared, as I'd be really mad if Winn-Dixies across the street from an Aldi started being converted!

     While this Winn-Dixie supermarket wasn't spared from Aldi's wrath, its liquor store was, and will live on for the foreseeable future as an orphan next to the new Aldi. The liquor store is located on the far left side of the building, and I can't imagine its interior walls go too far beyond the left edge of the awning over the doors.

     Beyond the liquor store's canopy was still a good amount of space, either a piece of the old Walmart lopped off and left to rot, or being used by Winn-Dixie for storage. This side of the building was once home to Walmart's garden center, with that Irish pub in the background built within the original interior portion of the garden center space. The pub's parking lot was home to the outdoor portion where all the plants were kept, with that structure removed when Winn-Dixie moved in.

     Rounding the corner and walking toward the pub, we find that lone Walmart relic I kept hinting at earlier in the post - an old garden center entry door. This door led into the mysterious void space on the left side of the building, and unfortunately with the bars over the glass, I wasn't able to get a good peek inside to see what was in here. Still though, a piece of Walmart was lurking around this place, which was fun to see! Also, I can't help but wonder if that darker patch of beige paint on the wall above a door is a product of covering over Walmart's old red and blue stripes?

     While in no way as extensive as my coverage from last time, I did end up in Ormond Beach again while this store was being converted into the new Aldi, and stopped by to grab a few photos of the progress. Above is a scene from May 2025, where construction wasn't as far along as I expected for a store that closed on December 8, 2024 - only a week after the store we toured last time, which has been open as an Aldi for just over a month now.

     Aldi is taking over the right-most third of this building, the part where the old Food Pavilion island was, interestingly enough. From what I could see, the Aldi side of the building was gutted, but construction still had a ways to go at this time. Aldi's website doesn't list an official opening date for this store yet, but a recent article in the local newspaper suggested the store will open in December 2025, which is quite a ways out, especially with Aldi claiming these conversions will only take 6 months a piece. I can't help but wonder if Aldi's conversion spree is stretching the company's resources too thin, as many of these conversions seem to be pushing into the 6-12 month timeframe instead.

     As you can see in the facade side-by-side sketches, there was still a bit of work to do out here, including building's Aldi's new sign frame where Winn-Dixie's was removed. Interestingly, the sketch also seems to suggest that the liquor store will be moving to the right side of the building. I didn't notice any new cutouts on that side of the building for a new liquor store (although it still could have been too early for that to happen), but I would be surprised if Aldi built Winn-Dixie an entirely new liquor store, especially since the old one was isolated and not directly connected to the main store structurally. It will be interesting to see if that comes to fruition, although I can say the newly-orphaned liquor store was doing a decent business when I stopped by for my photos of the construction progress - quite a number of people were going in and out.

     Anyway, that is the story of yet another one of Aldi's victims, a tragic tale of greed and lack of consideration to the communities impacted by these closures. With all of this talk of Winn-Dixie, Aldi, and closures, let's take a break from all that next time and celebrate something a little happier - a big milestone is coming up for Floridian retail (and I don't mean Aldi's 150th Winn-Dixie conversion either). We'll talk more about that next time, but if you're in the mood for diving a little deeper into Winn-Dixie's history in Ormond Beach, as well as reading about how one retail chain is beating the odds and coming back for a new chance at life, I've got a "big lot" of information to share with you on MFR, so be sure to "chek" that out as well!

So until the next post,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger