Winn-Dixie #2342
3120 North Woodland Blvd., DeLand, FL - Brandywine Shopping Village
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| Today's post is a presentation of Volusia County retail |
Even for being this old, the store is still being maintained well, something that hasn't changed over the span of my visits to this store through the years.
Since I forgot to get a photo looking toward the old floral counter during my April visit, here's one to make up for that! The pink tile that indicated the former counter is still in place, just partially blocked by those promo tables.
Looking down the back wall.
I can't visit this store without taking another photo of these signs!
Some of the aisle markers are holding on for dear life these days. I do know of at least one instance where a store with a pre-Down Down interior got "updated" aisle markers from a store that recently closed, so I wonder if that's an "update" that could happen here before a full remodel occurs.
The windows that looked into the meat and seafood prep area have now been covered over with a large banner ad for beer. This is reminiscent of how Winn-Dixie covered over some of the old pharmacy boxes after what was left of those closed in 2023.
The topper over the bread shelves just looks like something you'd see in a supermarket straight out of the 1980's.
While Frozen Foods hasn't changed too much cosmetically since April, I did notice a big issue in this part of the store while I was here:
The original-from-1982 coffin coolers that occupy the center of the frozen foods department are on their last legs. While these coolers seemed to be in disrepair for a while (see this 2024 photo showing more wet floor signs), the stains on the spill catcher mats seemed to be getting larger and more prevalent, and these wet floor signs appear to be a permanent fixture in this aisle.
Looking closely at the coffin coolers, they look like they're rusting away from age and disrepair. Being over 40 years old, these coolers are probably difficult to repair, let alone if anyone even makes parts for these anymore.
Between the rust and the peeling paint, the original orange color of these coolers from when the store first opened has begun to show through. Even if this store doesn't remodel right away, the refrigeration needs to be replaced sooner rather than later. With the glut of surplus fixtures from all the stores Aldi took, you'd think Winn-Dixie could have sent something newer over to this store to replace these dying coolers!
With the falling apart coolers and all the wet floor signs, Frozen Foods is by far the roughest looking part of the entire store. To clear our minds of that, here's a look at the combined deli/bakery, which is still looking the same as it did 6 months ago.
Turning the corner, the biggest change since April comes into view...
At long last, the Winn-Dixie Reading Center has met its end. Sometime in the last few months all the books and magazines were removed in one of this store's quick "spot updates". In place of the reading material, promo displays of drinking material have since replaced it, with a Miller Lite banner serving as a new backdrop in place of the old lit shelves. The strip of wall where the old "Reading Center" lettering used to be was painted over with a fresh coat of white paint. In person the "Reading Center" labelscar is still painfully obvious even after the new paint job, but the labelscar didn't really turn out in photos.
Here's one final look at the Marketplace - for now - looking across the front end.
While Winn-Dixie keeps patching things in this store every so often, I still have yet to see any indication of a full remodel happening anytime soon. From the looks of things, Winn-Dixie seems to be done with remodels for 2026, having completed 9 of those earlier this year (one true remodel in Temple Terrace plus the 8 Harvey's conversions, which internally seem to have been considered remodels instead of "new stores"). Heading into October, most retailers tend to not start remodels this late in the year to prevent disruptions to stores during the busy holiday season, so I don't foresee a remodel to this store, or any other Winn-Dixie, happening until January at least (which is when the first few 2026 remodels began). From my understanding there are less than 10 stores left in the chain with a decor older than Down Down, so if the pace of remodels from 2026 copies over to next year, we could see most pre-2016 decor packages disappear by 2027. That's just my prediction, but we'll have to see what 2027 holds for Winn-Dixie, as what we've seen this year appears to just be a taste of bigger things coming in the future. So I'll be keeping my eye on the Marketplace, as it will be interesting to see just how much longer this decor will hold out!
So until the next post,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
Wow! I wasn't expecting the reading center to be gone. I guess I caught it just in time! I wonder how many more "updates" this store is going to get before they actually remodel it.
ReplyDeleteThose coolers are looking sad. I don't remember them being that bad when I was there.
I wasn't expecting the reading center to be gone either! Even though magazines are a slow-moving item these days, I'm still surprised they took the effort to rip all that out just to replace it with a random beer display. Presumably being the last WD with a large book/magazine section, maybe they just wanted to get rid of having to upkeep that one display of slow moving merchandise, leaving the regular selection of magazines at the check lane like every other store has?
DeleteThe coolers were for sure leaking during my last visit in April, but I don't remember the peeling paint and rust last time. Those coolers are really being run into the ground, and clearly they aren't trying to fix them.
