 |
| Photo courtesy of the Lee County Property Appraiser |
Publix #110 / Sweetbay Supermarket #1971 / Winn-Dixie #2533 / Future Aldi #2533
1016 Cape Coral Parkway, Cape Coral, FL - Shops at Cape Coral
 |
| Today's post is a presentation of Lee County retail |
Last time we toured downtown Cape Coral's current Publix store, and now it is time to take a look at the store that one replaced. As I mentioned last time, there is a lot to talk about today, and not just about Publix either - Kash n' Karry, Sweetbay, Winn-Dixie, and Aldi will all be making special appearances in today's post as well, so we'll be touching on pretty much every Floridian supermarket chain but this blog's own namesake - Albertsons! Albertsons just had to build down the street, but all those other grocery chains happened to cycle through this shopping center over the last half-century, leaving us with an interesting story to discuss today. That said, we have quite a bit to go over, so let's get this post started by learning more about the first store of the day: Publix.
 |
| It's interesting to learn it only cost $350,000 to build a new Publix in 1965 - I believe an average new Publix these days costs roughly $6 million to build, and that's just to construct the building! |
The first buildings in Cape Coral were constructed by the city's developer, Gulf American Land Corporation, in 1958. Only 6 years later, the new city was already attracting major retail, with Publix announcing it would build a new store "of typical Publix design" in town in 1964. The new Publix would be a major component of Cape Coral's new downtown area at the base of the Cape Coral Parkway bridge, the city's primary connection over the Caloosahatchee to Fort Myers at the time.
The grand opening of Cape Coral's original Publix store, #110, occurred on May 27, 1965. As usual for Publix, they brought the pomp of a festive grand opening celebration to town to celebrate the new store, with giveaways, special sales, and free samples of a variety of products (such as "the beef beyond belief" - sounds like Publix wanted to give Winn-Dixie a run for their money with that one!).
 |
| That free loaf of white bread would come in handy to make sandwiches with some "beef beyond belief"! |
What I find interesting about Cape Coral's supermarket history is that while Publix came to town very early on in 1965, Winn-Dixie wouldn't build a store in town until 1977 (located at Coralwood Mall in the building that's now LA Fitness). With how much of a powerhouse Winn-Dixie was in those days, I'm surprised they took so long to build a store here, especially with Winn-Dixie being the first supermarket to build a store in many new Florida cities in those days. While Publix would eventually build out to have 8 stores in Cape Coral in the modern day, Winn-Dixie would only open one other store in town in 1985 on Hancock Bridge Parkway on Cape Coral's northside (which was replaced by a Marketplace across the road in 1998). Both of Cape Coral's Winn-Dixie stores would end up closing in the chain's 2005 bankruptcy, leaving Cape Coral Winn-Dixie-less until 2014. Kash n' Karry also had a minimal presence in Cape Coral as well, maxing out with two stores by the late 1990's, only one of which made it into the Sweetbay era. We'll come back to Kash n' Karry in a little bit, and also hold that thought about what I just said about Winn-Dixie too!
Upon its opening, the downtown Cape Coral Publix was a pretty typical Wing Store, so the description of being "of typical Publix design" in that pre-opening news article was fairly spot-on. Originally built as a stand-alone structure, the site was eventually expanded in later years with a shopping center constructed to the right of the Wing Store building.
After 13 years of serving Cape Coral, the old Wing Store was becoming outdated, so in 1978 Publix embarked on an large expansion and remodel of store #110 (possibly related to Winn-Dixie's arrival in town the year before?). The remodel consisted of an expansion out the left side of the building, new modern service departments, and an updated facade (which can be seen in the sketch at the top of the "Bigger and Better Sale" ad above).
 |
| Photo courtesy of the Lee County Property Appraiser |
Following the remodel in 1978, Publix #110 didn't change all that much. At least from the exterior, the facade remained exactly as it would have looked in 1978 going into the early 2000's. As Cape Coral's Community Redevelopment Agency director put it in an article we'll be seeing in a little bit, he described the downtown Publix as "a time warp going back to the '60s...the store's had very little modernization over the years."
 |
| Photo courtesy of the Lee County Property Appraiser |
I can't speak much for the interior, but I wouldn't be surprised if this store kept its 1980's interior going into the early 2000's, just based on what an artifact the exterior was. There were a few 1980's decor holdouts going into the 2000's, such as store #113 in Tallahassee (closed 2006) and store #29 in Sarasota (closed 2011(!)), so I wouldn't be surprised if #110 was also part of that group of 1980's Publix holdouts that made it into the 21st century. Maybe a Cape Coral native reading this blog could describe the interior of this store in more detail, but I doubt this store could have closed with anything newer than Wavy Pastel.
 |
| Photo courtesy of the Lee County Property Appraiser |
When this store expanded in 1978, a tile mural was added onto the expansion side of the building. The picture above doesn't enlarge well, but it looks like the mural was one of Pati Mills' classic cornucopia and farm scenes, a common mural theme from the late 1970's.
 |
| Photo courtesy of the Lee County Property Appraiser |
According to an article published on June 18, 2008, Publix spokeswoman Shannon Patten stated that Publix's lease "runs through December 2010 and the grocery store chain intends at this point to stay in that location. We don't have any plans to move." At the time that article (which is featured later in this post) was published, it was rumored the Publix plaza was going to be redeveloped into a mixed-use type center, with Publix presumably anchoring the mixed-use complex in some form. However, just a week earlier on June 10, 2008, it was revealed Publix purchased 49 stores from Albertsons throughout Florida, a bundle that included the Albertsons store just 2 miles down the road at 127 Cape Coral Parkway. Being that the purchase of those Albertsons stores didn't formally close until September 2008, that spokeswoman was probably speaking truthfully, as Publix probably wouldn't make formal relocation plans until those buildings were fully under Publix's control. Either way, with a then 11-year-old, larger, more modern building just purchased 2 miles away, I can see how buying those Albertsons stores may have swayed Publix to move down the road instead of staying put and rebuilding at the original location.
 |
| Photo courtesy of the Lee County Property Appraiser |
Even though 2 miles is a bit of a buffer between Publix stores (especially after seeing what happened with some of those other Albertsons stores purchased in 2008), Publix decided to put this relic of a store in the past, even if there may have been a chance of being part of a redevelopment that could have netted Publix a brand new store. Publix #110 closed for business the evening of March 18, 2009, with the Publixsons down the road opening the next morning on March 19th.
We'll get back to discussing what happened to the old Publix in just a moment, but before we do, we need to go a few hundred feet to the west to take a look at another supermarket, a Kash n' Karry, to fully understand what will eventually happen here:
Kash n' Karry entered Lee County in the early 1980's as part of the chain's broader push into Southwestern Florida. Following the opening of the chain's first Lee County location in Fort Myers, the chain set its sights on Cape Coral for the county's second location. Eyeing a parcel in the city's downtown area next door to the established Publix store in 1982, all Kash n' Karry needed to begin construction was a land swap with the city of Cape Coral to account for the new supermarket's encroachment into a public parking area (an issue that was resolved by the city council without any issue, so no city council drama in today's post).
Much like Publix, Kash n' Karry was attracted to downtown Cape Coral as it was the heart of the city's population, and Kash n' Karry tried to "be where the people are".
While the site Kash n' Karry chose was in the heart of town, the store was built with a slight quirk - instead of being built to face the much busier Cape Coral Parkway, the store was built facing Leonard Street, a small side street that runs between the Kash n' Karry store and the Publix plaza, ending just behind the Publix plaza in a residential neighborhood. While the visuals from the main road weren't the best for Kash n' Karry, the new supermarket did stare down shoppers going in and out of Publix and its neighboring stores, so it's not like it was totally hidden.
 |
| I never knew Kash n' Karry once sold laundry baskets and bar stools. |
Kash n' Karry opened for business on January 9, 1983, with less giveaways but many more BOGOs compared to what Publix offered 18 years prior at its own grand opening. However, Kash n' Karry was trying to skew more toward a discount, less-frills type store in the 1980's under the ownership of Lucky Stores, so having less pomp and circumstance than Publix at the opening was probably a given. Even with these two competitors only a few hundred feet apart, practically sharing a parking lot, Kash n' Karry (inclusive of its time as Sweetbay) and Publix actually co-existed all the way until Publix moved down the road in 2009 - a total of 26 years.
 |
| Photo courtesy of the Lee County Property Appraiser |
While the Publix across the parking lot was described in that 2008 article as being a relic of the past, this Kash n' Karry wasn't looking much better in the above photo from 2000 - that's an impressively dated Kash n' Karry! By the time Delhaize acquired the chain in 1996, they became quite aggressive at updating Kash n' Karry's fleet, but this one appears to have escaped any of Delhaize's updates until the chain's eventual conversion to Sweetbay in the mid-2000's. The orange logo we see on the exterior would suggest this store was remodeled in the early 1990's to Kash n' Karry's orange decor, and that decor seems to have lasted until the Sweetbay conversion began in late 2004.
Being that the first Sweetbay Supermarket opened in November 2004, this was one of the earlier Sweetbay conversions considering it held its grand reopening in March 9, 2005. However, with how dated this store looked beforehand, I'm not surprised Delhaize got this location higher-up on the priority list to switch over to Sweetbay!
And it's not just me thinking this store looked dated, the opening lines of the above article read as follows: "Customers at Cape Coral's Kash n' Karry grocery store say they're ready for a change. They're tired of the orange paint and the dingy white floor tiles. They want something different, something a bit fancier. "It's a pretty old store," said Cathy Webb, 35, as she pushed a cart through the downtown Cape store. "It could use a new look."" For the newspaper to agree that the store looked dated, that certainly meant this store needed a remodel!
 |
| Photo courtesy of the Lee County Property Appraiser |
The building cleaned up quite nicely as it transformed into a Sweetbay Supermarket. Delhaize clearly put a decent amount of money into this store in early 2005, however, it was still an older building, on the smaller side for a Kash n' Karry, and facing away from the main road. At the time the remodel happened it didn't appear that Sweetbay would be going anywhere anytome soon, as there wasn't any room for this store to relocate to nearby or expand.
 |
| Photo courtesy of the Lee County Property Appraiser |
The fresh paint really modernized this building, and I wonder if the spiffy new Sweetbay began to steal business from the vintage Publix across the street, attracting shoppers due to is fresh, modern look.
 |
| Photo courtesy of the Lee County Property Appraiser |
While it seemed like not much action was going to happen here in the mid-2000's, thanks to Albertsons, Publix's move down the road actually set off an unusual chain of events here in downtown Cape Coral. The reason I bring up this Kash n' Karry/Sweetbay is because it's going to play an integral part in the future of the former Publix we just discussed - get ready, because worlds are about to collide!
I don't know if it was Publix's move to the old Albertsons or the economic turmoil of the late 2000's in general that ended up killing the mixed-use redevelopment of the Publix plaza, but either way, those plans eventually fell apart and the former Publix began to sit vacant.
The old Publix left a gaping hole in the middle of downtown Cape Coral, leading the city to come up with alternative plans for what to do with this large vacant space in a central part of town.
In order to mitigate the empty retail spaces in the downtown area, the city of Cape Coral created a plan that any existing business wishing to relocate within the downtown area, and any new business wanting to open in the downtown area, could receive lease assistance from the city covering up to one-third of the monthly rent. The one catch to the program the city proposed is they wanted give retail tenants preference for this proposed program, as the city felt retail tenants would generate more foot traffic in the downtown area compared to offices for doctors, lawyers, and other professionals.
The lease assistance program was proposed in July 2009, 4 months after Publix's move. While I don't know if Sweetbay was enticed by the government assistance or not, they did seem to have some interest in the much better situated Publix building staring at their existing store from across the parking lot. While is wasn't much bigger than Sweetbay's existing store, as I mentioned earlier, the Publix building had much better visibility from Cape Coral Parkway, and with a little love, could make for a nice modern Sweetbay store...
…and in October 2009, it was announced that Sweetbay did find that abandoned supermarket across the parking lot too enticing to pass up. While this scenario would eventually lead to the Sweetbay building sitting vacant, this was still a big win for the downtown area, as Sweetbay was about to invest a lot of money into the Publix plaza, giving that center its first major renovation since 1978.
I don't have the exact number, but Sweetbay opened an impressive number of new stores in the late 2000's. Sweetbay's late 2000's newbuild stores were quite nice too, and amazingly, I've never actually blogged about one of those stores yet - I've been too focused on featuring the funky old Kash n' Karry conversions and the handful of newbuild 2010's stores! Delhaize really wanted Sweetbay to be successful, if you ask me, as they pumped a lot of money into the chain in the late 2000's to modernize it and make it more upscale to chase after the Publix shopper. While trying to go head-to-head with Publix could have been a large factor in Sweetbay's ultimate downfall, I'm still impressed with Delhaize's effort to make something of the chain.
I'd have to guess Sweetbay wasn't expecting the Publix store across the parking lot to become available only 4 years after spending the money to upgrade the existing store, but sometimes when opportunity knocks, you have to jump on it. This particular store relocation wasn't going to be a simple replacement project for Sweetbay either - Delhaize was going to go all-in on this project to truly upgrade Sweetbay for the 2010's.
Sweetbay was about to embark on a complete gut and rebuild of the former Publix store, with the landlord jumping in to fund a remodel of the shopping center's entire exterior in tandem with Sweetbay's renovations.
A rendering of the new Sweetbay store can be seen in the news clipping above - a radical departure from the 1970's Publix exterior this building had prior!
Not only was the remodel going to be a huge departure from what this building looked like prior, this new Sweetbay store was not going to look like any other Sweetbay opened prior either. Opening on August 28, 2010, the Cape Coral Sweetbay marked a large transition for the chain, as Sweetbay was trying something totally new for its first new store to open in the 2010's:
Yes, the new Cape Coral Sweetbay was the store that debuted the chain's rare second decor package, Sweetbay 2.0. The Sweetbay 2.0 decor would appear 5 more times throughout the chain, in 2011's two new stores and in two additional remodels that year, and then be used one last time in the very last new Sweetbay store to open in 2013. If you've been reading this blog over the last few years, you all know Sweetbay 2.0 is one of my favorite decor packages of all time - it's no Grocery Palace, but it was very nice and took Sweetbay in a totally new direction that never get to see its full potential.
 |
| Photo courtesy of the Lee County Property Appraiser |
While we won't be seeing Sweetbay 2.0 in as much detail in today's post compared to some of my prior posts showcasing that decor, we will still get a nice taste of it today. However, I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself there, as the image above was taken in mid-remodel showing the former Publix space all ripped apart - it was still going to be a while before any hints of Sweetbay 2.0 would be seen here!
 |
| Photo courtesy of the Lee County Property Appraiser |
The new Cape Coral Sweetbay ended up looking just like the sketch we saw earlier, but absolutely nothing like the former Publix though. It's actually very hard to tell this building was ever a Publix post-conversion - the only real Publix-y trait you can see here (if you look very close) is that Sweetbay kept Publix's old vestibule, but even then, that was heavily rebuilt and reconfigured too. I'm actually surprised with all the work done here, no one bothered to realign the crosswalks with the new front doors - the crosswalks still align with where the entrances on the two sides of Publix's vestibule would have been.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
After only 4 years in business as a Sweetbay, the Cape Coral store was included as one of the final 72 Sweetbay stores sold to BI-LO Holdings (later SE Grocers, now The Winn-Dixie Company) in 2013. Following its conversion into a Winn-Dixie in 2014, that brought The Beef People (not to be confused with "The Beef Beyond Belief People") back to the Cape for the first time since 2005 when the chain's other two stores in town closed. The purchase of those 72 Sweetbay stores filled a lot of holes in Western Florida from Winn-Dixie's mass closures that stemmed from the 2005 bankruptcy, although the pullout from the city of Cape Coral was one of the chain's most glaring holes at the time, being a city of over 100,000 in Florida completely without a Winn-Dixie. Sadly in 2026, there are many more examples of that again due to you-know-who, and surprise, surprise - Cape Coral is one of them, again (but more on that later).
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
Upon moving into this building, Winn-Dixie didn't do much besides restocking the shelves and installing their own computer system, leaving the store's Sweetbay 2.0 decor in-tact. However, in 2018, this store became the first of the 4 Sweetbay 2.0 stores Winn-Dixie inherited to remodel away from that decor, switching over to Winn-Dixie's own Down Down decor - huge downgrade from Sweetbay 2.0 if you ask me.
Nearly halfway through this post, that finally brings us to my own photos of this store, taken well into its Down Down era. As I mentioned last time in the post about the Publixsons down the street, I didn't realize this Winn-Dixie had such a storied past, so I didn't think much of it during my first visit to Cape Coral in 2022. After realizing what I had missed, I wanted to come back to take a look at this store myself, with the fire for me to do so burning even more once I learned this was one of the 220 Winn-Dixie and Harvey's stores being retained by Aldi for future conversion. Eventually I bit the bullet and made one heck of a detour to Cape Coral as part of another trip I was on to see this place once and for all, and I'd have to say that diversion was worth it - this store was pretty interesting, even in its Down Down form.
Thankfully I made it out here in late 2025, only a few months before this store got its official closure announcement in December 2025, with its closure occurring on March 15, 2026. What really sucks about this store's conversion is that not only does it leave Cape Coral without a Winn-Dixie again, but Aldi already has 5 stores in town! Sadly, this Winn-Dixie happened to be in the one part of Cape Coral Aldi didn't already have a store, making this location a prime choice for Cape Coral's Aldi #6.
Anyway, back to Winn-Dixie's tenure in this building! From this vantage point, we can see the framing of the original Publix vestibule, the last piece of Publix left on this property. Interestingly, per Aldi's construction plans, they plan to keep that vestibule in-tact too, so that last piece of Publix will still live on three supermarkets later!
Now that we've seen many, many exterior photos of this store from the early 2000's through 2025, let's head inside for a change of pace. Before we go inside, I would like to make a quick note about our tour - the following tour will be a blend of my photos of this store from 2025 mixed in with all the old photos I found of this store's interior on Google from the Sweetbay 2.0 era, as I had to give Sweetbay 2.0 some kind of representation in this post! Even though this store remodeled to Down Down in 2018, the people of Google actually provided me with a number of good, high-quality overviews of this store's interior pre-remodel (which I was surprised to find), so we'll be getting a number of before and after perspectives of this store's interior. I think this format makes for a more interesting tour, so let's head inside and see what this place is (or should I say, was) all about:
Entering the store, you found yourself in the vestibule, which was the modified version of Publix's old vestibule with the entrance/exit doors moved to the front. Within the vestibule was the cartwell (to the left upon entering) and the liquor store entrance (to the right), as newbuild Sweetbay stores preferred the off-vestibule design for the liquor stores rather than a totally segregated storefront off to the side of the building. The vestibule entrances are the closest a supermarket in Florida could get to having the liquor store connected to the interior, and Sweetbay, Target, and Walgreens are the only stores I can think of that ever exploited that loophole. Anyway, the vestibule also contained a sign welcoming shoppers to "The Cape" Winn-Dixie, Winn-Dixie interestingly opting for the slang term most locals refer to Cape Coral as rather than using the city's formal name, an interesting choice I thought. The reason I'm describing all this rather than showing a picture is because the store's cart collector was standing in the vestibule watching people coming in and out of the store in between bringing in batches of carts, both when I entered and exited, so I wasn't able to get a photo without him seeing me. Oh well, with the way the vestibule was rebuilt we weren't missing anything too crazy from the Publix days, so I'm not too upset about that. Anyway, stepping through the interior doors shoppers were taken into the produce department, seeing what we see above.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
However, if we go back in time to the mid-2010's, what we would see upon entering would have much more color! Had this store not remodeled until the Winn Win era, at least there would have been a little more texture and dimension to the walls. Down Down just made this store feel so much more boring.
Produce was located in the front right corner of the building, kicking off the "grand aisle" that spanned the right side of the store.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
As part of the Down Down remodel, Winn-Dixie removed the hanging trellises over the produce department and replaced all of those with new spotlight tracks.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
Finishing up in produce, the photo above gives us a taste of the next department we'll find in the grand aisle - the bakery.
 |
| Sweetbay 2.0's curved awnings just look so strange with Down Down's flatness above them. |
The bakery resided in the middle of the grand aisle with its service counter on the right side wall, with the deli just beyond that in the back right corner. Above, we also see the floral department, located in an island between produce and the start of the shelving for aisle 1.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
This store really popped back in the Sweetbay 2.0 days with the color variety and the different stencil patterns comprising each department sign's backsplash.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
Floral didn't move from its home at the end of aisle 1 during the Down Down remodel, although overall, much of the store's layout stayed the same before and after that remodel. The only major modification Winn-Dixie made to this store during the remodel was the addition of the Dollar Shop aisle, which probably triggered some resets throughout the grocery aisles to rehome much of that dislocated merchandise. However, a light reset and new paint were about all there was to most Down Down remodels, those being budget-friendly remodels in many cases.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
Opposite the bakery and deli counters, a row of open-front coolers backed up against the first grocery aisle. Within these coolers were the pre-packaged deli meals and meats, with the deli's hot bar visible in the center of the aisle beyond all the tables of baked goods.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
The cooler with the purple stripe running across the top is very much a relic of Sweetbay, and the fixtures used for the bakery until the time of the 2018 remodel also look to be original to Sweetbay as well.
 |
| I should have asked the butcher if they had any "beef beyond belief" in stock. |
Finishing up the grand aisle, the last department we encounter is the meat and seafood service counter, signed as only "Seafood" in the Down Down days, but as "Meat | Seafood" in the Sweetbay 2.0 days. Even though this counter may have taken on a pescatarian diet since Winn-Dixie moved in, I have to say I like how the Down Down department sign for this counter was printed on a piece of plastic and hung in front of the awning. While still cheap, I think it's a much nicer look compared to the deli and bakery's Down Down wall treatment.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
That said, a plastic hanging sign will never compare to the original! Sweetbay 2.0 had a refined classiness to it, but was also whimsical at the same time with the punny sayings on the wall. It was a nice balance of the two, and the entire decor just worked well wherever it was installed, be it in a total newbuild store or a renovated 1960's Publix building.
As you'd expect from a heavily modified 60+ year old building, there were lots of random support columns all over the store designating where former walls used to be and where expansions happened. I believe the excess of columns in the back aisle correlated with where the original back wall of the salesfloor was when Publix was here, as Sweetbay probably tried to open up the salesfloor a bit with the installation of the meat alcove.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
From the same vantage point but turned to focus more on the grocery aisles, here's another Sweetbay 2.0 era look across the back wall. Much like it was prior to the remodel, wine was located in the first grocery aisle after the grand aisle.
Winn-Dixie replaced Sweetbay's fancy wood (or more likely, faux wood-esque) wine shelves in favor of plain metal ones, a bit of a downgrade I'd have to say. While it lost the fancy shelves, this aisle did gain a large hanging department sign in the process.
Following wine, the next aisle over was home to Winn-Dixie's Dollar Shop, a new addition from the Down Down remodel. This store had a relatively large Dollar Shop, that feature extending the entire length of aisle 2.
Moving along to aisle 3, we find water and juices. As you can see to my right, that is one example of many large empty holes this store had in terms of merchandise when I was here. Seeing all the out of stocks, I actually thought this store was about to be announced for its closure the week after I visited, but I guess it was all just a fluke during my visit - this store ended up going for another few months after my visit before the closure news was officially announced. Still, it made the store look like it wasn't doing all that well, which wasn't a good impression.
Due to all the out of stocks, I ended up leaving this store with only half of what I was hoping to pick up this day, which was quite disappointing. I've been doing quite a bit of shopping at Winn-Dixie the last few years, and this was the first time I actually left Winn-Dixie feeling disappointed because I couldn't get what I needed. My local Winn-Dixie stores have been very good at keeping the shelves stocked, and it's rare that I go in and they don't have everything I'm looking for. I don't know what was going on at this store, but this was not normal from what I've seen of Winn-Dixie lately.
Returning to the back wall, the meat alcove extends roughly two-thirds of the way down the back, with the wall returning to its original placement from the Publix days when you enter the dairy department up ahead.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
We sell the steak, you make the sizzle, which is what you'd expect from beef beyond belief! Anyway, with this store having low ceilings and limited wall space, all of the Sweetbay 2.0 sayings were clumped together more than in later stores with more wall room to spare.
Returning to the grocery aisles, we find chips and snack foods in aisle 5.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
Looking across the front end, we have the check lanes to our left, with the shell of the store's awkwardly placed pharmacy counter at the very end of the lanes. This store's pharmacy was purged in the 2016 pharmacy closure wave, so Winn-Dixie really hadn't operated this pharmacy for long before closing it.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
Sweetbay 2.0 used these slightly modified aisle markers throughout the store. While structurally identical to their predecessors, these aisle markers were black on purple instead of the original black on brown.
The awning for the old pharmacy can be seen at the end of aisle 9. Due to the size constraints of this building, the pharmacy ended up being built right on top of check lane 1. When the pharmacy was still open, I can only imagine it being tight if the pharmacy was busy and check lane 1 was open at the same time!
Because it lined up with the old pharmacy counter, aisle 10 became home to the store's entire selection of health and beauty products. During the Down Down remodel, the aisle was jazzed up with the new overhead sign and bright blue aisle toppers, one of the few pops of something that isn't red or black in the Down Down decor.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
Surprisingly, Down Down was actually an upgrade for the health and beauty aisle, as the hanging overhead sign and the blue light-up shelf toppers added more visual interest to this aisle compared to the mundane typical grocery aisle feel Sweetbay 2.0 gave it. However, this is the only example I can think of where Down Down had an edge over Sweetbay 2.0!
The store's dairy department began on the back wall where the "MILK" sign was, wrapping around the left side wall into the last aisle.
This far left side of the store we're standing in now was the space Publix added during the 1978 expansion and remodel. Since expanded Publix stores tended to have non-standard layouts in many cases, I don't know for certain how this store was arranged between 1978 and when it closed in 2009. My best guess is Publix moved most of the service departments into the expansion space on this side of the building, creating a floorplan similar to this in the process, but I really don't know.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
The Sweetbay 2.0 decor appears to have fizzled out on this side of the store, the wall over the milk coolers looking a bit blank from this angle. In the background of an upcoming photo it does show there was a "Dairy" sign over these coolers, with the more interesting diary department decor design reserved for the left wall. Unfortunately, the left wall is the only part of the store no one actually got a photo of before the remodel, so that piece of the store will also only be visible in the background of an upcoming photo.
Pressing on into aisle 11, we find an aisle of pet supplies.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
Looking toward the left side of the store during the Sweetbay 2.0 days, a tiny bit of the frozen foods/dairy decor can be seen in the background of this image beyond the last few grocery aisles.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps - Don't you miss the "Big Red Hand"? |
Flipping back and forth between the Sweetbay 2.0 pictures and the ones from the Down Down era, it appears Winn-Dixie made one other large investment into this store during the remodel - the lights were swapped out in the remodel. If you look at the Sweetbay 2.0 pictures, you'll see light bars running parallel with the grocery aisles, but the Down Down pictures show Winn-Dixie's usual rectangle lights.
Pictured above is aisle 13, the store's second to last grocery aisle, an aisle split between paper plates and Ziploc bags on one side, with a portion of the frozen foods on the other.
Moving into aisle 14, we find the remaining frozen foods coolers, as well as the last little bit of dairy toward the end of the aisle in the back left corner.
While wine had its home next to the grand aisle in aisle 1, its potent counterpart beer was located on the other side of the store, stretching along the front wall from the former pharmacy counter to frozen foods.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
Without being able to see the signage on the wall above, I can't tell if beer was still located in the front left corner before the remodel. What I can say is the coolers along the front wall were swapped out at the very least, changing from a model with doors to the open-faced coolers seen there during my visit.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
The old pharmacy was tucked into this little corner practically next to check lane 1, next to which was the hallway to the restrooms, some offices, and the breakroom. The Coinstar machine is in the area that would have once been the pharmacy counter itself.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
Here's a better look toward the space where the pharmacy counter used to be, transitioning away from self-serve kiosks pre-remodel into a home for cases of water following the remodel. It also appears the old pharmacy seconded as a makeshift bandshell too! I'd have to imagine this photo was taken during the store's grand reopening celebration following the Down Down remodel, as I don't know of any other occasion when Winn-Dixie features live music!
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
Turning the other way, here's a look across the front end toward produce (where we began our interior tour) and the service desk.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
Like most Sweetbay 2.0 stores, the service desk was located in an island next to the check lanes, complete with its own round hanging sign, the only overhead hanging sign included with Sweetbay 2.0.
Back outside, that just about wraps things up from this building. I did warn everyone at the beginning there was a lot to talk about when it came to this store, and I think you've all realized that by now!
As was also mentioned prior, Aldi got their hands on this store, with the Cape Coral Winn-Dixie officially closing on March 15, 2026 to begin its conversion. The sketch above was taken from the building plan set for this store, showing Aldi taking the left two-thirds of the space and leaving the right third empty for a future tenant. The sketch shows that the facade over the vestibule will be Aldi-fied as part of the conversion process, and other than carving a new set of doors out to access the orphaned right side of the building, the rest of the exterior appears to remain unchanged. Following this move, much like it was from 2005-2014, Cape Coral is now Winn-Dixie-less once again. Even after being squeezed out, will Winn-Dixie return for a 3rd time to the Cape? It would be a tough task to go against the city's 8 Publix stores and soon-to-be 6 Aldis, but who knows, crazier things have happened!
Anyway, with all of this talk about the Publix-turned-Sweetbay-turned-Winn-Dixie-soon-to-be-turned-Aldi, many of you are probably wondering - what ever happened to the original Kash n' Karry/Sweetbay building across the parking lot? After talking about that store earlier, of course I couldn't keep you hanging on that one! We'll wrap up this post by jumping across the parking lot to see what's happened to that building since 2010:
 |
| Photo courtesy of the Lee County Property Appraiser |
Even though this building is clearly visible from the parking lot of the busy shopping center next door, the old Kash n' Karry/Sweetbay building is still plagued by the fact it faces a side street and is mostly hidden from the main road.
 |
| Photo courtesy of the Lee County Property Appraiser |
As such, the building sat empty until 2012, when it became home to the Southwest Florida Military Museum and Library. Upon its opening in 2012, one of the original investors and business partners in the museum was involved in the ownership of this building, which he allowed the museum to operate out of for free (hey, free rent is one way to overlook the building's odd placement!).
 |
| Photo courtesy of the Lee County Property Appraiser |
The museum repainted the exterior but otherwise didn't do much to the building, leaving just about everything in-tact from its supermarket days.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Yelp |
Even the interior remodel was mostly limited to bringing in the museum's fixtures and displays, which were just pushed in front of the supermarket features to block them off from public access. In the Yelp photo above, you can see the original Kash n' Karry orange floor still visible in the museum's library, which continued into the other parts of the building as well. Some additional photos of the museum's interior can be found at this link if you want to see more of what the museum did with the interior of the place.
Come 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic put a large financial strain on the museum. On top of that, the operators of the museum began to have a financial dispute with their partner who owned this building, the dispute stemming from the fact that the owner of the building wanted to start charging the museum $5,000/month rent, the first time the museum had been asked to pay rent in 8 years. With the lack of funds, the museum would have been forced to pay the $5,000/month rent (which would increase to $8,000/month in 2021) or buy the building for $1.8 million, neither option being in the budget.
With no other options and fundraising not putting a dent into raising the $1.8 million to buy the building, the museum was forced to close on September 30, 2020. Following the museum's closure, the owner of the building found a buyer who ended up paying $1.9 million for the space (a buyer the owner was reportedly in talks with while the museum was still open, and may have played a role in the owner wanting to force the museum out via the high rent threat). Even following the sale of the building in 2021, it's just sat empty ever since. Currently the owners are trying to pitch to potential lessees various redevelopment ideas on the building's Loopnet page, but it seems like no one has taken the bite just yet.
Even though I have a beef beyond belief against Aldi for taking Cape Coral's lone Winn-Dixie, the old Kash n' Karry building wouldn't be a bad replacement for it. It's right next door to the old store, Kash n' Karry/Sweetbay operated out of this building for 26 years without much issue even with the odd placement and a Publix adjoining, and Winn-Dixie can stare down Aldi and steal some of their shoppers as revenge for taking the old store. I see potential here, at least! The building would for sure need a good renovation to make it feel a little more modern, but if Winn-Dixie is willing to gut and rebuild an old Big Lots in Zephyrhills for a new store, this one would be even easier to fix up! I've heard numerous rumors that even more new Winn-Dixie stores are in the works besides that one confirmed store in Zephyrhills and the remaining Hitchcock's conversions, and Southwest Florida has come up a few times in the rumor mills too. Winn-Dixie is up to something, and with Lee County down to one lone Winn-Dixie post-Aldi (located in St. James City on Pine Island - a fairly out-of-the-way place for grocery shopping unless you're a local or a really devoted SWFL Winn-Dixie fan), they could certainly use some new stores in the area.
Anyway, hypotheticals aside, we've seen a lot in today's post, from Publix to Kash n' Karry to Sweetbay to Winn-Dixie to a little bit of Aldi. I hope everyone found this deep dive into downtown Cape Coral's retail history enjoyable, and be sure to come back in two weeks for more!
So until the next post,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
No comments:
Post a Comment