Harvey's is the New Save Rite

Winn-Dixie/Save Rite/Winn-Dixie/Harvey's #2601
1012 Edgewood Avenue North, Jacksonville, FL
Image from Bing Maps

     Some more news out of Winn-Dixie today. Winn-Dixie has decide to launch another new store concept today, which is a rebranding and refocusing of their Harvey's banner. The store you see in the satellite image above is located on the west side of Jacksonville. It originally opened as a Winn-Dixie in 1984, and was later converted into a Save Rite in 2000 (which you can see the store as in the above image). This store was one of the last 6 Save Rites to make it to 2011, when it was converted back into a Winn-Dixie (rather cheaply like the other 5 stores were, I assume). Earlier this year, Winn-Dixie began to remodel this store into a Harvey's. However, the reasoning behind the remodel was to relaunch the Harvey's brand as a "price impact" banner for Southeastern Grocers. The store was remodeled with a stripped down, yellow colored version of the new Down Down interior. It remained opened as the remodel progressed, with the banner change becoming official this morning (5/4/16). This new store is the opposite extreme of what we saw at the reopened Baymeadows Winn-Dixie back in February. This new Harvey's has a large focus on reduced prices, dollar deals, sale items, and also an increased focus on offering products tailored to the neighborhood this store is located in. Also, this store will feature Harvey's/BI-LO's Southern Home house brand instead of Winn-Dixie brands. According to Southeastern, this store is going to be a pilot to see if the Harvey's brand can become a viable price impact division for them, with the possibility of rebranding the other Harvey's stores into this format, and adding more throughout Southeastern's entire coverage area (which would be through rebranding existing Winn-Dixies and possibly BI-LOs into Harvey's in certain areas). Harvey's 40 stores are predominantly found in smaller, more rural towns in Georgia. I believe there are a few Harvey's out in the Panhandle, but not to where they have a significant presence out there. This new store will be the first Harvey's branded store near Jacksonville. The new Harvey's will feel more like a traditional supermarket than a Save-A-Lot (which Save Rite was essentially, just double the size), as it will still offer fresh departments and less of a warehouse feel. I'm wondering if Harvey's is going to be Winn-Dixie's equivalent of what Albertsons did with Super Saver - a last ditch effort to save underperforming stores from having to be closed out right by offering a more value oriented format. Here's a link to an article from the Florida Times-Union about the new store, which includes a glimpse of the interior. I know Winn-Dixie keeps talking about remodeling and reimaging since that Baymeadows store opened earlier this year, but other than this Harvey's and the first Down Down store in Alabama, I haven't heard of any other remodels happening at any other stores. Hopefully there will be more on the way. Many of their stores desperately need a remodel.

Until the next time, 

The Albertsons Florida Blogger

UPDATE 5/5/16 - Here's a picture of the exterior of this store now as a Harvey's, courtesy of The Shelby Report:

The Shelby Report's Facebook page also includes an nice look around the store's interior, which you can see here. The Shelby report also has a good article about the new store which you can read here.

AFB Presents - A Very Dated Winn-Dixie

Satellite Image Courtesy of Bing Maps

     Thanks to Grafe Auction's many pictures of the closed stores whose fixtures they liquidate, here's another interesting store I stumbled across. This is the former Winn-Dixie located at 3201 W. Colonial Drive in Orlando. This Winn-Dixie has a pretty interesting past, beginning its life in 1985 in a converted J.M. Fields building as part of a short-lived warehouse store concept the company launched called Table Supply*. Table Supply, a nod to one of the company's early names from the 1920's, was one of many supermarket warehouse concepts to debut at that time, when warehouse stores were becoming all the rage. Like Table Supply, most of those concept stores flopped, and after opening 6 Table Supply Stores (5 in Florida and 1 in Georgia), the stores were converted to the Winn-Dixie name, much like the one here. The former West Colonial Table Supply converted to a Winn-Dixie Marketplace (Store #2300) in 1990. After spending a little over a decade as a Winn-Dixie Marketplace, this store was converted into one of Winn-Dixie's price impact stores called Save Rite (Store #2656) in the early 2000's, which is what the store was branded as in the satellite image above. This Save Rite managed to last through the bankruptcy, where many Save Rite stores were closed, and was one of 6 remaining Save Rite stores when Winn-Dixie finally decided to retire the brand in 2011. When the brand was retired, the Save Rite stores were converted back to Winn-Dixies (and this store was Winn-Dixie #2656 for its remaining few years). Winn-Dixie finally decided to give up on this store completely in November 2014. I remember when the news did a story on this store's closure, a bunch of people said it was for the best as this place was horribly old, outdated, and in poor shape. Well, thanks to the photographers for Grafe Auctions, who liquidated the fixtures at this store after it closed, we get to see just how outdated the interior at this store actually was. So let's take a peek:

     *Thanks to The Sing Oil Blogger for finding all that information about this building's origins as a Table Supply! Information updated on January 13, 2024.

This photo and all of the following images are courtesy of Grafe Auction and grafeauction.com

     Even after the store converted back to Winn-Dixie, all Winn-Dixie did was put a new sign on the front of the building and restock the shelves. They left all of the old Save Rite decor in place, which really doesn't compliment a full line grocery store very well. The Save Rite decor is pretty cheap looking.

      But it was this next image that really got me:

     The Deli retained its original Table Supply wall decor and neon until 2014! That means when this store converted to a Winn-Dixie Marketplace in 1990, Winn-Dixie didn't do much of a remodel to it, meaning most of the Table Supply decor probably lasted mostly in-tact until the Save Rite conversion in the early 2000's. When this store was a Save Rite, as part of Save Rite's discount-oriented format, service departments were either non-existent or an afterthought. That being the case, that probably explains why the deli retained much of its original decor while the rest of the store had much of the decor switched out.

     There weren't too many pictures of this store in the album on the auction company's website, but here's the link to it if you want to take a look at the few other photos of this store there.

     So that wraps up my two posts from the Grafe Auction pictures. If you want, Grafe's website has lots of pictures taken at closed stores from different brands all over the country if you're ever bored and want to look through some pictures.

So that's all I have for now. Until next time,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger