Winn-Dixie #2238
4855 East Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway, St. Cloud, FL - St. Cloud Plaza
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| Today's post is a presentation of Osceola County retail |
A year ago, everyone thought Winn-Dixie was going to be left for dead by Aldi. Today, there are still a lot of people who feel that way, unfortunately, but I don't think that's the case. Southeastern Grocers, soon to become "The Winn-Dixie Company", still has some life in it. Beaten, battered, and scarred, yes, but not left for dead yet. Officially released from the grasp of Aldi earlier in 2025, the company was pretty quiet on what would become of its 170 go-forward stores for the first half of the year, as many of us speculated on what Winn-Dixie would do with its new scattered footprint. A few of those 170 stores closed outright early on, but other than that, it wouldn't be until September 2025 when we figured out a little more about the company's future plans. Turns out, remodels and new stores were part of the go-forward plan, with Winn-Dixie #2238 in St. Cloud chosen to represent what the future of the chain would entail. Wanting to blaze a new path forward, Winn-Dixie has rolled out a new decor package and marketing scheme that made its debut here in St. Cloud, and will become more prominent in early 2026 when Southeastern Grocers officially makes its change to The Winn-Dixie Company. The rebranding did not come without some difficult decisions, as the "new" Winn-Dixie will only have stores in Florida and Southeastern Georgia, with the 32 stores given back by Aldi located outside of that region sold off to a variety of different buyers, presumably to use that money to build back its presence in Florida. Even with only 130 131 stores now as of late 2025, Winn-Dixie says work will be coming to grow that number again come 2026, and hopefully so, as Winn-Dixie finally needs a break from all the negativity! (And apparently, greedy landlords wanting to kick out Winn-Dixie stores for new apartment complexes too, which isn't helping the growth plan any.) As for our preview of what Winn-Dixie will look like going forward, we'll return to St. Cloud to see what this store looks like following its late-2025 remodel. However, before we get to the final product, let's quickly take a look at the remodel that transformed a tired Post-Bankruptcy store into a supermarket 100 years in the making:
The Sing Oil Blogger started to tease me with hints that Winn-Dixie would be starting remodels again in late 2025, beginning with 5 undisclosed (to me) locations somewhere in Central Florida, one of which would begin its remodel for a completion in late 2025 (with the other 4 coming along in the new year). Having the geography narrowed down, that only left me with a few options of stores still holding onto an older decor package that could be part of the potential remodel group. Knowing the St. Cloud Winn-Dixie received a massive reset, as well as new aisle markers, in late 2024, that seemed to suggest something could be brewing here. This store is practically across the street from an Aldi, so it wasn't going anywhere, making it a prime candidate to prep for a potential remodel once Aldi was out of the picture. Happening back into the area again in early September 2025 and dying to figure out what stores were part of those chosen 5, I pulled into the parking lot of this store hoping for an answer...
…and I sure got one! Plastered on the window was a poster announcing "Winning improvements coming soon" - I had found the store chosen to debut Winn-Dixie's new era! Knowing that, I was excited to see what was going on inside...
…however, I had stumbled upon this store right as the remodel had begun. So other than knowing what store was getting the first remodel, I didn't know much else yet, as the gray primer on the walls wasn't suggestive of any decor package at this point.
Seeing all this gray before me, I really hoped this was just a primer coat and not Winn-Dixie trying out their own version of the recent grayscale trend. Thankfully, that was not the case!
As of early September 2025, outside of the old Post-Bankruptcy decor being removed, the only other work done was installing new tile backsplashes in the service departments. The backsplashes consisted of plain white tiles (or tile patterned panels) though, which also didn't tell me much.
With the aisle markers hailing from the Winn Win era, plus the lone remodel poster showing a picture of any decor using a photo of Winn Win as well, I originally thought this store was going to get Winn Win. From a consistency standpoint I wouldn't have complained if that were the case (and I liked Winn Win too), but after the recent the ownership changes, I was still suspicious that something new may appear in here.
Just seeing this remodel happening was the shot of hope I needed that Winn-Dixie still had some life left in them. If the new ownership group just wanted to sell off everything that was left, they wouldn't be remodeling stores and opening new ones.
The only trace of Post-Bankruptcy left during this visit were the lane lights, and by my next visit, those would be gone as well.
My next visit happened only a week after my previous one, and while the exterior of the store was still untouched, there was some noticiable progress made to the interior, progress that finally began to sway me that a new decor was on its way instead of Winn Win:
Stepping inside, my first clue to the new decor package was this red wall across from the cart corral. While this could have been suggestive of Winn Win or even Winn Win 2.0, turning into the main store, this certainly was not:
Looking around the salesfloor, the walls were prepped with their final color scheme - a primarily beige background with a black stripe beneath. Neither Winn Win nor Winn Win 2.0 included beige, and the walls were painted much too nice for this to be another primer or underlying coat of paint. This scene, coupled with the Winn Win-era aisle markers are what caused me to originally describe the new decor as "a blend of Winn Win and The Green Interior" - hang a few pictures of wheat on the wall and this was basically the makings for The Green Interior!
However, I didn't think Winn-Dixie was going to pull an Albertsons' Blue and Green Awnings and bring back to life a decor package that had died a number of years prior (as much as I did like The Green Interior). The fact this store was getting something new did intrigue me though, and was a big part of the reason I made so many trips out here during the span of this remodel, as it was killing me to know what was about to go up on the walls here!
By this time in the remodel, most of the work was confined to the walls. The center store reset and installation of the new shelves had yet to occur.
Once we get to my next remodel visit, that's when this will really begin to feel like a remodel. Right now, this just looks like a supermarket with very boring walls!
A few of the coolers in the middle of the dairy aisle were removed, however, that was only temporary. The coolers would return to their original homes by the end of the remodel, as the store was only preparing this area to become home to a staging area for new fixtures.
The only other major comment from my mid-September visit was the new self-checkouts were being installed while I was here, with the square of 4 units that most recently remodeled Winn-Dixies received. The regular check lanes also received new counters, which while more modern than the Post-Bankruptcy-era ones they replaced, still appeared to be hand-me-downs from a closed store. All the "new" regular lanes had mis-matched Down Down style lane lights on them (an odd thing to include if new), which is what made me believe they were recycled (although don't worry, a cohesive set of new lights were installed by the time the remodel finished). The self-checkouts, on the other hand, were totally new, as they were still wrapped in packing material when I walked by.
With that said, we'll let two more weeks pass by before returning, and by the time October rolled around, this remodel got much more interesting:
Now in early October, the store's 20-year-old exterior sign had been removed, replaced by a banner until the new exterior paint was finished and updated logo installed.
Still not much to see in the grand aisle as far as progress goes...
...as even after giving the remodel crew two more weeks, I still had no further clues as to what the new decor would entail. However, as we leave the perimeter and head into the grocery aisles, we'll see where much of the work these last few weeks had been concentrated:
As part of the remodel, the entire salesfloor received brand new shelving, replacing the very aged (and slightly rusty) shelves installed in the Post-Bankruptcy days (although based on their condition, the old shelves could have been original to this store's 1997 opening). As the new shelves were being installed, all the temporarily homeless grocery items were shoved in various places around the store as their turn for shelving replacement came up, and we'll see some of the wild temporary placements in the next few photos:
Two random shelving sections of spices were placed in the middle of the back aisle, but that's nothing compared to what the remodel crew did in the frozen foods aisle:
I feel claustrophobic down here! With nowhere else to put them, the greeting cards were placed in the middle of the frozen food aisle, leading to some tight quarters. This was one of the few times I wished for the days of one-way aisles to return!
There were lots of random empty patches like this throughout the store as the crews worked aisle by aisle on installing the new shelving units. The fully stocked section ahead on my right was on the new bright-white shelves, with everything else being the old and worn peach-colored shelves.
The store's old pharmacy counter even made a brief reappearance while all the shelving was being replaced. The old pharmacy counter became home to this store's new seasonal department following its closure in 2023, and this store actually did a good job of hiding it both before and after the remodel.
With the breakfast aisle being the one of the ones worked on while I was here, cereal found its temporary home in front of the old pharmacy counter. At least this temporary placement put the cereal closer to the milk located around the corner!
The backside of cereal's temporary home contained some various grocery odds and ends, and provided us with access to the remaining grocery aisles too.
While the temporary home of the spices didn't jam up the back aisle too much...
…all the boxes of fixtures in the middle of the dairy aisle made for quite the chaotic scene! When I was here, a large group of managers were trying to unpack and organize a lot of these fixtures, which added to the chaos down here too.
The self-checkouts were open by this time, although the lane lights on the regular check lanes were still the mis-matched Down Down lights. By the time of my next visit, the lane lights would be replaced with the final cohesive set of Winn Win-style ones.
By mid-October, I finally got myself a few more clues to what the future of Winn-Dixie would look like, and to my surprise, my first clue came from the exterior sign. When I pulled into the parking lot and saw it for the first time, the checkmark looked a bit off to me. Turns out, Winn-Dixie is changing their logo as part of the upcoming rebranding to "The Winn-Dixie Company". The new logo is in a slightly different font compared the one debuted in 2016 with the rollout of Down Down, and you can enlarge the above photo and compare it to this to see the change. The change is very slight and I doubt many will even notice, and thankfully it's slight enough that it shouldn't trigger a mass replacement of all the signs across the chain to make everything uniform.
Heading inside, we finally see some progress on the wall decor, with some Winn Win-esque wood panels appearing to hold the future department signs. In addition, we also see the flooring throughout the produce department was ripped up in preparation for the installation of the woodgrain-style tiles Winn-Dixie has been using in the produce department of most stores since the Post-Bankruptcy era (which this store didn't actually receive, being an oddball early Post-Bankruptcy variant).
With all the flooring in produce ripped up, that revealed some of the store's original Marketplace-era tiles that had been hidden under its Post-Bankruptcy era floor. The photo above shows the old tile pattern that ran the perimeter of the produce department, with the previous photo showing where the old octagonal produce island was too.
The entirety of the produce department would receive new floors, with the woodgrain-style tiles extending down the grand aisle past the deli, ending in front of the bakery. Sadly, that was the extent of the flooring replacement in this store, however, produce had one of the rougher looking floors prior to the remodel compared to the rest of the store.
Spinning around for a look down the rest of the grand aisle, another one of the new decor package's signature traits had been revealed - the red-painted wood panels where the signs would be installed. With those now appearing, this was starting to look like inverted Winn Win!
Thankfully by mid-October, the installation of the new shelving was complete, so no more spices in the back aisle or greeting cards in the frozen department!
The new shelves look nice, with the bright white really popping compared to the old rusty peach shelves.
Also much less chaos in the dairy aisle with all the pallets of fixtures gone too!
The new Winn Win-era lane lights were now installed on the check lanes as well. Things were starting to get more cohesive in here, with the last major part of the remodel being the installation of the new decor.
This view of the updated road sign facing Narcoossee Road will complete our coverage of the remodel itself. While I did visit this store one more time before the grand reopening, my visit the week before the ceremonies showed the store in a 99% completed state. As such, I decided to combine that photoset with my sets taken both grand reopening morning and the Saturday after at the store's "Community Celebration" event.
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| The photo in the grand reopening ad shows a Winn Win 2.0 store, so none of the remodel preview photos were accurate! |
There was certainly a lot of hype surrounding this store's grand reopening, with plenty of advertisement on the circulars in the weeks leading up to both the grand reopening on November 12, 2025 and the community celebration a few days later on November 15, 2025. Winn-Dixie also advertised the event on their social media pages and in the local publications too. Both events had a really good turnout, especially the community celebration the following Saturday, where this store became absolutely packed! Anyway, enough blabbering from me, who's ready for the grand reveal?
The next chapter of Winn-Dixie is here!
Even though we've seen it already, the store's facade looks great with the new paint and updated logo.
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| Photo courtesy of Winn-Dixie |
The ribbon cut, who's ready to head inside?
While a lot of you have probably seen the final product by now (there are lots of pictures of the completed remodel online - Positively Osceola has a set that made the rounds, and the Sing Oil Blogger beat me to the punch and did a sneak peak shortly after the new interior signage was installed too), I feel that after seeing all those remodel photos, I still need to build this up a little!
Come on in, we saved you a cart. Now we know what the red wall was for! Let's do as the wall says and grab a cart from the corral behind me and see what this store is all about now:
Here you have it, the next era of Winn-Dixie! Both Winn Win and the very short-lived Winn Win 2.0 are now a thing of the past, a sad reminder of a prosperous era cut short by something I will not bring up again (this is supposed to be a happy post!). To mark this new era and to put some of that pain behind them, here we welcome "Centennial". Being this is Winn-Dixie's 100th year, and in tandem, the slogan for the celebration has been "100 Years and Counting", I thought "Centennial" was a fitting name for this new decor package (and it continues my recent theme of naming Winn-Dixie's decor packages after the slogan used at the time of its introduction). Let's see what Centennial is all about:
Produce is the one odd department out in Centennial, being the only department with a sign that isn't red. We saw produce's green sign two photos back, and we'll see it again in a little bit. Above we see some of the store's new produce displays, replacing these, looking over toward the floral island.
Yes, she wants flowers - as you can see, Centennial has a bit of attitude too! Floral received a hanging sign being located in this island, carrying over the same style as the wall signs, just shortened.
Prior to the grand reopening, one of the wooden slats on the hanging floral sign was missing, which you can (partially) see in the photo above. By the time of the grand reopening, that was replaced, and this store was immaculate for the event (not just in terms of fixing issues like that - I've never seen a Winn-Dixie so fully stocked, faced, and spotless in my life!).
The fixtures aren't anything too different from what we've seen in the remodels Winn-Dixie did prior to being bought by the chain I shall not name right now. One interesting thing to note is the Winn Win-era tomato cart didn't make the cut for the remodel, as that disappeared before grand reopening day. Considering the influence Winn Win had on Centennial, I'm surprised that didn't stay! (Although the cart apparently isn't dead, as the new Williston store got one).
Unlike Winn Win, another new thing introduced with Centennial was each department having a unique icon relating to that department, each one featuring Winn-Dixie's new logo that will be rolling out with The Winn-Dixie Company's formal debut next year. I liked seeing all the different ways the new logo could be stuffed inside different grocery products, like produce's tomato(?) and floral's tulip, seen here.
While the new flooring encompassed the entirety of the produce salesfloor, once we get to the edge of the department, the new faux-woodgrain transitioned into a roughly 4-foot strip that ran alongside the coolers and cases all the way down to the bakery.
Even though the rest of the floor is still 20-years-old, the Post-Bankruptcy tile pattern actually looks very nice paired with the Centennial decor. The new Williston Winn-Dixie appears to have plain white tiles throughout (seemingly a carryover from the Hitchcock's it replaced), and most likely if any Centennial remodels get new floors, they'd probably just get all plain white tiles like we've seen in the past with some of the more thorough Winn Win remodels.
Moving further down the grand aisle, we find the deli represented by a cheese wedge (visible in the previous photo), followed by the kitchen's Lip Lickin' Chicken bucket, followed by the bakery's loaf of bread.
Other than the installation of the new TV screen menu boards in the kitchen, the deli and kitchen didn't seem too different than prior to the remodel, utilizing the newer cases that were installed in an independent update from recent times. This store already offered Winn-Dixie's more premium hot foods selection (with items like the pulled pork and brisket sandwiches in the hot case, which seem to be reserved for higher-tier stores), and the usual offerings like the wing bar and hot plate meals.
The bakery did receive some new displays for the breads, as well as one other new feature I'd like to point out:
The new pastry case! Not only a new addition to this store because of its remodel, but this pastry case has been rolling out to all of Winn-Dixie's stores over the last month or two. Shockingly, even stores still waiting to convert to you-know-who are getting this case too, as I visited a store that just entered "Phase 1" recently and even it had the new pastry case! What a waste! Anyway, this case offers a selection of more gourmet pastries of both the sweet and savory kinds, including assorted cinnamon rolls, "bretzels", croissants, and such. I thought it was a nice addition, and the $1.50 price point is more than fair for these items, especially since Publix would probably charge $2.99 each (at least) for similar baked goods.
Turning the corner to look down the back wall, we find the Seafood and Butchers counter.
The Seafood sign lives above the frozen seafood cases, with the service meat and seafood under the Butchers sign located just to the left.
Hopefully Winn-Dixie will keep this store fully stocked and well presented all the time, and that this wasn't all just for show for the grand reopening weekend. I haven't been back here yet since the grand reopening, but I'll have to keep checking on this place to see how it holds up.
The service meat and seafood counter begins to come into view here at the end of aisle 4.
It's pretty easy to tell which of my photos were taken the week before the grand reopening and which were taken during all the festivities - the store was pretty quiet early in the morning the week before, but it was absolutely mobbed during all the celebratory events!
Spinning around from where I took that last photo, here's a better look at the meat and seafood arrangement.
Like I said before, I was amazed at how perfect this store looked for the grand reopening - every aisle and display was perfect just like this!
Another major talking point that kept getting brought up by management and in advertisement for the grand reopening was how this store increased its selection of Hispanic products as part of the remodel. Kissimmee/St. Cloud, as well as many neighborhoods just over the county line in South Orlando, are heavily Hispanic. The Kissimmee/St. Cloud area, in particular, is considered to have the largest Hispanic population in Florida outside of the South Florida counties, and that is why many of the South Florida Hispanic-oriented chains (like Presidente Supermarket, Sedano's, and Navarro Pharmacy) have made the jump to Kissimmee/South Orlando in recent years. There was very much an noticiable increase in Hispanic product post-remodel, with many sections of the store having added facings of Goya and other products in each area, rather than containing these products to the international aisle like was the case prior to the remodel.
While Winn-Dixie had a number of their own sample booths during all the festivities, as part of the Hispanic product feature, they had a number of the Hispanic product vendors (like Goya, the pastry distributor, a coffee vendor, etc.) on had to demonstrate their products as well. A number of those vendors were lined up here along the front end, with some others scattered throughout the store.
There were many balloons decorating the front end during the reopening, including special ones made by Winn-Dixie with the "100 Years and Counting" slogan printed on them. One other interesting thing to note about this store as we're looking this way too - the service desk didn't get any kind of signage. The wall above the desk is totally blank and appears to be staying that way. The new Williston store that opened last week did get a service desk sign (it appears toward the end of that linked video), so that must have been an oversight here, as there's plenty of room for one!
Back in the grocery aisles, we enter the first of the frozen food aisles.
None of the freezers or coolers were replaced in this store during the remodel, or even repainted for that matter, but considering they used Post-Bankruptcy color scheme, it all still blended in well with the new decor. The category markers for frozen also carry over the same style Winn-Dixie has been using since Down Down was introduced in 2016, showing again how all 4 of Winn-Dixie's most recent decor packages (Down Down, Winn Win, Winn Win 2.0, and Centennial) have shared various elements with each other.
The meat and butchers signs share the same cleaver icon, and I believe were the only example of where an icon was reused between two signs.
That lady certainly seems happy with her refreshed Winn-Dixie! Overall, from what I was hearing amongst all the shoppers, everyone really liked how the remodel turned out - the results were getting a lot of praise. While this store never made the cut for a Down Down or Winn Win remodel, I don't think it was struggling - I think you-know-who came into the picture before this store's Winn Win remodel could be scheduled in late 2023 or early 2024, which we saw at a few other stores throughout the chain that received minor updates during that period.
Even though this store's frozen foods department is located in the center of the store, frozen foods still received a wall sign - just shifted over the frozen meats instead (which still counts as "frozen food" I suppose).
The hanging sign over the health and beauty aisle is yet another direct carryover from Winn Win, but doesn't look too out of place with the new decor, much like the carryover aisle signs and lane lights too.
Over the gift card display, we find one of Winn-Dixie's new endcap toppers. While the majority of the toppers in this store showcase the current "100 Years of Winning Value" tagline, I believe come next year, those will eventually be phased out for these with the new WD logo.
The seasonal department lines the front wall where the pharmacy used to be, and compared to some other Winn-Dixies I've been to, this store made it very hard to tell there was ever a pharmacy back there.
Pet supplies occupy aisle 12, however, you can't see the '12' itself from this angle due to the way Winn-Dixie's aisle markers are designed.
Returning to the back wall, here's a closeup of the Frozen Food sign, as well as its ice pop icon.
Many of the free samples stationed along the back wall during the community celebration were clustered by the butcher counter, which is why that big crowd was down there!
Even though those little wooden carts were product for sale, they looked nice on top of the coolers, almost like they were supposed to be part of the decor!
Entering the last aisle, we find the dairy department - yogurt, yum!
The egg-cellent dairy sign (don't blame me for that one, blame Winn-Dixie for carrying over Winn Win's punderful cooler toppers) can be seen to my left, with the lunch meat sign appearing in the store's back left corner.
Following dairy, Beer & Wine cohabitated the alcove in the front left corner of the building, the original home to the bakery in this store's Marketplace days.
Even today, you can still see some of the contour from the original bakery department outline on the wall. The new beer & wine sign (which is actually hung from the ceiling instead of mounted to the wall due to the contour) blocks some of the outline now, but the bakery's original neon sign would have been placed where the current beer & wine sign is now.
What's cooler than being cool? Our beer! (I guess OutKast was wrong all this time!) I feel like Winn-Dixie updated some of the cooler toppers for Centennial, either that, or I just haven't spent enough time reading the cooler toppers in the alcohol department!
From beer & wine, here's a look across the front of the store. We can see the green produce sign peaking out from this angle too.
Once you near the old pharmacy counter, the last few aisles shortened a bit, which has been the case since the Post-Bankruptcy days.
Here's a nice overview of the modern front end from the week before the grand reopening. As for grand reopening weekend itself...
...it was a madhouse up here! All 5 of the store's regular lanes plus the 4 self-checkouts had lines backing up into the aisles - only one other time can I recall a mob like this at Winn-Dixie in recent memory (and the other encounter wasn't even for an grand opening event!). While much of this crowd was probably here for the festivities of the day, hopefully this store can still draw decent business in the future.
Back to quieter times, here's another look at the checklanes, as well as Centennial's version of a 'Thank You' sign:
"Later, neighbor. Saving looks good on you!" It seems like a lot of grocers are embracing this trend of calling shoppers "neighbors" as part of their ways to feel more like a part of the community, and Winn-Dixie has embraced that trend with Centennial.
Also located up here at the front end was the store's grand prize giveaway to occur during the community celebration - a new turkey fryer with accompanying gift basket containing assorted Thanksgiving accessories - appropriate for a mid-November reopening celebration. In addition, the store was raffling off two $500 gift cards and a Yeti cooler stocked with Chek soda too. Some nice prizes, but all that pales in comparison to when Winn-Dixie would raffle off cars at select grand openings in the 1990's!
Overall, I like Winn-Dixie's new look. My only critique about the new decor is I think Centennial should have kept some of Winn Win's local flare pieces, like the "Hello" sign or the "Made in Florida" icon, or at least reinvented those to match the new look. Being that Winn-Dixie is going to now be a primarily Florida-based chain, they really should drive that fact home and really push those Florida roots in the decor, so I think that was a missed opportunity. As for this remodel of this store, even though the floor looks fine in most places, I think corporate should have splurged to redo the floor throughout the entire store. The coolers, even though they're at least 20 years old, didn't look bad in the current form and were perfectly acceptable to me. However, all said I think the remodel of this store turned out nicely, and it is an improvement over the tired-looking Post-Bankrupty store this was prior. Being the last outpost for Winn-Dixie in Osceola County, the greater Kissimmee area, and much of the South Orlando metropolis too, it was nice to see this store chosen to debut the chain's new era, and hopefully we'll even see Winn-Dixie reclaim some territory in the region too if this remodel is a success. The new Williston store that opened last week is basically a copy of what we just saw here decor-wise, so no surprises there, and hopefully we'll start to see more of Centennial in the coming year through more new stores and remodels!
Anyway, now that you've heard my thoughts on Winn-Dixie's new look, I'm curious to hear what yours are. Feel free to let us know in the comments section below what you think of Centennial and Winn-Dixie's new direction, and here's to hoping Winn-Dixie has many more good years ahead of them!
With this post, I will be wrapping up my blogging for the year. AFB will return on February 8, 2026 with our final installment in my Temple Terrace series, and I will try to use that time during my winter break to get caught up on my backlog of comments and emails (apologies in advance for all the delays in responding to those - it's been busy behind the scenes here!). I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and I will return in the new year for more!
So until the next post,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
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