Those freezers are really sad looking. Even the meat coolers here look pretty bad as I saw in one of your other post pictures what appeared to be duct tape on those! I agree, it seems like WD would have sent some of their coolers and freezers from closing stores over here (especially since there were plenty of nearly new units in auction listings of closing Winn Winn or Down Down era store remodels). They could’ve probably swapped out every unit in this store with those, not to mention I doubt that even nearly new coolers would’ve sold for much at auction anyway, since there wouldn’t likely be many people looking to buy used coolers for a grocery store, even if they were newer, so I imagine most of them went cheaply for scrap. Maybe Winn Dixie would rather just buy brand new units instead if they’re going for the trouble to install them.
ReplyDeleteEven though the refrigerators and freezers look sad, this store does look clean and well kept despite its age. It also looks like some new coolers and fixtures were installed in the deli fairly recently.
I’m surprised the aisle markers haven’t been swapped here. One of my local WD stores I’m watching for a remodel got Down Down aisle markers from a closed store nearby.
It’s strange to me that WD is bothering to make random changes here if they actually are planning a remodel. It looks like this store will need a lot more than just cosmetic changes like new paint and decor if it does remodel, so I can imagine it might take quite a while of planning. At least I’d hope they replace all the refrigeration here instead of just repainting it and new floors to boot!
With this seemingly a very slow store, it would be interesting to see if a nice remodel would affect traffic in any way or if it would matter being in an out of the way area.
The refrigerators and freezers are really the worst part about this store. While it's clear this store is being maintained to look clean and presentable, those freezers are just on their way out. I don't think those are pieces of equipment that were ever intended to have a 40+ year lifespan. While there were a few small cooler swaps done in the deli as you mentioned (and even a new cooler installed by seafood), for some reason WD is holding off on replacing the bulk of that equipment in here. When factoring in trucking it over from another store, I don't know if it works out cheaper to just buy new coolers compared to trying to salvage some from a closing store, but you'd think if the salvaged coolers were only a few years old it would be worth it? I don't know, but something is going to have to be done with the refrigeration in this store before the existing units break completely.
DeleteThe holdout Purple/Maroon store in Pensacola got recycled Winn Win aisle markers semi-recently too, replacing these same style aisle markers. I somewhat wonder if the reason this store hasn't received new aisle markers is because it has 20 aisles - there aren't many Winn-Dixie stores with an aisle count that high, so it's probably difficult to find a closing store with 20 matching Winn Win/Down Down markers to ship over here.
This store is going to need a lot more work than the rather simplistic remodels we've seen so far at those old Harvey's and even St. Cloud - those stores at least had some updated fixtures to work with. This store needs new everything. It's going to be an expensive remodel once that begins, at least if Winn-Dixie wants to do this remodel right. I feel that if WD was going to close this store outright, they would have done so by now when they had those few small closure rounds trickle out late last year. While a slow store, there must be something going for it that makes it worthwhile to keep around.
When my store closed (500 Pinson, AL) for its Aldi conversion, all of the equipment was sold in an auction. I have seen auction listings for most, if not all of the WD closures. There may not be any spare freezers or coolers to swap if they sold everything in auction,
ReplyDeleteNot everything gets put in every auction. I’ve seen them keep items to transfer to other stores when they need to. If they had planned it out they could’ve gathered enough equipment from closed stores, but perhaps they have other plans to acquire new coolers here.
DeleteI have been to a Winn-Dixie closing where a number of the fixtures (particularly decor pieces and the check lane stands) were marked to keep and were being packed up and shipped out for retention by Winn-Dixie instead of going to auction. At that particular location I don't recall any coolers marked to keep, but Winn-Dixie has been keeping some things from the closing stores for future use, so there's a chance some pieces of larger equipment like coolers were selectively kept too.
DeleteIt would be interesting to see how WD would handle a remodel in this store. I believe this is the last WD store open to still have this setup in frozen foods. My local WD I think actually originally would’ve had this too (being built in 1983), but at some point it was moved to the center of the store (I think in the early 90s when it got the chrome/neon look) at which point it was two aisles with glass door freezers facing an open freezer down the middle. Then in the Fresh Experience remodel, the center open freezer was replace with more glass doors freezers, and they added several bunker coolers along the back aisle in front of meat and seafood, and some along the dairy aisle.
ReplyDeleteI would think if this store got new freezers, they’d be of the upright style with glass doors, but the last row would probably become redundant if that was the case, so they might just make the row across from dairy as regular shelves for bread or something else.
My local WD, also built in the early 80s, probably had this setup originally, but the freezes were moved to the middle of the store, probably in the early 90s when it got the chrome/neon look.
It wasn’t uncommon for older WD stores to get new produce coolers when they got Marketplace Refresh or Purple/Maroon (and it looks like this store did too). Oddly enough, my local store also got the tall meat cases around that time, but that apparently never happened in this one.
I think if this store does end up remodeling, those old diamond signs should be saved!
My local WD used to have the reading center too, but when it got the Fresh Experience remodel, it was done away with and tall coolers for cold cut sandwiches and other deli stuff were put in that area.