Life After Earth Fare - Bravo Supermarkets

Earth Fare #582 / Bravo Supermarket of Lake Nona

13024 Narcoosee Road, Orlando, FL - The Shoppes at Nona Place

     The Great Organic Supermarket Collapse of 2020 had quite the large effect on Florida's supermarket scene. The two chains that made up the great collapse - Lucky's Market and Earth Fare - were both in the midst of large expansion pushes throughout Florida when the bottom suddenly fell out on both of those chains. While Lucky's and Earth Fare weren't in Florida long, their short time here will be remembered through all the interesting building conversions those chains have given us, as other grocers, both large and small, have been slowly bringing these buildings back to life. We've seen a few Lucky's and Earth Fare conversions on the blog already, and we'll continue to see more as time goes on. Today's post is yet another installment in our conversion saga, as we get a taste of how different operators (such as Publix, Winn-Dixie, Aldi, and some independents) are making use of these buildings. 

     Before we get to the interesting part - the conversion - let's take a quick look at today's store prior to its liquidation as Earth Fare. For those of you sharply eyed readers out there, the photos in the first part of today's post will look familiar to you. Why? That's because I posted all of these photos in the past, in this My Florida Retail post where I documented the liquidation of Earth Fare. So why am I posting these photos again you ask? Well, a few reasons: 1) I actually never posted any photos of Earth Fare (while in operation) to AFB before, so I figured I'd give Earth Fare a little representation here, in addition to what I've covered already on MFR. 2) It'll be fun to compare and contrast the before and after photos of this place with everything fresh in your mind from seeing it again.

     So what I'm trying to say is just treat the first part of the post as a refresher, so you can get the full picture of just what Bravo did (or should I say, what little Bravo did) during their conversion process. If you'd like the full backstory on Earth Fare's situation in Florida, you can check that out here in the first few paragraphs of my original post on this store.

     To begin our little recap of the Lake Nona Earth Fare, here's a little background on the store itself: Earth Fare opened this location on September 29, 2018, anchoring a small plaza off Narcoosee Road near Lake Nona High School. Lake Nona is a relatively new suburban community in Eastern Orlando, with the community really sprouting to life in the early-mid 2010's (and is still expanding as of the present). Earth Fare built their store as part of a little plaza in the heart of Lake Nona's new retail district, which is located along Narcoosee Road south of the Route 528 toll road. For a trendy up-and-coming community like Lake Nona, a specialty organic retailer seemed like the perfect fit the area. Like most of the Floridian Earth Fare stores, the Lake Nona location had a short life - only 1 1/2 years in length - when it closed for good on February 25, 2020 with the rest of the company's stores. While some of Earth Fare's stores were sold at a bankruptcy auction (an auction at which Southeastern Grocers purchased 4 former locations for conversion into new Winn-Dixie stores), the Lake Nona store was not purchased by anyone at the auction. While there were no takers at the auction, it wasn't long after that when Bravo Supermarkets decided to give it a go with this former Earth Fare location. After some light remodeling, Bravo opened on December 18, 2020, but we'll see more of Bravo in the second half of this post.

     The above photo (as well as the prior one) showcase Earth Fare's produce department. Since I visited this store about halfway through its liquidation process, the produce department had already emptied out, and was being used to sell off random store supplies and fixtures. While plastic containers aren't something I'd call "Fresh Organic & Local", the produce department provided the most empty space to store and sell all this stuff.

     From the edge of the produce department, here's a look across the front end. The registers were located behind that stack of crates in the distance, with the prepared foods counters poking out from the side wall.

     While a lot of the merchandise had depleted as discounts hit 60% off in some categories, the entirety of the sales floor was still open during my liquidation visit. Seen here is the store's rightmost aisle, home to bulk foods. During my visit, almost all the bulk foods had been sold out. 

     The Meat and Seafood counter was located in the back right corner of the store, with the seafood portion of the counter wrapping around into the corner itself (although I didn't get a picture of that). I like how the signage was attached to a shiny chrome-like backing, which is somewhat reminiscent of the shiny paneling Winn-Dixie used in late 1980's Marketplace stores (though sans the neon here at Earth Fare). Apparently, Bravo was a fan of this style too, as well see in a bit (your first hint of what's to come).

     Looking across the back of the store, we see the empty dairy coolers off to my right. The center of this aisle was also being used to house some additional random fixtures that were for sale.

     A sad liquidation shot of one of the depleting aisles...

     Here's a look across the front of the store, toward the "grand aisle". And its not a supermarket liquidation without a few racks of greeting cards that no one seems to be buying!

     Frozen foods was located in the center of the store.

     Earth Fare's wine department can be seen here, nestled in a little pocket behind health and beauty.

     Stepping away from the wine, here's the health and beauty department I just mentioned, which took up two aisles between frozen foods and the fresh departments.

     Returning to the back of the store, here's one final look toward the grocery aisles.

     The bakery department was located in the back left corner, the very last department in the "grand aisle" (the remainder of which is out of frame to my left).

     Since we were over half way through the closing at the time of my visit, none of the fresh departments were open anymore. I'm surprised this side of the store wasn't roped off yet, actually, but the lack of caution tape made picture taking that much easier!

     Stepping back a bit from the last photo, we can see the deli counter, the salad bar, and the hot foods bar. To my right were coolers for drinks and beer, which were also empty (except for one cooler at the very front of the aisle, which had a few random drink bottles consolidated into it).

     Like just about every modern Earth Fare store, the city or neighborhood name was incorporated into the name of the prepared foods department, which was called the "Nona Place Kitchen" here. Nona Place is actually the name of the small shopping center this store is located in, and not the name of the area (which is Lake Nona). No matter how they phrased it though, it was still a fun little addition of local flare.

     To the left of the Nona Place Kitchen was the juice bar, which like all the other fresh departments, was closed.

     Here's a quick look at the front end as we wrap up our pre-closure refresher, this view looking back toward the produce department.

     Thanks - see you soon, Nona Place. By soon, we mean in just a few seconds, when we return to see this store in its new life.

     So that's what this building was like when Earth Fare was here. Now that we have those images fresh in our mind, let's fast forward through time by a year and see what Bravo has done to the place:

     If you haven't picked up on my rather strong hints thus far, Bravo didn't do much to this building after moving in. On the exterior, besides swapping logos, everything is exactly the same as Earth Fare had it. Even the signs on the red awning to the left of the entrance were carried over, stating things like "Humanely Raised" and "Certified Organic" - all things that were part of Earth Fare's operating philosophies, and not necessarily Bravo's.

     For those of you unfamiliar with Bravo (as I believe this is the first time I've shown one of their stores on the blog), let me explain what they are. Bravo is a chain of Hispanic-oriented supermarkets based out of New York City, where the company operates a number of stores. Bravo made a jump from NYC to Florida in the 2000's to take advantage of the state's growing Hispanic population, and of all the Hispanic-oriented grocery chains in the state, Bravo has the most widespread distribution of stores (with locations in most decent-sized cities from Ocala southward). Bravo is structured where each store is owned by someone different, although some owners do own multiple locations. That structure leads to some wide variety in Bravo's stores, with some of their locations shoved into tiny 10,000 square foot spaces in odd locations (like old drugstores and furniture stores), to more mainstream 30,000-40,000 square foot stores in major shopping centers. Upkeep also varies between owners too, and in Florida, Bravo doesn't have a reputation for being the cleanest place to shop. While I've been to a good handful of Bravo stores through the years, this one does take the prize for being the nicest Bravo I've ever seen. The building is practically new, the remodel turned out nice, and the place was clean. Unlike most places Bravo operates, Lake Nona is probably one of the most upmarket areas I've seen them open a store, so this store has some higher standards to fulfill if they wish to be successful here.

     The new Lake Nona Bravo is owned by the same person who owns the majority of the other Bravo stores in the greater Orlando area, so this location is one of nine that falls under the same management (you can read more about the owners in this article).

     Bravo kept Earth Fare's outdoor seating area, which is an addition to a small seating area inside on the other side of those windows. Like most Hispanic supermarkets in Florida, Bravo has a large prepared foods kitchen/cafeteria, which works well for all these seating areas inherited from Earth Fare.

     Bravo installed this sign on the front, one of the few other modifications they made to the exterior.

     Heading inside, we start off with a photo taken within the store's produce department, looking toward the new "Wall of Values". While produce was confined to only this corner while Earth Fare was here, Bravo expanded produce into the store's first aisle, which we'll see more of in just a moment.

     Stepping further into the expanded produce department (which spills into the store's first aisle), here we get our first taste of the "where supermarkets collide" decor we'll see in the remainder of this post. While Bravo installed their own decor in places, they also left Earth Fare's decor completely in-tact in others. From what I understand, Bravo does have some standardized decor packages owners can use, however, owners have some freedom in what decor actually gets installed. While some Bravo stores in Florida use 100% Bravo decor, many others end up mixing the standardized decor with bits and pieces of stuff inherited from others, like we have here. The "Wall of Values" sign is from the standard Bravo decor, while the "Farm Fresh Choices" sign is very much left over from Earth Fare.

     The "Fresh Produce" sign was installed over Earth Fare's old paneling, after all the old signage from the bulk foods department (which Bravo doesn't have) was removed. To make room for more produce displays and those coffin coolers, Bravo eliminated Earth Fare's first two grocery aisles. A lot of the rearranging Bravo did came from moving around the grocery aisles, to the point where Bravo now has more grocery aisles than Earth Fare had. We'll see how Bravo accomplished that in just a moment.

     Turning around, here we have another view of the produce department as we begin to make the transition to the meat and seafood counter (which looks quite familiar, doesn't it?).

     Bravo left Earth Fare's meat and seafood signage completely in-tact, and it looks like the meat and seafood cases themselves were carried over too. Unlike my original photos from Earth Fare's liquidation, the photo above gives a better perspective of how the counters are arranged, with seafood in the corner under the angled wall.

     Turning around, here's a view looking across the back of the store. Bravo made the back aisle much wider than Earth Fare had, and Bravo installed new (and larger) coffin coolers to run down the center of the aisle too.

     However, in order to make up for the spacious perimeter aisles, space had to get cut somewhere else. In order to get 9 full of aisles of groceries to fit in this small building, the center grocery aisles were quite narrow - barely wide enough for two carts to pass by comfortably.

     Turning out of the aisle, here's a look across the front end. The check lanes are all new, as they're set up differently than the ones Earth Fare had.

     Another grocery aisle shot before we turn our attention to the back of the store again...

     Beyond the meat and seafood service counter, Bravo swapped out the signage for the departments back here. Originally, Earth Fare's dairy department was located along the back wall between meat and the bakery, however, Bravo relocated dairy to one of the grocery aisles in order to make more room for pre-packaged meats.

     The wood paneling visible behind Bravo's "Fresh Meats" sign is a remnant from Earth Fare's dairy decor. All Bravo did was change the signage itself, not the backing paneling.

     The grocery aisles stay pretty narrow until we get to Frozen Foods.

     Frozen foods and dairy are located in this aisle, located just before the service departments and the "grand aisle". Earth Fare had a single aisle of coolers, which Bravo expanded upon by pulling the two rows of coolers further apart and adding another coffin cooler to the center of the aisle.

     Frozen foods again, as seen facing the other direction.

     The store's last aisle is still home to the deli, bakery, and prepared foods departments, with some open-faced beer coolers replacing Earth Fare's drink coolers that once lined the right side of this aisle. Bravo also relocated the wine department from the grocery aisles into an alcove (called the "Nona Winery" - nice local flare there!) in the back corner, that space formerly home to the gourmet cheese coolers.

     Most of the Bravo stores I've been to don't have much of a bakery, although large bakeries aren't something a lot of Floridian Hispanic supermarkets feature. Interestingly, Bravo was running a full-service bakery here, complete with a selection of breads and pastries.

     Turning around, here's a look back toward the Deli and the Nona Place Kitchen. Another unusual-for-Bravo feature I saw here was a full-service deli with sliced meats and other cold cuts. That's not a common feature at Hispanic supermarkets around here either, with the "Deli" instead serving as a large cafeteria in most cases.

     While full-service bakeries and a nice selection of cold cuts are rarities, this was a first for me at any Hispanic supermarket that I've ever been to - a sushi counter! Yes, sushi is not the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of a store like this, but this is a full-service sushi counter added into Earth Fare's old juice bar. According to the website for The Escobar Kitchen (which is an independent entity that Bravo must rent out this space to), The Escobar Kitchen was created to "fuse together the explosive tastes of the Latin and Asian Cuisines to bring you a unique culinary experience". That being said, Bravo's sushi counter aims to blend those two very different cuisines together, which ties this sushi counter back into the store's Hispanic theme. A Latin fusion sushi counter is certainly not something you see everyday, and a nice upmarket twist to fit the Lake Nona community.

     As we get ready to leave for the last time, here's a look across the front of the store again, looking back toward produce. Bravo has 6 check lanes to my right, with a small service desk (not pictured) in front of those.

     Thanks - see you soon, Nona Place. (Why do I feel like I've said that before?)

     I always find it interesting to see a new supermarket reuse bits and pieces from a prior occupant in the building (or imported remnants too - those are just as interesting of a sight!). Bravo had a creative way of incorporating bits and pieces of Earth Fare into their new store, however, it all came together well. As time goes on, it will be interesting to see how others reuse these buildings too, and in the process, maybe we'll find some other pieces of the past along the way!

     So that's all I have for today's post. More Albertsons coming your way in two weeks, so be sure to come back then for more!

Until the next post,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger

My Fare Winn-Dixie

Earth Fare #557 / Winn-Dixie #2556

11700 San Jose Boulevard, Jacksonville, FL - Mandarin South Shopping Center

     Previously on AFB we toured one of the former Lucky's stores that Winn-Dixie now calls home. Today we'll be seeing another new Winn-Dixie, however, today's store has taken up shop in a former Earth Fare building. While there isn't much of a difference between the two stores (besides slightly different layouts due to the two building's different predecessors), today's store has (in my opinion) the second most interesting backstory of the recent Winn-Dixie conversions (the most interesting coming from the West Melbourne store we toured last time - that being the case of Winn-Dixie wanting their old building back). Today's backstory has a similar 'retail coming full-circle' theme tied to it, but in a much different way than we saw in West Melbourne. Let me explain:

     While Earth Fare opened at this location in 2017, the building we'll see today was originally constructed in 1982 for Winn-Dixie. From 1982 until 1995, Winn-Dixie served as the grocery anchor to the Mandarin South Shopping Center, having a healthy run in this space until it came time to modernize. Instead of remodeling the existing store, Winn-Dixie opted to relocate to a new Marketplace store across the street from here, which opened on November 9, 1995. With Winn-Dixie settling into their new home across the street, the old store would be subdivided for a few smaller tenants, which seemed to come and go over the years. Come 2017, the owners of the Mandarin South Shopping Center decided to embark on a major overhaul of the aging center, which included securing two new tenants for the mostly empty former Winn-Dixie space: PetSmart and Earth Fare, which would join an existing Auto Zone to completely fill the building. The new Mandarin Earth Fare opened on August 23, 2017, the second and last Earth Fare store to open in the Jacksonville area before the chain's implosion in early 2020. After closing for good on February 25, 2020 following Earth Fare's bankruptcy, Winn-Dixie made the interesting decision to place a bid on this former Earth Fare space - a bid that was later accepted. Winn-Dixie purchased this store with the intent to relocate from across the street, ironically returning to the building they had left 25 years prior. The Winn-Dixie across the street closed on November 1, 2020, ten days prior to the opening of the replacement store in the former Earth Fare on November 11, 2020. Half the size of the store it replaced, the new Mandarin Winn-Dixie is a huge change from what shoppers in the area had come to know. However, as one of the highest-income neighborhoods in Jacksonville, it was probably time for the Mandarin Winn-Dixie to step up its game before slipping too far. You might recall about a year ago we toured the now-closed Winn-Dixie that was across the street from here, as it had an unusual quirk to it. However, we'll talk more about the old store (and its quirk) later in this post, as for now, I want to keep us on track with the new store:

     For reasons I can't explain, Floridian supermarkets seem to enjoy going full circle. However, here in Mandarin, I think Winn-Dixie's original spot was the better spot. The new store is easily accessible from the southbound lanes of San Jose Boulevard, a busy road for commuters heading home from work in Jacksonville into the neighborhoods of Mandarin, Julington Creek, and St. Johns. Being on this side of the road makes it easier for people to pit-stop here for groceries on the way home from work. While that sounds like a minor advantage, that is something major chains (especially grocery and convenience stores) consider when selecting a site - if the site is on the side of the road most popular with people coming home from work. In some cases it may not be the major decision-making point, but it's an important one that can sway a decision. While moving back across the street provided an opportunity for Winn-Dixie to test out a new concept store in their hometown, I also wonder if this was a move of necessity too. The Winn-Dixie across the road closed nearly 25 years to the day it opened, almost as if it was leaving due to the lease expiring. I wonder if the landlord across the road was trying to raise Winn-Dixie's rent at the expiration of the lease, prompting Winn-Dixie to make the decision to move. While we may never know the answer to that theory, the move did bring Winn-Dixie a new opportunity.

     Besides a signage swap, Winn-Dixie did practically nothing to the exterior. Everything you see here is original to Earth Fare's design (even the paint scheme), and I think the Earth Fare design works well for Winn-Dixie.

     Well, hello Mandarin! The local flare at this store begins as soon as you step onto the front walkway, with this big sign facing the parking lot (which the West Melbourne store lacks, although the West Melbourne store has more windows along the front and less blank wall space for a sign like this). Underneath the greeting is a little description that incorporates the new "It's a Winn Win" tagline into the theme of the store, a common occurrence throughout the new decor.

     Stepping into the vestibule, get your carts ready, as it's time to shop 'n' roll! One of the best local flare pieces of this entire new decor are the graphics in the vestibule, something we didn't see last time in West Melbourne, as that store lacks a vestibule and indoor cart storage area. Really, the entire theme of the new decor is summarized on this wall - Winn-Dixie is giving us a fun, community focused approach to grocery shopping. For a better overview of the graphics (than my oddly angled one), the Jacksonville Business Journal captured a much nicer overview of the scene before us at that link. I had to take my photo quick to not block traffic coming into the store, and nothing makes shoppers grouchier than some nut taking photos of the wall as they have to wait for a cart!

     Stepping inside, here's a look toward the main entrance. A small floral selection surrounds the doors, with produce located in the building's front right corner.

     To the left of the main entrance are the check lanes and the service desk, which we'll see more of later in this post. For now, let's spin around and begin our tour in the produce department:

     Like the Lucky's conversion we saw last time, Winn-Dixie made very little modification to Earth Fare's floorplan. The new Winn-Dixie has all the fresh departments arranged the same way Earth Fare did, which looked like this (that's a different Earth Fare store at the link, but all of Earth Fare's stores looked basically the same).

     I like how the produce department in these new prototype stores has its own feel to it, with the green walls and picture graphics to add a little variety to the decor.

     Lots of tomatoes for sale on the farmer's cart, these fancy new displays adding to the produce department's distinct vibe.

     Like I mentioned last time, Winn-Dixie was experimenting with new produce offerings in these prototype stores. One of the produce categories Winn-Dixie branched into were tropical fruits, a popular item in Florida due to our climate and influence from many people who moved here from the Caribbean.

     And like I photographed in West Melbourne, here's this store's selection of produce from around the world.

     From produce, here's a look across the width of the store. While Lucky's and Earth Fare's stores were of comparable size to each other, Lucky's stores tended to run just a bit bigger than Earth Fare's. For that reason, this store isn't very wide, although it does go back a decent length.

     As we finish our look at the produce department, we'll end with this nice overview of it, as seen from the end of one of the grocery aisles. Speaking of the grocery aisles, that's where we'll be heading next:

     Since I picked up one here as well, here's the grand opening aisle directory for reference.

     Jumping into aisle 1, we find ourselves in the World Flavors department. Unlike the West Melbourne store, where the World Flavors department took up half an aisle with a variety of world flavors, we find a completely different experience here in Mandarin. World Flavors takes up an entire aisle here, with over half of those World Flavors dedicated to Kosher foods. The old store across the street had a very large Kosher department as well due to the area's demographic, and that selection was replicated in the new store too. Also for the first time, Winn-Dixie held a Hanukkah celebration at this store in December 2020, another nice nod to the area.

     While Kosher products occupy the first half of the aisle, the remaining World Flavors can be found near the end of aisle 1.

     While I've talked about what's in aisle 1, we can't forget about what's on the walls above it! The wall above aisle 1 is home to the local flare, which as usual, features the "Made in Florida" icon - the inspiration for my working name of this new decor package.

     Looking back at the aisle, we see the "Hello Mandarin" greeting looking out over the store. Since Jacksonville is a really big city (both in population and physical size), Winn-Dixie opted to use the name of the neighborhood throughout the store rather than the name of the city. For the community-focused approach, I think that was the best move, as each neighborhood in Jacksonville (like many big cities) has its own distinct vibe to it.

     The back right corner is home to the seafood counter, which Winn-Dixie polished off quite nicely in their remodel.

     The two photos I took of the seafood counter were captured a few minutes apart, as you can see two little stands have been placed in front of the counter in the above photo that weren't visible in the previous one. Those stands are used to display some of the fresh whole fish, which Cape Kennedy Retail captured at the grand opening of the West Melbourne store. However, at the West Melbourne store, the fresh fish displayed out in the open like that only lasted for the store's first two days, and has disappeared since. On the West Melbourne store's second day, a bunch of (polite, cleverly worded) "do not touch" signs appeared on those fresh fish displays, and on the third day, the displays were gone. I have a feeling the West Melbourne store pulled those displays since too many people were touching and handling the fresh fish with their bare hands, which is a bit of a problem, especially now. I'm actually surprised Winn-Dixie had that much trust to put unwrapped fresh fish out in the open like that at all, but I guess the people of Mandarin were less inclined to touch the fish than the people of West Melbourne were!

     Spinning around from seafood, here's a look across the back of the store. Meats take up the majority of the back wall, followed by dairy in the back left corner.

     What this store lacks in width, it makes up for in length. The grocery aisles here are quite long, and Winn-Dixie was able to pack quite a bit into these aisles. While this store is half the size of the one it replaced, the product selection is still quite complete with all the basics.

     Emerging from the grocery aisle, we find ourselves back at the produce department for another look across the front of the store.

     Here's one last look at the edge of the produce department before we jump back into the grocery aisles:

     Another difference between this store and the West Melbourne store you may have noticed is the flooring. While Winn-Dixie opted to install brand new faux wood floors in West Melbourne over Lucky's concrete floor, Winn-Dixie decided to keep Earth Fare's concrete floor in-tact here. At least the concrete inside the old Earth Fare looks nice and scar-free, since it was most likely installed new during the 2017 renovation.

     Another neat touch at the Mandarin store is that the local flare is incorporated throughout the building, rather than kept exclusively on the "Hello" wall. In addition to the "Made in Florida" logo, a special "JAX" stamp appears throughout the store too, a tribute to the city of Jacksonville (which is commonly abbreviated by locals as Jax). Jacksonville is also Winn-Dixie's hometown, so they probably wanted to give this store more of a hometown nod than the rest.

     About halfway down the back of the store, the meat coolers transition into refrigerators for lunch meats and dairy. The coffin coolers to my left contain overflow from the meat coolers, as well as additional frozen food items.

     Frozen foods is located in the middle of the store, in the same spot where Earth Fare would have had this aisle. Frozen Foods only occupies this single aisle - aisle 6 - but the aisle is decently long enough to provide this store with a good selection.

     After frozen foods, the last three aisles before the fresh departments are home to non-food products. Aisle 7 and 8 contain cleaning products, garbage bags, baby items, paper, pet food, etc., with aisle 9 home to the health and beauty products.

     Aisle 8 can be seen here with baby items and - gasp - toilet paper!

     Further down aisle 8 were pet supplies. I took this photo to serve as an example of some of the new whimsical graphics Winn-Dixie uses in these prototype stores, which I quite like.

     Before we turn the corner into the fresh departments, here's one last look across the back of the store, this time as seen from the back left corner.

     To make use of space, loaves of white bread were placed on a shelf in the middle of the back aisle. Beyond that is the store's cheese selection, which occupies some coolers in the back left corner.

     The dairy items that didn't fit in the cooler space along the back wall were pushed into these coolers in aisle 10. Opposite these coolers, we find the store's fresh departments:

     All of the store's fresh departments line the left side wall. The bakery is the furthest department back, with the deli in the middle and prepared foods at the very front. For reference, here's what this part of the store would have looked like when Earth Fare was here - basically the same scene, just with new decor.

     In this photo we get a better view of the bakery. While the fresh departments at this store aren't too different in size from the ones we saw in the converted Lucky's last time, Earth Fare's fresh departments always felt more cramped than Lucky's. That probably has to do with the fact that Earth Fare shoved all the fresh departments into a narrow aisle, whereas Lucky's had a more spacious fresh department floor plan.

     The bakery counter is visible here, with the wall graphics (although partially cut-off) appearing as well. I like the setup of these new Winn-Dixie bakeries, as they have a really classy feel to them.

     After the bakery is the deli counter, although tables of baked goods spill over into the deli department. When you have a small space, sometimes you have to get creative with the product placement.

     Just like we saw last time, the new Mandarin Winn-Dixie also features an expanded prepared foods department. The same offerings can be found here that could be found in West Melbourne, comfort foods like macaroni and cheese, potato wedges, and carved meats, in addition to a sub counter and a chicken wing bar.

     Winn-Dixie has a nice little prepared foods setup here. It's nothing over the top, but offers shoppers some simple fixings for a lunch or dinner in a hurry. A few people were grabbing lunch from the Winn-Dixie kitchen while I was here, and at the West Melbourne store, the kitchen continues to be a popular offering.

     To the left of the kitchen is the wine and beer department, which Winn-Dixie placed in Earth Fare's old dining area. Earth Fare stores used to have a large indoor dining area, but with space at a premium, Winn-Dixie got rid of the dining area in favor of more merchandise. Earth Fare used to keep wine and beer toward the back of the store, and for an organic store, Earth Fare's wine and beer selection was rather small in comparison to the competitors.

     Sadly, this store did not receive a WD's Taproom like we saw last time in West Melbourne. None of the former Earth Fare stores Winn-Dixie converted so far got a taproom, as the Earth Fare buildings were too small to squeeze one in (whereas the Lucky's stores were just a bit larger, and gave Winn-Dixie more room to play with). Considering how upscale the Mandarin neighborhood is, a taproom would have done really well here, so it's unfortunate that feature couldn't be included at this store.

     Now that we've seen the wine and beer corner, here's another look across the store's front end, looking back toward produce.

     Given how narrow these Earth Fare stores were, views looking across the building make the place feel rather small. The square shape of Lucky's old stores seemed to neutralize the crunched down feel, as when it comes to grocery stores, to me, a wide building seems to give off the impression of a larger store more so than one that's really deep - as least from the visual perspective.

     Four regular check lanes make up the front end, in addition to four self-checkout lanes next to those.

     Unlike Lucky's, Earth Fare had a separate service desk placed in front of the registers. Winn-Dixie repurposed Earth Fare's service desk nook for their own, visible in the background of the photo above.

     Here's a much clearer picture of the store's service desk, as well as the graphics surrounding it. The text blurb on the wall in front of me is identical to the one we saw on the "Hello Mandarin!" sign outside, explaining how Winn-Dixie is "here to help you Winn". As cheesy as the corporate text sounds, I like how Winn-Dixie is incorporating the new "It's a Winn Win" slogan into the store's vibe and branding, turning the slogan from a phrase into an actual business practice (like Publix does with "Where Shopping is a Pleasure").

     Before we leave, here's one last look at the front end. There was a nice little crowd while I was here, as it looks like I captured this picture during a little burst at the front lanes. Usually most of my Winn-Dixie visits lack crowds, and even though that makes for easier photo taking, at least is good to see these new stores catching on.

     This photo looking toward the exit will be my last from inside this store. While we've seen (in much detail) what Winn-Dixie has been up to over the last few months, there's still a few loose ends to tie up in relation with this store in particular. That being said, let's head back outside...

     While smaller, these new Winn-Dixie stores are a much better example of what this company can pull off. Even though Winn-Dixie lost over 20,000 square feet of floor space in the move across the street, this is a store Winn-Dixie can be proud of, and hopefully the locals have adapted to and accepted this new Winn-Dixie as well. It's a big change, but hopefully the store's new features and new atmosphere outweigh the space lost in the move.

     Although it's a few storefronts down from the main store, Winn-Dixie also squeezed in a liquor store as part of the move. The store across the street had a liquor store too, so that's one thing that managed to stay the same in the location shuffle. 

     At the southernmost end of the Mandarin South Shopping Center, we find this building with a very distinctive greenhouse facade. While I haven't discussed this chain much on the blog, this building actually features a very well preserved exterior from Pic n' Save (no relation to the similarly-named closeout chain bought out by Big Lots in the 90's). Pic n' Save was a Jacksonville-based discount store chain that went out of business in 1996, and has a very long history I'll save for a post of its own. Pic n' Save grew to over 40 locations throughout Northern and Central Florida, as well as Southern Georgia, by the 1980's, this particular location featuring Pic n' Save's distinctive late-era design. Opened in 1986, a few years after the rest of the plaza, this Pic n' Save closed with the chain in 1996. Currently, the old Pic n' Save is split between a gym and a dog boarding center, the dog boarding center using the half of the building with the greenhouse windows.

     In addition to the greenhouse above the front entrance, these 1980's/1990's built Pic n' Save stores also had a large solarium along the side of the building. I was never in a Pic n' Save, but just from the look of these buildings, they must have had one fancy entryway if nothing else!

     I can talk a lot more about Pic n' Save, as they were quite the Jacksonville institution, but I have a photoset reserved for a future post where we'll explore all the details on that chain (and its supermarket predecessor Setzer's). But before I go off on any more tangents, let's get back on track with Winn-Dixie! On the left side of the aerial image above, we see the new Winn-Dixie (with the old Pic n' Save being the large building at the bottom of the plaza). Across the street is the old store, which we toured on the blog once already, but let's head back over there for a post-closure follow up:

     Now nothing more than an empty shell, here we see the remains of Winn-Dixie #141. While this store had one of the nicest (and most imposing) facades of any Marketplace store Winn-Dixie ever built, its interior was just like any other Winn-Dixie of the time - until 2015, that is...

     After receiving a refresh to the post-bankruptcy interior in the late 2000's (alongside most other Winn-Dixie stores in the Jacksonville metro area), Winn-Dixie picked this store to receive another remodel in 2015. However, the 2015 remodel was an experiment, as that remodel gave this store the unusual (and rare) White Interior, which appears to have been the first trial version of what would become today's Down Down interior (that decor making its debut a year later in 2016).

     The rare decor this store received in 2015 made this place a must-see for me during my first trip through the area in 2019, and I'm glad I visited when I did, as this store, and The White Interior, are now history. With Winn-Dixie settled in at their new store across the street, the doors here were locked, with signs taped to the glass directing shoppers to head across the street for their groceries.

     Even with Winn-Dixie out, I still wanted to get one last peek at the rare interior decor inside. While it was nothing elaborate, The White Interior was rare, and could have been a modern example of a lost design since it was only used in one store that closed five years after it remodeled.

     Winn-Dixie had only been out of this space for three weeks by the time I took these pictures, so there was still some clean-out to be finished. Some random boxes and signs were piled up here by the front door, with various fixtures still spread out throughout the sales floor.

     As I was taking these pictures, there was a crew inside working on dismantling all the shelves and fixtures Winn-Dixie left behind. If you were to visit this store today, all this stuff will probably be gone. While it's weird looking into a totally empty grocery store space, it's even weirder looking into one still with all the fixtures in place - with all the lights on - but nothing on the shelves and no one in sight.

     While those were all the photos I took looking inside the main store, here's a vantage point we didn't see in my original post - a look into the old liquor store. While the main store received the rare white decor, the liquor store was left completely untouched during the 2015 remodel, retaining the post-bankruptcy decor all the way to the end.

     As far as I'm aware, there aren't any plans for the former Winn-Dixie space just yet. With the other anchor to this plaza being a large medical facility, I can see the old Winn-Dixie getting turned into more medical offices of some kind, but who knows.

     A final photo of the empty Winn-Dixie will finish off this post, and our extended look at Winn-Dixie's new take on life as well. I'll be sure to keep an eye out for any news on what Winn-Dixie is up to as we head deeper into 2021. We have at least one more new Winn-Dixie to open this year, the one in the former Viera Earth Fare, which is on my radar as that store is being expanded outside of Earth Fare's old footprint. It will be interesting to see what comes out of that conversion, and as we go through 2021, we'll definitely see more of Winn-Dixie on the blog - be it new stores, old stores, and whatever I find in between. However, we'll take a break from Winn-Dixie for now, as we tackle another Floridian Albertsons store next time. Come back in two weeks for that!

So until the next post,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger