Food World #715 / Publix #356 / Publix #2043
4730 S. Florida Avenue, Lakeland, FL - Lake Miriam Square
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| Today's post is a presentation of Polk County retail |
Before getting too deep into this post, if you haven't seen my coverage of the original Lake Miriam Square Publix (store #356), please check out my post here. That post goes into all the detail about this store's history, including its origins under the Food World brand, its piloting of various unique features through the years, and its unique layout stemming from a rare building design Publix only used two other times. My coverage of the original store turned out to be one of my most popular posts of all time, exceeding view counts of most other posts I've written in the last few years by quite a large number. People really loved that old store based off the view count (either that, or the refresh button on someone's computer got stuck on that page), so I wanted to make sure I had the full story of this Publix covered by visiting the new location once it opened (that, and I'd never been to a 55M Publix, so I wanted the full experience myself!).
The facade of the new Lake Miriam Publix isn't anything out of the ordinary compared to most other modern Publix stores, with many other locations having a very similar exterior to what we see here. As we'll see a little later in the post, the remainder of Lake Miriam Square had its facade refreshed to match the new Publix store, giving everything a consistent look.
The windows above the arches look into the upper-level dining area, a commonality shared between the 55M Publix stores and its much more common sibling the 48M, Publix's default prototype (which has officially been retired as of 2026 in favor of the "50M", which from the customer-facing side, is practically identical to the 48M).
Looking down the front walkway, the main entrance is visible just beyond the Presto! ATM machine. The door closest to me (at the end of the tables) is the patio door for the POURS bar, the outdoor seating area for which I was standing in to take this picture.
Stepping inside, we're welcomed to the store with the large sign on the wall - green bean free these days (although old #356 actually featured the rare grape-background welcome sign). While I took this photo to showcase the sign, this photo also serves to showcase the unusual shopping carts this store received, with the tall child seats and low baskets. These carts are apparently exclusive to the more-recently opened stores that receive a POURS, as they have a large built-in cup holder (and phone stand, which was convenient for photo taking purposes!).
Stepping inside, the grand aisle is located on the right side of the building. The first departments you see upon entering are the produce department and the deli island. From this view the store doesn't look much different from a 48M or even the smaller 28M, but things begin to get much more different as we progress further into the grand aisle, and even once I turn around:
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| There's a special surprise in this store, visible in this photo, and unique to this location. We'll talk more about that later! |
Also near the front doors, the catering desk and the POURS cafe greet shoppers entering the store, both of these features not present in the typical 48M. The catering counter was just a small desk with a computer located right under the sign, with POURS and its interior dining area taking up the majority of the alcove we see here.
Even though POURS sells coffee, as well as other non-alcoholic alternatives like tea, craft soda, and smoothies, the main attraction of POURS is the bar with beer and wine on tap, available as a sip-and-stroll option (hence the special carts with the large cup holders). At 9:00 in the morning, the bar was certainly not hopping, but people were walking up to the counter to order some of the less potent drink options for a morning kick (and there may have been a few opting for the other kind of morning kick too, but it seemed like coffee was much more popular this time of day from the drink cups I was seeing in carts around the store!).
Leaving POURS, we see the rest of the produce department, located in front of the deli island.
The deli island is where the 55M's uniqueness really begins to shine, as what sets the 55M apart from Publix's other prototypes are its emphasis on ready-to-eat and prepared foods. Unlike the 48M, which has its entire deli operation inside that island, the 55M's island is devoted to only prepared foods - the "typical" deli counter with the case of cold cuts is located behind the island on the back wall.
Looking down the right side wall, the traditional deli counter with the sliced meats, the Pub Subs, and the typical hot foods selection (fried chicken, etc.) is partially visible, as well as another unique 55M feature in the back right corner we'll discuss in a little bit too. However, before we get to the more traditional fare on the back wall, let's turn our attention back to the island:
While everyone loves a Pub Sub, Publix really ups their prepared foods game in these 55M stores with the broadest selection of prepared foods offered by the chain under one roof. Within the island, the front side facing produce features sushi, with the right side featuring the burrito stations (think Chipotle-esque fare) and the left side featuring pizza and pasta. The back of the island is the specialty cheese case. The photo above focuses on the burrito bowl side of the island, with part of the sushi counter poking out.
Turning away from the island for a moment, in the back right corner of the store next to the traditional deli counter is the fresh popcorn counter. While most Publix stores offer fresh-popped butter popcorn from the deli (and occasionally plain in some stores), the 55M has an entire counter dedicated to fresh popcorn in a variety of flavors (caramel corn, kettle corn, cheddar, etc.) pre-packaged in various sizes and variety packs. While burrito bowls and pizza are nice, many supermarkets have experimented with such features before. These Publix stores are the only major supermarkets I know with a special popcorn counter!
Adjacent to the popcorn counter is the traditional deli counter, as mentioned before. While nothing too out of the ordinary selection-wise, this store did open with Publix's new expanded self-service hot case, where most of the fried chicken and sides come pre-packaged rather than ordered from the usual deli line. Those cases have been a source of controversy from Publix purists, who say the products are better when packed fresh instead of sitting in the pre-packs under the heat lamp for hours, in addition to other issues.
The bakery is located to the left of the traditional deli counter, in a much more logical placement compared to its isolated home on the opposite side of the building in the 48Ms! Other than the better placement to be included in the grand aisle, the bakery selection isn't any more grand than you'd find in any other Publix out there. The only special features I saw here were the inclusion of the bakery hot case (which holds the empanadas and breakfast sandwiches - the case located directly in front of me to the left of the donuts). And speaking of the donuts, the self-service case also looked a bit larger than normal.
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| Yes, the store across the street is just a more cramped version of this now. |
With the bakery not being anything too out of the ordinary, let's turn our attention back to the deli island. The left side of the island, visible above, is home to the pizza and pasta station, with the salad bar and hot bars located in the aisle out front. If this scene looks familiar to you, you may remember the similar layout from the former Greenwise across the street. Essentially, the 55M's grand aisle and special features are an exact copy of everything piloted in the Greenwise 2.0 stores. Since the retirement of the Greenwise-standalone brand, the 55M has picked up where Greenwise left off, just expanding it into a full-sized supermarket. It's nice to know that Greenwise's short tenure was not a total waste and its special features proved viable for something, and I think these 55M stores are actually a nice evolution for the Greenwise brand.
Anyway, on a different note, one of my goals stemming from a visit to a 55M Publix was to finally try the elusive Publix deli pizza, only offered in these stores and the former Greenwise locations. However, I visited this store at 9:00 in the morning, and the prepared foods island doesn't begin full operations until 10:00 per the girl working the pizza station. As such, the pizza bar (and everything else in the island) was empty during my visit, and I didn't have the time to wait around until 10:00 to try a slice. Oh well, this store isn't going anywhere anytime soon and I'm sure I'll be in Lakeland again eventually, so one of these days I'll get to try the Publix pizza!
Leaving the grand aisle, I would like to comment that there was one major prepared foods feature from the old store we didn't see in the new one, as even with all the fancy new options, this store did not bring back its Chinese food counter (which was extremely popular, per many posts from people begging for that to make a return once the new store opened). While we didn't see the Chinese food counter in our tour of the grand aisle, there is an interesting (and happy) ending to those shopper's requests, and we'll discuss that more a bit later. Anyway, with prepared foods behind us, here's a look across the store's back wall, home to the dairy department. The special features of this store begin to fizzle out as we enter the main grocery aisles, with this portion of the store being home to Publix's standard fare.
This store had been open for well over a month by the time of my visit, but the shelves were still stocked and blocked to a grand opening standard. However, a 30-year-old Publix will look this neat and spotless most days too, but it's much more striking of a scene in a store as new as this!
International foods, as well as a selection of small appliances, were for sale here in aisle 2.
Back up front, here's a look toward the store's front end. It looks like I never got a very good photo of it, but floral was located in an island at the front end next to the self-checkout lanes, with the regular check stands and the pharmacy located in the distance beyond those.
In the center of the salesfloor are frozen foods, located in aisles 7 and 8.
Publix stores placed a snowflake decal on the top of the cooler doors last Christmas season, which was a nice touch. Even though the snowflakes were just there to promote the merriment of the Christmas season, I feel like a snowflake decal is a good decoration for these doors year-round!
Following frozen foods, we find soda and beverages in aisle 9.
The soda aisle is followed by a few non-foods aisles, with paper goods, foil pans, and Ziploc bags pictured above. In the background we see the meat and seafood counter poking out, located in the store's back left corner.
Here's a nice overview of the meat and seafood service counter, located on a slight angle in the back left corner (almost in the style of a mid-1990's Albertsons store).
The meat and seafood service counter is located in the position where the bakery would go in the more common 48M/50M model - those two department essentially trading places in this store. I think meat and seafood make more sense to be in this corner than the bakery, which comes across as so out of place back here.
Returning to the grocery aisles, aisle 12 has to make its appearance, home to cleaning products.
Aisles 14 and 15 are primarily home to beer and wine, with the exception of the greeting card/party supply merchandise in the center back of these aisles. While that arrangement sounds a bit strange at first, it makes for a convenient placement for a last-minute anniversary or Valentine's Day gift!
The coolers we saw in aisle 14 housed most of the store's beer selection, with wine located here in aisle 15 as well as on the shorter shelf in the upper half of these aisles.
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| Photo courtesy of Publix |
Being Publix's top of the line prototype as well as the chain's flagship store, this store did receive the locked cabinet of really expensive wine too. I totally missed seeing this during my visit (as buying a $500 bottle of wine isn't something on the top of my mind), but thankfully Publix took a picture of the case for their grand opening photo spread! Looking at the prices, a $345 bottle of Joseph Phelps Insignia (a winery, which according to this article, is owned by the parent company of Louis Vuitton) is the price to beat - actually one of the cheaper top wine prices I've seen in one of these cases.
Around the corner from the pricy wine case, we find the store's lunch meats and PB&J supplies - products a bit more in my price range!
In the photos of the beer and wine aisle, we saw the store's pharmacy counter, located in the front left corner of the building. It appears I didn't get a close-up shot of that either, but it's a typical modern Publix pharmacy located in the same place the pharmacy goes in every one of Publix's new stores. The pharmacy was located just behind me in the above photo, which looks across the store's front end. This store's front end isn't anything too out of the ordinary either, until we return our attention to the front wall to look at something unique to this location:
You're eyes aren't playing tricks on you - that's an original Pati Mills tile mural installed inside a Publix opened in 2025! While this store is new, the mural actually isn't - Pati Mills (who is actually still alive - she will be turning 90 in 2026) hasn't made a mural for Publix since the 1990's. The mural we see here was actually removed from the front of the Grove Park Shopping Center Publix on the other side of Lakeland before it was demolished and rebuilt in 2018. Publix took the mural and put it into storage for the last 8 years, before deciding to incorporate into the front end of Publix #2043.
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| Photo courtesy of Publix |
Sadly, during my visit here, the store's self-checkout attendant was spending his time standing in front of the mural, so it was hard to photograph without getting his attention. Thankfully after I finished checking out at one of the staffed check lanes, the self-checkout attendant left his post in front of the mural to help a customer, giving me an opportunity to grab the photo you saw previously. However, the inclusion of the mural into this store was a big enough deal that Publix themselves took a nice picture of it to include with the grand opening album (seen above). Once I get around to posting it, I will have more photos of this same mural in its original home at the store on the other side of town as well!
Seeing one of these old Pati Mills murals reappear in this store seems to suggest Publix has, in fact, been saving these murals from stores being rebuilt over the last few years, even after telling the public they could not be saved/were too difficult to save for many years prior. Since the Grove Park Publix was rebuilt in 2018, I have confirmed 3 instances where additional murals were removed from a building before it was demolished, including this situation I posted about a few years ago. I was wondering who was taking the effort to save the murals, and it seems after so many years of letting these murals become rubble, Publix had a change of heart following the closure of the Grove Park store. Being that Publix has at least 3 more murals in storage somewhere, I wonder if we'll see more murals reappear if the circumstances lend themselves? With #2043 being the new flagship it made sense to see a mural appear here (even though old #356 never had one), but it would have been nice if Publix just incorporated the murals salvaged from an old store back into its direct replacement!
Before I could leave, I had to check out the store's upper level dining area. This store's dining area isn't anything too different from what you'd find in one of its smaller 48M/50M siblings, but you all probably aren't as interested in looking at these tables and chairs as you are wanting to see photos looking out over the salesfloor from this heightened perspective - the best part of these dining areas:
Here's a look toward the right side of the store and the grand aisle - it looks quite grand from this angle!
Frozen foods were located directly below where I was standing. Thankfully this store was only a little over a month old when I took these pictures, as I can only imagine that in a few years, there will be a lot of dust accumulating on top of those coolers!
Here's what I was able to capture of the left side of the store - the mezzanine continues off to my left, but beyond the stairs/elevator it turns into an employees only corridor home to their break room and some offices.
Back downstairs, here's another look across the store's front walkway toward the outdoor dining area for POURS. While some Publix stores have an outdoor portion to the upstairs dining area, this store did not have that feature, with these tables on the front walkway seeming to make up for that.
A new feature for this location was the attached liquor store, located in the storefront adjacent to the main supermarket. The Publix Liquor Store at Lake Miriam Square is technically a relocation of the liquor store that was attached to the former Greenwise across the street. Due to the store across the street being located in unincorporated Polk County (which does not allow liquor stores to be open on Sunday) and Lake Miriam Square falling within the bounds of the City of Lakeland (which does allow Sunday liquor sales), Publix chose to move the liquor store here during the rebuild to take advantage of the Sunday sales.
Even though the liquor store is now over here, other than this store being double the size of the one across the street, there isn't much of a different between the two stores in terms of features. Being a former Greenwise, the store across the street has both a POURS and the expanded prepared foods options seen here, so Publix can't even justify the close proximity of these stores by stating the they have different features. It really comes down to if you want sip and stroll at big Publix or small Publix! With this store reopened, I wonder which store is more popular - the big one or the small one. This store was crazy busy before it was rebuilt, but the store across the street was also really busy the last time I was there (which was right before this one closed for the rebuild). It's Lakeland though - they probably both print money!
In coordination with Publix's rebuild, the remainder of Lake Miriam Square received a facade refresh. Moving down the strip, here's a look at the old Wilkor space post-remodel - to compare, see it's original form here.
Even though the former Wilkor has been subdivided into smaller spaces for a number of years now, the store's large windowed facade and raised ceiling over the walkway remain today. That set of doors in the center of the windows looks like it could be original too!
At the southern end of Lake Miriam Square, we find the rather generically named "Chinese Kitchen" per that exterior sign. Officially named the Lake Miriam Chinese Kitchen, this restaurant opened in April 2025, 9 months after Publix closed for its rebuild. Realizing how popular its "Chinese Cuisine" counter was in the original store and knowing that feature didn't make the cut for the new one, the operator Publix contracted with to run the old in-store Chinese cuisine counter decided to build this stand-alone restaurant to carry on the tradition from the old store. The menu served here is identical to what Publix offered (and may have even expanded slightly too), so the fans of that offering just have to walk to the other end of the plaza for their Chinese food fill! With all the food options in the new store's grand aisle (including an entire spread of sushi), it would have been nice if Publix could have incorporated the old Chinese Cuisine counter into the sushi area somehow, but at least the Chinese food didn't go away completely.
As sad as it was to see a Publix as significant as store #356 succumb to the wrecking ball, at least Publix brought the company's best and most deluxe modern prototype to Lake Miriam Square to carry on this location's tradition as the company's flagship store. I was happy to see one of these deluxe modern Publix stores myself, considering how elusive they seem to be (outside of Kentucky, anyway - Publix is really pushing this 55M design with most of their new locations in Kentucky). One off these days I'll have to return to try the pizza, so I'm sure this won't be my last time seeing a 55M!
Anyway, that completes the story of the Publix at Lake Miriam Square, from Food World to the Food World of the 21st Century. So from a top of the line Publix to a funky Publixsons, AFB will return in two weeks with more!
Until the next post,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
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