Winn-Dixie Comes In Like a Lion, and Goes Out Like an Aldi

Food Lion #2162 / Winn-Dixie #112 / Aldi #112

181 Blackford Way, St. Augustine, FL - Shores Village

Today's post is a presentation of St. John's County retail

     I was originally unsure of what I was going to write about for this post, as I wanted to find something that was sort-of kind-of near the old Palm Coast Albertsons to feature. With Winn-Dixie still being the talk of the town, I came very close to prepping a post on the Daytona Beach Shores Winn-Dixie one county south of that former Albertsons, that being (until you-know-who came along) the oldest Winn-Dixie left in the chain per the MFR Aldi conversion list. But as I was writing the final paragraph of my last post, the old adage "March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb" popped into my head, which made me think of Food Lion, which then made me think of the St. Augustine Shores Winn-Lion, which then gave me the title "Winn-Dixie Comes In Like a Lion, and Goes Out Like an Aldi", which I thought was too good of a title to go to waste! Being one county up from the Palm Coast Albertsons, the timing, the title, and the location couldn't have been any more perfect - it was a Winn Win Win! That said, we'll take a look at the Daytona Beach Shores Winn-Dixie another time, and instead take a look at this funky Winn-Lion today (which also succumbed to the same fate as the aforenoted Daytona Beach Shores store and 219 of its other brethren). Unlike Daytona Beach Shores, which had 69 years to serve its community, the St. Augustine Shores Winn-Dixie didn't even get to see its 4th anniversary. Honestly, I don't know which situation is sadder, as a community losing its full-service supermarket in a fabulous display of corporate greed is horrible no matter which way you slice it! Anyway, we'll spend today talking about the first two iterations of supermarket to occupy this building, starting off by seeing how it came in like a lion:

Photo courtesy of Google Maps

     While it may be hard to believe, Food Lion was actually opening new stores in Florida until the late 2000's. The Food Lion we see here opened in 2009, one of a handful of new Food Lion stores to have opened around Jacksonville and St. Augustine during that timeframe. With the areas on the southern, western, and northern edges of St. Augustine growing rapidly in the late 2000's, Food Lion actually took the opportunity to enter some of those newer Northeastern Florida communities, such as St. Augustine Shores. Its only other competition being a Publix two miles to the north, this Food Lion was well positioned to capture shoppers from St. Augustine Shores, Crescent Beach, and even the northern fringes of Palm Coast.

     Food Lion's 2000's Floridian newbuilds were identical to the stores the chain was building elsewhere in its footprint at the time, down to the unusual (for Florida) all-brick exteriors, a design trait more common going further north. This style of Food Lion is called by many the "Rutherfordton" design, as the first prototype of this design and decor opened in the town of Rutherfordton, North Carolina in 2006. These late 2000's Food Lion stores were nothing like their 1990's counterparts that spread across Florida during the chain's peak. Gone were the dingy, tiny, no-frills atmosphere Food Lion had a reputation for, and in came a modern prototype with a full suite of amenities such as expanded deli and bakery, wider aisles, and in some cases, the addition of a full-service pharmacy counter (a rarity for Food Lion stores). The new decor was designed to have a "neighborhood" feel, and would make the stores feel more cozy and comfortable. Even though the decor has been changed a few times in the years since, Food Lion newbuilds of the 2020's still use a very similar design to their late 2000's counterparts, just paired with the chain's modern Easy, Fresh, Affordable (EFA) 3.0 decor - Food Lion really did something right with this design for it to still be in use 20 years later!

     Anyway, since we won't be seeing any 2020's Food Lion newbuilds in Florida anytime soon, let's get back to the Food Lion of the late 2000's and early 2010's. Even though Food Lion gave Florida one last chance with some new stores in the late 2000's, they were feeling the squeeze from Publix and Walmart, just like their fellow competitor Albertsons was. In January 2012, Food Lion announced a massive closure wave, a wave which included the complete exit from the state of Florida and quite the thinning of stores in its remaining southern expanses. Only 3 months after Food Lion's announcement, Albertsons also announced its near withdrawal from Florida in April 2012. 2012 was not a good year for supermarkets in Florida, but part of the reason this blog exists is because of all the events that transpired in Florida's supermarket scene that year!

Seeing one of these Rutherfordton-style Food Lion stores in Florida just seems so strange to me.

     Barely 3 years old at the time of its closure in early 2012, this store would sit empty for the next 9 years awaiting a new tenant. I happened to pass by this store during its time sitting empty, intrigued by the fact this was not only one of the last new Food Lion stores to open in Florida, but also the fact that it probably still had traces of the Rutherfordton decor inside.

With the parking lot palm trees hiding in this shot, I probably could have convinced everyone this photo was taken somewhere in North Carolina!

     When I stopped by here the first time in 2019, I never would have guessed Winn-Dixie would have opened a store in this building only two years later. Back then, Winn-Dixie looked like they were barely able to keep their existing stores open, let alone open new ones. While this store appeared to be a tough sell to a new tenant at the time, an identical Food Lion store on St. Augustine's northern fringes was scooped up by Publix in 2018 and promptly flattened for a store of their own. My best guess in 2019 about this building's future would have probably been similar to what transpired on the north side of town (once Publix felt the surrounding neighborhood was built out enough), so I will give Winn-Dixie a lot of credit for taking an opportunity like this one and making a go for it before Publix could! Too bad someone else had other plans though...

     Not only were the exteriors of these late 2000's Food Lion stores quite nice, the interiors were just as complimentary. We'll begin our brief interior tour of this store in abandoned form with a look into the vestibule. The exterior's brick work bled into the vestibule area, which had a high gable ceiling and a lot of natural light flowing into it. The doors we see in front of me were the entry doors, which angled into the store's former produce area.

     From the vestibule's right side window, here's a look across the space. The carts would have been stored in the center of the vestibule, between the two sets of doors. The interior exit door can be seen at the end of the old cartwell area, with the exterior exit doors funneling shoppers out the side of the vestibule onto the walkway.

     Looking up into the high ceiling, Food Lion's Rutherfordton-era "Welcome" sign remained in place above the entrance doors.

     While the vestibule contained most of the building's windows, the windows did extend toward the right side of the building, allowing natural light to enter the store's produce department.

     Having to hold my phone up high to see through the produce department windows, here's our peek at the store's interior without the vestibule windows in the way. A few Rutherfordton remnants managed to hang on in here following the store's closure, including the faux wood floors and the produce, deli, and bakery departments' hanging trellises.

     The deli and bakery departments lined the right side of the building following produce, with deli just beyond produce and the bakery in the back right corner of the store. Interestingly, Winn-Dixie actually kept much of this store's general floorplan in place, even though they did quite a bit of work to this building in their conversion. The floorplan we'll see Winn-Dixie use in here was pretty much the basis for the remaining new stores Winn-Dixie opened in the 2021-2023 timeframe. This being the first of those following the Lucky's and Earth Fare conversions, could it be that Winn-Dixie based their future new stores off of Food Lion's Rutherfordton design, or was it just mere coincidence?

     That's all I have from my visit while the old Food Lion was still sitting empty. In case you noticed the lack of pictures from the left side of the building during this visit, that's because a homeless man was camped out on the walkway on that side of the building. In addition to the Food Lion being vacant at the time, much of the adjoining strip center was empty too, leaving this to be a quiet place for someone like that to make camp. Not wanting to stir him up, I stayed to the right side of the building on this day, but I still think we got a good picture of this place before Winn-Dixie moved in.

Photo courtesy of Winn-Dixie

     Moving along to Winn-Dixie, following the chain's sudden rebirth in 2020 following the purchase of 8 stores from the rubble of Lucky's Market and Earth Fare, Winn-Dixie shocked us all with the announcement of even more new stores to come after that. After using the former Lucky's and Earth Fare stores to debut its new prototype, the first new store to follow that was this location in St. Augustine Shores, opening on December 8, 2021 to much adoration.

     While there are a handful of other Winn-Lions out there courtesy of the chain's purchase of Sweetbay's stores in 2014, none of those other Winn-Lions looked as nice as this one! (Fine, fine, there's that identical-to-this-store Harvey's in Lake City that will eventually convert into a Winn-Dixie, but since it hasn't yet, that doesn't count!). Winn-Dixie didn't change the exterior of this building any following their conversion, and I'm fine with that! (However, I can't speak for what atrocity of a subdivision Aldi is doing to this place right now - I've yet to find a drawing of the final result or see any recent photos of the conversion's progression to know, but at least Lidl knew how to make one of these buildings work for them).

     As you can tell by all the exterior photos, I really liked this store design!

     Stepping inside, one of the first modifications we'll see Winn-Dixie made was partitioning the vestibule. Instead of the open design we saw from Food Lion, Winn-Dixie added a full drywall cartwell where Food Lion's used to be, flattening out the interior wall in the process and removing the angled interior entry door in favor of one flush to the new wall.

     Even with the modifications to the entryway, the first department you saw upon entering is produce, just like it was during the Food Lion days. Instead of repurposing the few Rutherfordton relics Food Lion left behind, like the hanging trellises, Winn-Dixie decided to start "fresh" with their remodel by removing those trellises and installing their own Winn Win decor on the walls.

     The windows looking into the produce department were a nice touch too - it's not often you find a Winn-Dixie with lots of natural light like this!

     Beyond produce, here's a look down the store's grand aisle, which spanned the building's right wall. Over here we find the deli, followed by the bakery. While Winn-Dixified, this is still the same layout Food Lion had in here.

     Even being one of Winn-Dixie's modern stores, the deli and "kitchen" departments weren't anything too out of the ordinary compared to the offerings at most other Winn-Dixie stores out there. Unlike the stores Winn-Dixie was opening in the early 2010's "Transformational" era, which were designed to be showy and over-the-top, the Winn-Dixie of the early 2020's was much more utilitarian, featuring basic, clean, and modern facilities without all that expensive showy stuff most chains give up on after a few years (or even months) after opening.

     Following the deli we find the bakery, with coolers of pre-packaged chilled deli and bakery items in the cases to my left.

     According to the layout, what we're looking up here is aisle 1, the inner portion of the grand aisle running along the pre-pack cooler. From here, we also get another look at the nice exterior windows too!

     Entering the back right corner of the store, we find the meat and seafood service counter.

     From my rough understanding of how an original Rutherfordton Food Lion is laid out, one of the only major modifications Winn-Dixie made to this building's floor plan was reversing the locations of the meat and seafood service counter with those department's complimentary pre-packaged options. Pre-pack would have originally been in a small alcove where Winn-Dixie's service counter was installed, with Food Lion's meat service counter located next to that further down the left wall, just before dairy.

     Leaving the service counter, here's an overview of Winn-Dixie's pre-packaged meat options, roughly placed in the former home of Food Lion's old meat service counter.

     Making good progress with the perimeter, it's time to cut into the grocery aisles.

     As you've probably noticed by now, Winn-Dixie removed Food Lion's original tile floor in favor of polished concrete throughout. Winn-Dixie's 2020's newbuilds typically opted for the polished concrete look as well, with this store following that trend, even though it was officially a conversion. For being a conversion, the floors don't look that bad at all. I noticed very few marks and scars on the floor from any rearranging Winn-Dixie may have done in the conversion, so either Winn-Dixie paid to have a nice refinish of the floor before opening or they did so little rearranging from the Food Lion days, there just weren't any scars to try to hide.

     While the concrete floor condition was passible, like any good supermarket conversion, some inconveniently placed support poles made some places quite impassible! It was a bit awkward having some poles blocking a few of the front endcaps like this!

     Like all but one of Winn-Dixie's new stores from the 2020's, this location did not receive a pharmacy counter. However, this store did receive a very nice (and quite extensive) health and beauty aisle, complete with lit category marker toppers.

     Supplies for both babies and your fur babies could be found in the next aisle over from health and beauty.

     Our clean sweep of the grocery aisles takes us to the paper towel aisle now, with paper plates located opposite.

     Entering the back left corner of the store, we find the dairy department's beginning along the back wall, under the "Milk" sign.

     Frozen foods occupy the store's last two aisles, much in the same way they did when Food Lion was here too.

     Dairy does wrap around to the building's left wall to occupy a small portion of the store's last aisle, however, outside of that, the remainder of this aisle was home to frozen foods.

     The last department we've yet to see was beer and wine, which was located in the front left corner of the building in front of the frozen foods.

     Assorted wines occupied the outer shelves, with most of the beer was located in coolers along the wall. From this vantage point, we can see part of the front end, located just ahead opposite the greeting cards and seasonal department.

Thinking about it now, I should have worn this to the grand re-opening of the St. Cloud Winn-Dixie - it was pretty cold that morning!

     Having visited this store just before Christmas 2022, peak time for the company's "It's a Winn Win" marketing campaign and its complimentary spokespeople, the Winn Win Twinns. As part of all the "winning" going on at the time, Winn-Dixie released these Winn Win Twinn-inspired ugly Christmas sweaters that year, which also had a complimentary matching hat too (not pictured here, but visible at that second link). As much as I wanted it, I thought spending $29.99 for something I'd never actually wear was a bit steep, but fret not - AFB got himself both this sweater and the matching hat on a 50% off after-Christmas deal at his local Winn-Dixie store! Now that's winning!

Photo courtesy of siviaiz11 on Google Maps

     Possibly distracted by the sweaters, I totally missed getting a decent picture of this store's front end! As such, I pulled a few front end photos from this store's Google page, with this particular shot giving us a nice overview of the self-checkout lanes and the service desk beyond them. I believe the angled design of the service desk is a leftover from Food Lion, and that crown molding above it may possibly be a leftover from the Rutherfordton decor too.

Photo courtesy of L Cardinal Google Maps

     Like most of Winn-Dixie's new stores from the early 2020's, this location had a bank of 6 self-checkout lanes - standard Winn Win remodels from the same time only got 4 self-checkout lanes if those were added. 4 regular staffed lanes were included as well, and while only one of those were open when L Cardinal visited this store...

     …three were open when I was here, in addition to all 6 of the self-checkout lanes. I must have caught this store during a busy time!

     Like in the Food Lion days, you exit the store by getting pushed out onto the plaza's front sidewalk facing the left-end of the strip. That placement just happened to push shoppers out in front of Winn-Dixie's attached liquor store, conveniently enough. Being way out here in the plaza strip, this liquor store ended up being spared after Aldi took over the main supermarket building, and lives on today as an orphan.

Photo courtesy of Tom Whiteside on Google Maps

     To wrap up this post, I found the above photo of the store's exterior on its Google Maps page, and thought it looked really nice with all the grand opening day balloons and window art. As such, I felt compelled to include it in this post. On that joyous day, I'm sure no one would have guessed the untimely fate this store would have coming for it less than 4 years later!

     So there you have it - the soon to be St. Augustine Shores Aldi. Once I find a picture or rendering of what this store will look like by the end of the year, I'll have to add it into the end of this post for completeness, as it will be interesting to see what Aldi will do with the facade. However, in terms of Winn-Dixie, this store was just another example of how that chain constantly takes one step forward just to take two steps back. Following the Aldi sale, Winn-Dixie lost both of the stores it opened in St. Johns County in the 2020's to Aldi - this one and the Grand Cypress store just over the line from Jacksonville, in addition to losing its early 2000's build off CR 210 to Aldi as well. That knocked Winn-Dixie back to its cluster of 3 older stores right around St. Augustine proper that the company has had for years, neutralizing all the progress Winn-Dixie was trying to make with entering the newer parts of St. Johns County in the process. There's still plenty of open land in the newer parts of St. Johns County for Winn-Dixie to attempt to make up for some of what they lost, but with Publix and even Harris Teeter already grabbing real estate in the area, Winn-Dixie better not hesitate for too long before those two grab all the good sites left for a supermarket!

     Another tale of Winn-Dixie behind us, we'll see what I can pull out of the Albertsons archives for next time. Come back in two weeks for more, so until the next post,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger

A Nifty Thrifty Old Winn-Dixie

Winn-Dixie #29

1961 A1A South, St. Augustine, FL - Anastasia Square

     If you didn't have enough fun looking at the retail relics in last week's post on My Florida Retail, then you're in luck, as today's post will have even more relics - today's being just as, if not even more groovy and bodacious than what we saw last week! We'll conclude our series of retail in St. "August"-ine with a look at this former Winn-Dixie store, located on the other side of the Route 312 causeway from the Albertsons/Zayre plaza we spent so much time at during the last two posts. The store we'll be seeing today was a last minute addition I spotted as I was putting together the itinerary for my St. Augustine trip - my curiosity from clicking on a map icon turning into the findings of a must-see destination, as I was absolutely stunned with what I found inside of this rather non-descript, long-closed, since subdivided former supermarket.

     The store we'll be touring today is located on Anastasia Island, the barrier island across the Intracoastal Waterway from St. Augustine. Along with Vilano Beach to the north, Anastasia Island comprises the remainder of St. Augustine's beachside, and is home to the city of St. Augustine Beach (whose boundary lies just to the south of this plaza - because of that, the plaza itself is officially a part of the city of St. Augustine, whose limits encompass the northern portion of Anastasia Island). The former Winn-Dixie we'll be touring is located at the major junction of SR 312 and SR A1A, SR 312 being the main road for tourists coming from I-95 to access Anastasia Island. Opening in 1980, Winn-Dixie built their store in the perfect location for tourists to make a quick pit stop on their way to the beach. While this location had a lot going for it, by the time the 1990's came around, Winn-Dixie had quickly outgrown this small building. In 1998, a new Winn-Dixie Marketplace built 2 1/2 miles to the south would replace this store, the old store being subdivided in the years to follow Winn-Dixie's departure. 

     Currently, the original Anastasia Island Winn-Dixie has been divided into space for four tenants: a thrift store, a gym, a pawn shop, and a billiards hall, with a Dollar General taking up a former in-line Eckerd next door. While that doesn't seem like the classiest line-up of tenants to have in a shopping center located at the gateway to St. Augustine's beachside, I promise you, Anastasia Island is actually a very nice place!

     Anyway, as you've probably seen from the last few exterior photos, the outside of the old Winn-Dixie was left very well in-tact, even given the amount of subdivision the place went through. The gym uses Winn-Dixie's original right side entryway, the doors for the pawn shop and billiards hall carved out of the wall next to that.

     While we're on this side of the building, here's a quick look at the Dollar General occupying the former Eckerd space. Eckerd eventually moved into a freestanding building across the street from here, where a CVS operates today.

     While that's the summary of the right half of the building, we're going to spend the rest of our time exploring the left side of the building, home to the thrift store. The thrift store, officially called the Betty Griffin Center Thrift Store, occupies about one third of the former Winn-Dixie, the side of the store that one housed Winn-Dixie's bakery, deli, and frozen food departments. As I mentioned at the very beginning of this post, my discovery of this former Winn-Dixie was by complete accident. While on the road, if I feel I'm going to have some extra time, I'll scout out some thrift stores in the area I'll be visiting. That's what I was doing in the days before my trip, when I happened to notice the Betty Griffin Center Thrift Store was in an old Winn-Dixie. That's fun and all, so I pulled up the interior images from Google Maps on a whim, hoping to find any vague traces of Winn-Dixie, and that's when I made sure to give this place high priority placement on my schedule!

     Stepping onto the front walkway, besides the accumulation of lots of stuff, not a single thing has been altered here since Winn-Dixie left the building in 1998. The brick is original, as are the doors in the distance. While I don't know exactly when the Betty Griffin Center opened their thrift store, it appears to have been shortly after Winn-Dixie vacated the premises in 1998.

     Look at that - old Albertsons carts - logos completely in-tact too! I hadn't even stepped inside the building yet and I was off to a good start! I'd have to guess these Albertsons carts have been with the Betty Griffin Center Thrift Store since the nearby Albertsons closed in 2005. I can't say that for sure, but that would appear to be the most likely case (as I doubt a locally-run non-profit thrift store is importing carts from far away places). The green plastic carts mixed in with the Albertsons ones are from Gander Mountain, again, those most likely coming from St. Augustine's Gander Mountain store that liquidated with the company in 2017 (although the St. Augustine Gander Mountain did reopen under Gander's new ownership the following year). And no, I did not come here to see the Albertsons carts - those were just a fun bonus I spotted upon my arrival to the thrift store. What I really came here to see was this:

     Yes, yes, yes - you are seeing that right - those are very obvious remains from Winn-Dixie's late 70's/early 80's decor on the walls! For a refresher on Winn-Dixie's decor from that era, the pre-Marketplace days, check out my post on the long-abandoned Winn-Dixie store in New Smyrna Beach (a great post, by the way, if you've never seen it before - it's one of my personal favorites). While the photos of the decor remnants at the old New Smyrna Winn-Dixie will give you an idea of what this store looked like back in the day, what we see in here in St. Augustine is a slightly different decor variant (as New Smyrna lacked the curved wooden trim we see here in its decor, but the colors, fonts, and wall graphics were very similar or the same between the variants). Here's a photo of what the decor remnants in this particular would have looked like when it first opened. Unfortunately, the thrift store ripped out the matching striped colored tiles when they moved in, opting for the exposed concrete instead, but considering what else was left behind, I wasn't too concerned about the floors being ripped out. Usually, like we saw at the St. Augustine Big Lots, the floor is sometimes all that remains from a prior tenant's decor, if any of that is lucky to remain after the fact. Rarely, if ever, is the wall decor the survivor instead!

     My excitement of this discovery out of the way, the photo above depicts the scene after exiting the vestibule and taking our first glimpse into the main sales floor. Housewares take up the right side of the thrift store, with clothes and furniture toward the left.

     Delving deeper into the thrift store, here's a look into the store's front left corner. Winn-Dixie's deli and bakery departments would have been located along the wall we see just beyond the thrift store's jewelry counter - the department names located within the larger rectangles formed by the wooden trim. And not only do we have the original trim surrounding the perimeter of these departments, if you look closely at the above photo, you'll see another surprise lurking in the distance behind all the piles of thrift and et cetera...

     Diving deeper into the old deli/bakery space, the lower ceiling above marks the original transition between the sales floor and the prep space for the deli and bakery counters. 

     And when it comes to a Winn-Dixie deli counter from the late 1970's or early 1980's, one of the most distinctive characteristics from that era was the department's funky red-orange wall tiles, pictured above. If the wall decor remnants weren't enough, the old deli/bakery wall tiles were a nice added bonus to the former Winn-Dixie experience. While the old deli/bakery prep area looks blocked off by a wall of junk - it's not. There's more thrift to be had back there, as Winn-Dixie's deli/bakery departments were turned into a book nook. You can see the bookshelves back there as you shop, however, it took me an embarrassingly long time to find the entrance into the book nook (which, as I found out, is located straight ahead of me, located somewhere within that mess!)

