Kash n' Karry #743 (Pre-Delhaize) / Kash n' Karry #1755 (Delhaize) / Sweetbay Supermarket #1755 / Winn-Dixie #2441 / Future Aldi #2XX
8837 North 56th Street, Temple Terrace, FL - Terrace Plaza
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| Today's post is a presentation of Hillsborough County retail |
If you've been reading this blog for a while, you probably know I try to save a more interesting post to mark the blog's anniversary. While that's certainly true today, I would also like to mention that in a first for the blog, today's anniversary post is not related to an Albertsons store (as has typically been the case in the past). As you can imagine, after 12 years, my really interesting Albertsons content has started to run dry, so here we are today with a Winn-Dixie to fill the void! With 2025 being Winn-Dixie's centennial year, as well as a year of great turbulence for the chain after being freed from the clutches of Aldi and only recently teasing us with how they will blaze their path forward, I felt a really interesting Winn-Dixie tour would work for today's post. While there are plenty of Winn-Dixie decor anomalies out there (or at least, were out there until the last few years), one of my favorites will be the subject of today's post, even if it doesn't officially involve a decor packaged dreamed up by Winn-Dixie themselves! While Winn-Dixie is what we'll be touring, Sweetbay's decor is what we'll be seeing today - and not just the plain ol' Sweetbay decor either, today is all about Sweetbay 2.0!
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| Photo courtesy of ferrett111 on flickr |
Jumping across the street from the Kmart and Publix we recently explored, we end up at Terrace Plaza, or more accurately, what's left of it. Terrace Plaza has been through a lot over the last half-century, so before we jump into today's tour, let's learn a little more about it as as well as the store we'll be seeing more of in just a moment:
Terrace Plaza was constructed in phases in the late 1960's, with the Publix-anchored northern section completed in 1968, followed by the Zayre-anchored southern section roughly a year later. The two portions of the shopping center were separated by a small grassy gap until the mid-1970's, when the original Kash n' Karry store was built to connect the two segments together, giving Terrace Plaza two grocery anchors.
The northern (Publix-side) and southern (Kash n' Karry-side) of the Terrace Plaza were owned separately, with the north side owned by a man named Charles Bichimer and the south side owned jointly by Kash n' Karry, Zayre, and a company named Ohio Realty. When the owner of the north side wanted to add a 3-store addition to his portion of the plaza in 1983, that infuriated Kash n' Karry, whose store was already partially blocked by part of the north side's existing building.
This little feud between the ownership of the north and south sides of the plaza set off what The Tampa Tribune dubbed "Store Wars", where Kash n' Karry threatened to build a 7-foot-tall, 1 1/2-foot-wide, and 87-foot-long concrete block wall on their property in front of the three new stores if they failed to legally block the new addition. This appeared to be Kash n' Karry's slightly spiteful move to prove a point if things didn't go their way, blocking the new addition from view in retribution for blocking more of Kash n' Karry's storefront. After two months of threats and back and forth between the parties, it appears a deal was eventually made between the two sides that called off the north's expansion plan in exchange for landscaping enhancements throughout the plaza. A strange little aside in the history of this store, but could you only imagine if Kash n' Karry went through and built that wall how this place would have looked?
A few doors down from the original Kash n' Karry, the Zayre store became an Ames in 1989, and a year later closed during Ames' subsequent bankruptcy. With the Zayre/Ames now vacant, Kash n' Karry decided to seize the opportunity and take over the majority of that space for a new, modern location (and one that wasn't partially blocked by the north side of the plaza too).
The replacement Kash n' Karry opened in February 1994, doubling in size compared to the original a few doors down.
Only a month after Kash n' Karry's move, Bealls Outlet announced it would take over the original Kash n' Karry location. Following their announcement and the announcement of Clothesline taking over a smaller adjacent space, the south side would be fully tenanted once again.
After 8 years in business, Kash n' Karry gave this store its first remodel in 2002. By this time Kash n' Karry had been under the ownership of Delhaize America for 6 years, and Delhaize was pouring a lot of money into Kash n' Karry to make it profitable.
While the south side of the plaza had been able to hold its own going into the early 2000's, following Publix's move across the street in 1999, the north side of Terrace Plaza began to decay. The former Publix was never re-tenanted, and eventually all the smaller stores surrounding it began to move out too. As redevelopment plans by the north side's ownership began to come out in 2005, much like we saw in the 1980's, Kash n' Karry wasn't too thrilled with the prospect of any major construction potentially changing things on the south side...
As I mentioned in the Publix post a few weeks ago, Temple Terrace has never had a proper downtown, and the redevelopment plans for Terrace Plaza's northside wanted to correct that. While the original plan was more "downtown" styled with urban storefronts facing a grid of new streets, the plan eventually considered by city council was scaled back a bit and called for a new semi-suburban mixed-use development with outparcels on 56th Street to replace Terrace Plaza. There was only one catch to the entire plan - Kash n' Karry (then in the midst of its transition to Sweetbay Supermarket) had no interest in leaving to make room for the new development, which was designed to replace both sides of Terrace Plaza.
After the property eventually fell out of its joint ownership, Kash n' Karry signed a lease for their building that was valid until 2044. It was quite the ironclad lease, and it gave Kash n' Karry a lot of bargaining power in shaping what the new development would look like. After refusing to build a "new urbanism"-style store as part of a mixed-use building on the site, planners were forced to design a redevelopment around the existing Kash n' Karry, with some of those potential plans visible in the article above.
The above article (and its continuation below) goes into a lot of detail about how Kash n' Karry's lease essentially let them dictate the entire redevelopment of Terrace Plaza, redrawing the entire plan to favor their needs.
In the end, the southside of the plaza was left mostly untouched, just remodeled to feature a "new urbanism"-style facade to match the new construction coming to the northside. Due to Kash n' Karry's constant delays to the plaza's redevelopment plan, demolition of the northside of Terrace Plaza didn't begin until 2011. Some roads and underground infrastructure were added for the northside redevelopment shortly after the demolition, however, construction on any buildings stalled for a while before finally beginning in the late 2010's.
Amidst all the redevelopment back and forth, Kash n' Karry was able to convert this store into a Sweetbay in the October 2006 conversion batch, this store reopening as a Sweetbay on October 21, 2006 alongside 30 other stores across the region
And if you thought the drama at this site was over, think again! As demolition began on the plaza's northside, construction began on the south side's remodel. In addition to the new faux-streetscape facade, Sweetbay decided to go all-in with this project, remodeling the interior of their Temple Terrace store at the same time. Sweetbay's 2011 remodel wasn't a simple decor swap either - much of the building's interior was redesigned and reconfigured, and Sweetbay was also pursuing the addition of a new liquor store as well.
Much like we discussed across the street, Temple Terrace's ordinance requiring a 2,000 foot buffer between liquor stores came into play again here. Sweetbay requested a variance to allow the new liquor store, which the city denied, triggering a lawsuit where Sweetbay alleged the city denied their right to due process by not making its decision with the proper evidence, instead basing their decision totally on that of "the wishes of the naysayers at the public hearings".
While I never found an article detailing how that lawsuit finally played out, Sweetbay did eventually get a liquor license by some means, as during my visit Winn-Dixie had an operational liquor store here designed in Sweetbay's specs. Whether the liquor store was ready in time or not, Sweetbay held this store's grand reopening on August 10, 2011, debuting what would end up being one of only six stores to get Sweetbay's rare second decor package, and one of only two stores that remodeled from the original Sweetbay decor to Sweetbay 2.0 (the other being the 7489 4th Street North store in St. Petersburg, which remodeled around the same time as this location).
Winn-Dixie inherited this store in their purchase of the remains of Sweetbay in 2013, the store officially converting to the Winn-Dixie brand early in 2014. The satellite image above shows the current configuration of the Terrace Plaza site, with Winn-Dixie anchoring the lone original portion of the plaza that remains and a new apartment building where the rest of the plaza once stood.
Winn-Dixie kept this store in original condition until 2022, when it remodeled away from Sweetbay 2.0 to Winn-Dixie's own Winn Win decor. This store's remodel happened around the same time the other remaining Sweetbay 2.0 holdout under Winn-Dixie's ownership, the last Sweetbay ever built, also remodeled, ending Sweetbay 2.0's run. Thankfully I was able to visit this store (and the other one in The Villages) before the Winn Win remodel happened, making today's tour possible!
The fancy facade we see here was the product of the 2011 remodel, and was supposed to mimic a "downtown" aesthetic. It's quite fancy, and it's hard to believe that detailed facade is just hiding this!
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| The liquor store's entrance also visible here |
Sadly, this store (and its fancy facade) isn't much longer for this world, as the "downtown" Temple Terrace Winn-Dixie was one of the many Aldi victims from SEG's brief
Anyway, ranting aside, it's time to head inside, forget about Aldi for a little bit, and enjoy the decor that was Sweetbay 2.0:
I think the latter theory was a larger factor in why Sweetbay was sold off, as I doubt Sweetbay 2.0 would have been created if the chain had been doing that bad from the start. If Sweetbay was such a money pit, I don't think Delhaize would have been trying to develop a 2010's style prototype for future remodels and new stores. While Sweetbay may have been distressed, Delhaize seemed to have some faith in propping the chain up, at least until the merger deal was presented to them. It would have been nice to see this decor make it into more than 6 stores, as Sweetbay 2.0 is up there on my list of my favorite supermarket decor packages of all time!
While we've seen Sweetbay 2.0 on the blog before - 5 years ago, to be exact, at the last Sweetbay in The Villages - I actually visited that store a few months after I visited this one. The photo above was my first in-person glimpse of Sweetbay 2.0 ever, and boy was I excited to see it! As such, I went a bit overboard with photos in this store, so this tour ended up with many more photos than my second Sweetbay 2.0 tour did. Being that this decor was so rare and is now totally gone too, I didn't cull the excess of photos as much as I would have for other posts, so we'll be seeing this decor in great detail. Hopefully you all won't be too upset about that!
As part of the Sweetbay 2.0 remodel and facade reconstruction, the store's entryway was consolidated to a single set of doors on the right side of the building, consolidating the building's original design of two entryways on each end of the building. The current entryway funnels shoppers into the produce department, which has always been located in the front right corner of this building (which matchs the layout of newbuild Sweetbay 2.0 stores too).
Compared to the original Sweetbay decor, Sweetbay 2.0 made the interior decor more sleek and modern, while still maintaining Sweetbay's colorful Floridian feel. While Sweetbay 2.0's color palate is more muted than the original's, Sweetbay managed to keep the store feeling both fun and classy at the same time.
In addition to the modernized signage and updated wall graphics, Sweetbay 2.0's other defining feature were the punny phrases all over the wall (such as "Honeydew is on the list" and "You say tomato, I say strawberry" for produce) - a nice touch to balance the decor's touches of class and whimsy!
Even with all the work this store received in 2011, the lone original Sweetbay decor element that survived the remodel was the "Thank you" sign over the front entrance. Even with the entrance being consolidated into the single vestibule we see here, the sign would have always been in that location, even with the original double vestibule design this store featured. Interestingly, even in the newbuild Sweetbay 2.0 stores, their "Thank you" signs still used the Sweetbay 1.0 font, so it didn't make much of a difference in the end that this sign was carried over.
After seeing this decor in person, it really made me upset that Sweetbay threw in the towel after only 9 years. Delhaize clearly wanted Sweetbay to succeed, and Sweetbay 2.0 seemed like a great direction to take the chain in. Unfortunately, Sweetbay must have been sinking pretty bad - that, or Delhaize was trying to make their books look better for their upcoming merger with Royal Ahold, which was announced shortly after Sweetbay was sold off. If that second case was the reason, that still would mean Sweetbay wasn't doing all that great either.
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| In case you were wondering where the title of today's post came from... |
I think the latter theory was a larger factor in why Sweetbay was sold off, as I doubt Sweetbay 2.0 would have been created if the chain had been doing that bad from the start. If Sweetbay was such a money pit, I don't think Delhaize would have been trying to develop a 2010's style prototype for future remodels and new stores. While Sweetbay may have been distressed, Delhaize seemed to have some faith in propping the chain up, at least until the merger deal was presented to them. It would have been nice to see this decor make it into more than 6 stores, as Sweetbay 2.0 is up there on my list of my favorite supermarket decor packages of all time!
I know, I know, I took a lot of photos of the produce department.
Here's one last photo of the produce department - I promise!
Leaving produce, we find the rest of the store's grand aisle, home to the bakery, deli, and fresh meat counter. Between produce and the bakery was this store's seasonal department, and being just a few days before Christmas during my visit, Winn-Dixie had all kinds of toys and decorations for sale here.
Amongst all the Christmas stuff for sale, I found this Christmas card set. If I actually wrote out Christmas cards I would have bought these, as what better way to send Christmas greetings from Florida than with a Christmas flamingo?
Cheesy Christmas cards aside, here's another look at Sweetbay 2.0's not-cheesy bakery decor. With the 3D signage and the stenciled design on the wall, this department looks really nice!
Even though Sweetbay 2.0 debuted in 2010, this decor looks like something you'd see in a supermarket opened today in 2025. Sweetbay 2.0 held up really well through the years, and it's actually quite sad this was the first decor package Winn-Dixie eradicated from its fleet of stores (yet Marketplace still lives!). Even if Winn-Dixie left this store alone, that wouldn't have helped any, and it probably would have been worse to see a perfectly preserved Sweetbay 2.0 store become an Aldi!
During the Sweetbay 2.0 remodel, this entire side of the store was rebuilt. Originally following produce, we would have entered health and beauty, with the pharmacy in the back right corner where the deli is now. Essentially, this store would have looked just like this until 2011, so this was not a cheap remodel!
The only other Sweetbay store that remodeled from the original decor to Sweetbay 2.0 (7489 4th Street North in St. Pete) was a fairly extensive ordeal too. Comparing the early 2011 streetview to the next one taken in 2015, the entire entryway was moved to the right. I can only imagine the interior was also reconfigured to look like this as well. Delhaize was spending a lot of money on what the next generation of Sweetbay was going to be like, only to dump the chain two years later.
The deli was looking quite merry and bright for Christmas too! The deli continued the bakery's general design with the sign mounted to the awning, just with a different wall color and stencil pattern.
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| While the bakery's decor wasn't cheesy, I can't say the same for the deli |
Say cheese, deli department! What a photogenic service counter!
This store had a full service sub counter during my 2019 visit, located under the "Say Cheese" sign. Those were pretty rare in a Sweet-Dixie, especially one that Winn-Dixie had never given a full remodel to. To the left of that was a fancy display case of deli salads, followed by the cold cuts in the corner itself. The sub counter would later be removed in this store's Winn Win remodel in favor of Winn-Dixie's typical hot bar, with the deli salad display case also removed. Still, the fact this store had these features (whether carried over from Sweetbay or not) suggests this was a higher-tier location for Winn-Dixie, and I can only imagine this was a busy Kash n' Karry and Sweetbay through the years as well to justify all the work this store received too.
Moving around the corner to the back wall, the Meat | Seafood counter comes into view, as well as a display of Stella Artois designed to look like a Christmas tree. Being across from the Budweiser fireplace, this store is really coming alive with the Christmas spirits!
Following the grand aisle, we enter aisle 1. Aisle 1 is home to the remainder of the store's beer and wine selection, complete with some Sweetbay 1.0-style toppers over the wine shelves.
Back up front, here's a quick look across the front end, with the pharmacy counter poking out in the distance in the front left corner.
The service desk is located in an island next to the check lanes, complete with its own large hanging sign. While Sweetbay 2.0 only made it into 6 stores in-full, that Sweetbay 2.0-style service counter island (and matching sign) did make it into a few more, like this one we saw at the (now closed) Fishhawk Sweet-Dixie.
Sweetbay 2.0 also introduced a new-style of aisle markers too. While based off the previous-generation's design, these updated ones switched to a purple background and only put the numbers on the bottom.
While the perimeter of the store was totally reconfigured, the grocery aisles are still mostly original to when this store opened in 1994. The drop ceiling and lighting are original, and the floor tiles we see appear to hail from the Kash n' Karry days as well.
The grocery shelving does appear to have been rearranged during the 2011 remodel though, as the shelf to my left would have originally aligned with the ceiling where it jogs inward just ahead of where I was standing. That jog was meant to delineate the grocery aisles from the old health and beauty department, and even though Publix did a little rearranging of their own in this linked example, here's a better idea of what the pre-remodel arrangement would have looked like.
Much like the redesigned aisle markers, Sweetbay's shelf-top category markers were also refreshed for the Sweetbay 2.0 era to match to new purple motif of the aisle markers.
Gourmet tastes - I guess that must be where Winn-Dixie keeps the fancy ketchup! While Winn-Dixie kept the product placement pretty similar to where Sweetbay kept things (at least until many of these stores received a full remodel from Winn-Dixie as years went on), it seems some sections of the store were not immune to minor rearranging (unless Sweetbay actually misunderstood the meaning of "fancy" ketchup!).
We sell the steak, you make the sizzle...courtesy of The Beef People. While all the Sweetbay 1.0 stores received new "The Beef People" signs for the meat department in Sweetbay's font following their conversions to Winn-Dixie, none of the Sweetbay 2.0 stores Winn-Dixie acquired received similar treatment. I guess these slogans on the wall were good enough to appease Winn-Dixie!
Beyond the meat coolers, the remainder of the red-painted wall area features the frozen meat offerings. The dairy department can be seen where the wall transitions back to orange, and we'll see more of that side of the store later in the tour.
Turning the other way, here's what the meat department looks like as we glance back toward the deli.
Quite the crowded back aisle with all the pallets of stuff Winn-Dixie crammed over here!
Entering aisle 4, we find the international foods.
As you can see on the left, international foods got their own special category markers, which were green instead of purple.
Quite the rainbow of colors here in the sport drink aisle!
Returning to the back wall, here's a look at (what I thought was) the most interesting of the slogans Sweetbay installed on the wall - "Florida is...365 days of grilling".
I really like how Sweetbay was trying to make the store Florida-centric with this slogan, trying to incorporate some local color into the decor. That's what makes this retooling of Sweetbay more interesting, as Delhaize was trying to incorporate some Floridian flare into the new design. With Winn-Dixie's recent retooling, they're in the perfect place to try something like this, and I really think they should go all-in and push themselves as "the Florida supermarket". While our first glimpse at the new era of Winn-Dixie (which will be coming to the blog soon) isn't as Florida-centric as I hoped, maybe once "The Winn-Dixie Company" launches next year, we'll see some more Florida-centric additions come into the mix like this as time goes on. The Winn-Dixie Company should have taken some inspiration from this store!
I'm actually quite excited to see what Winn-Dixie's next chapter will entail. Next week I'll have a post where I'll share more of my thoughts on the chain's next chapter, but in short, I think Winn-Dixie has a shot at a turnaround even after the big blow Aldi dealt them.
Anyway, as far as this store goes, here in aisle 8 we find ourselves in the non-foods portion of the store, looking at the books and greeting cards aisle.
I guess there was a little bit of food down this aisle, as from this angle we can see some candy across from the greeting cards - a nice arrangement for a quick gift!
Non-foods (for people at least) continue in aisle 9, home to pet supplies...
…and the trend continues into aisle 10 with the paper products. At the time of my visit here in December 2019, I never would have guessed that only 3 months later this aisle would be stripped bare!
Nearing the left side of the store, the dairy department comes into view.
On the back wall, we only find signage for Milk | Eggs. The main dairy sign is around the corner in the last aisle, which we'll see in a little bit.
The second to last aisle, aisle 12, is home to frozen foods. Like most Winn-Dixie stores (regardless of decor package), all of the category markers in frozen foods were updated to the Down Down/Winn Win/Centennial style black rectangles in recent years.
At the back wall again, here's a look back toward meats, as well as a look at someone on a very big shopping trip! That's the kind of business we need to send Winn-Dixie's way more often!
Here's another look at the Milk | Eggs signage, with a better view of the background stencil pattern. Those patterns really make this decor much more interesting than if all these signs were mounted to a plain wall.
Take your cookie for a dip, or one of those Krisy Kremes I suppose!
Entering aisle 13, here's a look at the main dairy signage, with the remainder of dairy along the wall across from the frozen food coolers opposite. Since Winn-Dixie never swapped out the category markers over the dairy coolers, Sweetbay's originals were still present on that side of the aisle, providing an odd contrast with the modern ones opposite.
Dairy only occupied the back half of the wall side of aisle 13. Getting closer to the front of the store, that side of the aisle switched over to frozen foods, and allowed for the installation of a Frozen Foods wall sign as well, seen here:
Well, I guess in Sweetbay 2.0 terminology, it's the Frozen | Foods department! That was just Sweetbay's way to keep it cool, keep it fresh like the wall says.
Frozen foods and dairy never moved in the 2011 remodel, and because of that, appear to have kept the original coolers from Kash n' Karry as well, just with with updated, repainted trim.
While the coolers may have never moved, the front left corner of the building, currently home to the pharmacy, is much different than what we would have seen here before 2011:
The store's pharmacy counter and health and beauty department are located where the bakery and deli were originally. The pharmacy and the bakery/deli essentially traded places in the 2011 remodel, with the pharmacy looking much more natural (at least to me) up here in the front left corner than in its original home in the back right corner of the building.
Winn-Dixie added those prescription drop-off and pick-up signs, otherwise all the other signage here is leftover from Sweetbay.
This store's pharmacy was redone in the 2022 Winn Win remodel, just to close a year later when the rest of Winn-Dixie's pharmacies were shut down in preparation for the sale to Aldi.
Health | Beauty was located in the aisles in front of the pharmacy counter, which were long enough to have contained pretty much all of this store's selection of pharmaceuticals.
I can't think of many other Winn-Dixie stores that have a full display of sunglasses! Well, "full" probably wasn't the best word to choose for that particular display, but you get the point!
Health and beauty's category markers looked just like the rest of the ones Sweetbay installed throughout the store, just shorter in width than the ones in the main aisles.
Returning to the front end, our look at Sweetbay 2.0 is quickly coming to a close.
The Christmas wreaths on the light cubes were a nice touch! For a (presumably unintentional) Christmas effect, lane 2's light has a slightly green tint to it too! As usual, Winn-Dixie swapped out the original check lane lights with these cubes, however, Sweetbay 2.0's lane lights used the same pennant design as Sweetbay 1.0's, just with different colors. (And looking at that photo closer, it was taken in this very store!)
Behind the Health | Beauty sign (and behind that window) is the liquor store, which was also installed in part of the old deli/bakery area during the 2011 remodel. Based on the article we saw earlier, I don't know if the liquor store managed to open in 2011 as part of the remodel or if there was a slight delay in getting that open following the clash with the city over the liquor license.
Here's another look at the service desk island. The service desk would have originally been along the front wall prior to the 2011 remodel.
This final look at the thank you sign will serve as our final look at Sweetbay 2.0 😢. Officially, I do have one more post in my archives that will relate to Sweetbay 2.0, but this was the very last full tour I have of this decor.
I really like the "new urban" facade this store received in the remodel. It looks nice without trying too hard to be a "faux" downtown building. I really don't want to think about what Aldi's subdivision is going to do to this building, as I can't imagine it will be too seamless!
Here's a nice close-up of the liquor store, tucked away into the front left corner of the building. With the design of the facade, the liquor store almost looks hidden.
While that's all I have from the Sweetbay 2.0 era, this post isn't over just yet! During one of my Tampa trips in 2022 I passed by this store again. Having had a little bit of extra time, I stopped by here again for a few photos in its post-remodel form - something I thought would have lasted much longer than 4 more years at the time. Anyway, here's a (brief) look at what this former Sweetbay 2.0 store looks like with Winn Win:
As part of the remodel, the facade was repainted and the signage was changed out for the updated logo.
Fresh wheels for a fresh store over here...
Stepping inside, the results aren't too bad. While I personally think Winn Win is a downgrade from Sweetbay 2.0, Winn Win still looks nice in here, and Winn-Dixie did a good job with the remodel overall. The flooring in the produce department was replaced with the woodgrain-style tiles common in Winn-Dixie's recent remodels, and if you've been to a number of Winn Win stores, you'll also notice a little quirk about this store's decor too.
While the other photo showed it better, this store "Hello" sign was installed in the produce department, so instead of being on its usual red background further down one of the side walls, we got ourselves a "Hello Temple Terrace" in green!
From produce, here's a look down the refreshed grand aisle. As usual with most Winn Win remodels, nothing dramatic changed in here outside of the decor and some light rearranging in the grocery aisles, with the general layout still being mostly the same as we saw before.
Another little decor quirk you'll notice in here comes with the store's grand aisle department signs. Due to lip coming out from the wall that Sweetbay installed its signs on, Winn-Dixie had to figure out a way install their new signs with the lip in the way. While Winn-Dixie probably could have ripped out the lip, they instead decided to mount the bottom of the new Winn Win department signs directly to it, with the top of the sign supported by cables hung from the ceiling. An interesting way to do things, but it worked!
The bakery, deli, kitchen, butcher, and seafood all had their signs mounted in the way I just described. In addition to the new signs, the deli department received new cases, and had its sandwich counter replaced with a wing bar.
The butcher and seafood signs are the best examples to see how Winn-Dixie mounted these new signs to the wall, giving these signs more of a 3D effect than normal.
Looking down the remainder of the back wall, the signage was mounted in the traditional manner directly to the wall as we look from meats all the way over to dairy.
As part of the Winn Win remodel, a dollar shop department was added to the front of aisle 3.
Unlike its Sweetbay decor days, the center cut-through aisle got aisle markers of its own for the Winn Win era.
Winn-Dixie replaced all the grocery shelving with their own, however Kash n' Karry's tiles got to live on yet again, until Aldi comes along, anyway,
I forgot to mention this earlier in the post, but the sawblade-style edge around the perimeter of the drop ceiling also remained all these years and remodels later, a remnant from where this store's original decor package would have had its aisle markers mounted.
Overall, I still think this was an above average Winn-Dixie in terms of upkeep, operation, and sales volume, at least based off the few times I've been in here. I've never been to the other Winn-Dixie down the road to compare, but hopefully that store will do a good job carrying on the chain's presence in town and people who shopped this location will make the switch once the inevitable happens.
Another major switch to the grocery layout was moving wine from the first aisle to the aisle right before frozen foods. In addition to the relocation, wine also got new spotlights and a hanging department sign too.
Other than the Winn Win decor in the background, the frozen food department doesn't look much different than it did in 2019.
In the last aisle, the coolers did get some new Winn Win toppers to compliment the category markers.
A rare example of a Winn Win "Health and Beauty" wall sign seen here, considering most of Winn-Dixie's health and beauty departments are located in the middle of the grocery aisles (and as such, get a hanging sign instead). This also has to be the widest example of a Winn Win sign out there too! New shelving was installed in this department as well, with new lighted toppers included for the shelving against the wall. Also, no more sunglasses for sale either!
I didn't get a close-up of the remodeled pharmacy, but we can see it in the background of the photo above.
A bank of self-checkouts were installed as part of the remodel (visible in the previous photo, closest to health and beauty), with the staffed check lanes renumbered with lane 1 closest to the service desk, reversing the order from the pre-remodel days.
The service desk and the exit are visible above as we prepare to leave, but looking at this photo again, it appears that display of reusable bags actually contains bags that were supposed to be sent to Fresco y Mas instead of Winn-Dixie! Oops!
While we saw the past and the present of Winn-Dixie #2441 today, we all know what the future of this store holds, but I'll spare everyone that part again - this is supposed to be a celebration post! It would have been nice to see what Sweetbay could have done had Delhaize not sold off the chain, as clearly there was a plan to give Sweetbay one last try to ward off Publix and Walmart. In the end, at least I got to see this store and the location in The Villages before both of those remodeled away from their Sweetbay 2.0 decor, as we can at least get a small taste of what Sweetbay could have been had the chain lasted into the late 2010's.
Anyway, I will finish this (long) post just with a quick message of gratitude for everyone's support over the last 12 years. Be sure to check out my anniversary post for a recap of the year, and we'll finish out 2025 with one more post next weekend on December 14th, one that will show everyone the (hopefully) brighter side of Winn-Dixie, one of the many things that will shape the future of Floridian supermarkets next year. 2026 is looking to be an interesting year for Floridian retail, so let's see what happens!
So until the next post,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
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