     Entering Betty's Book Bakery, we find the prep areas from the deli and bakery departments to be impeccably in-tact, although cook books have now replaced all the actual cooking Winn-Dixie used to do back here. Unlike the rest of the store, the original flooring from the prep areas survived back here, probably because these ceramic tiles are harder to scrape up than the old vinyl tiles that would have been found in the remainder of the sales floor. The deli/bakery alcove in this store would look nearly identical to the scene in this shot if you were to remove the maze of stuff piled up in here, complete with the little ramp to the raised floor too.

     Here's an actual close-up shot of the old tiles, which are real tiles, and not some kind of cheap linoleum or wall covering. I'd have to guess it'd be quite hard to find this tile color at my local tile shop these days, as I don't believe funky orange colors have been trendy in a number of years!

     Here's one last look across the deli/bakery book nook, looking into the front left corner of the building. Now that we have that funky orange color burned into our eyes, let's head back to the main sales floor and take in the more sedate wall decor relics a bit more:

     Departing the book nook, here's a look into the building's back left corner. Where I stood to take this picture would have most likely been home to the frozen foods department when Winn-Dixie was here, as 1980's built Winn-Dixie stores typically had frozen foods located in the last two or three aisles closest to the left wall.

     Here we have some lovely 70's/80's furniture to go along with the wall decor of the same vintage. A wicker chair, a floral print couch, and a ruffled rocking recliner - if only I could have transported this stuff over to the Big Lots for this picture, we could have had a really nice throwback scene!

     Anyway, the wall we see in the background of this photo is actually the partition wall that separates the thrift store from the gym. Interestingly, when the thrift store moved into this space, someone liked the design of Winn-Dixie's old decor on the other three walls well enough to replicate the pattern on to the partition too! That's pretty neat someone took the effort to make all four walls have matching decor, replicating what has been in here since 1980. You can tell the design on the partition was a later addition, as the pattern of the large, medium, and small rectangles isn't quite the same as the other walls, but it's still a really nice replication, and such a minor detail most people besides me would never catch.

     Turning the camera 90 degrees to my right, here's a look toward the front of the building, in the direction of the book nook (which is hidden behind all the furniture now). Lots more floral patterned furniture and wicker chairs to appreciate here, although being in Florida, there's always plenty of wicker furniture making its way into the local thrift store.

     Taking a closer look at the back wall of the store, Winn-Dixie's dairy and meat coolers would have once ran along this wall, under the lower ceiling. Dairy would have been in the very corner, with meat taking up the remainder of the back wall.

     While The Beef People's butcher counter would have been somewhere along this wall (with a matching sign in one of the large rectangles), The Thrift People use this corner for a variety of odds and ends - furniture, toys, sporting goods, hardware, and quite a bit more it seems.

     From the thrift store's housewares department, here's a look toward the vestibule. This is the best photo I have of the inner vestibule, as I was too eager to see the rest of the store, I forgot to get a vestibule photo as I was walking in! Oh well, I don't recall any super exciting Winn-Dixie elements up there, although very little of the vestibule was altered from the original design.

     As we prepare to leave, here's one last look at the old decor remnants that have been gracing these walls for 40 years now. It's always fun seeing such obvious relics from a former tenant last in some form, especially from a design that has been nearly extinct from active Winn-Dixie stores for years now.

     So there you guys have it - a nifty thrifty old Winn-Dixie! While this store will officially conclude our tour of St. "August"-ine retail for now, I do have some more photos from the area in my archives to share at a future date. But while we're here, we are really close to the beach, so why not pop over there for a moment to close out this series?

     For reference, the screenshot above shows the location of the old Winn-Dixie in relation to the beach - just a short drive down the road.

     A short stroll down the quiet shores of St. Augustine Beach is a nice way to finish out our little tour of the retail of St. Augustine, appreciating all the great things Florida has to offer - white sand beaches and funky old supermarkets.

     While that's all I have for today, be sure to come back in two weeks for a very special AFB post. My next post just so happens to fall on a very significant day for Floridian retail, with a tour of a very special store to mark the occasion. It's going to be a fun post, so be sure to come back in two weeks for that!

So until the next post,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger