Winn-Dixie Closing 326 Units
By Ian Ritter
Last updated: June 21, 2005 02:08pm

Ian Ritter is national online editor for GlobeSt.com/RETAIL.

JACKSONVILLE, FL-Bankrupt grocer Winn-Dixie is closing 326 units in the US and Bahamas, leaving it with 587 stores. The retailer, hurt by competition from Wal-Mart and other grocery chains, filed for bankruptcy protection in February.

"Creating a smaller, but more profitable store base will best position Winn-Dixie for long-term financial health and a successful future,” says Peter Lynch, the company’s president and CEO, in a statement. “We will be focusing our resources on markets where Winn-Dixie has a strong presence and there are compelling opportunities.”

Winn-Dixie is keeping its presence in some areas of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and the Bahamas. The company is altogether exiting both Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia, as well as northern parts of Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. The retailer will also close some stores in Louisiana.

The company is also shutting three of its 10 distribution centers and will market its manufacturing plants. After the closures, company executives expect annual revenues to drop from their current $10 billion to $7.5 billion.

As a result of this restructuring, Winn-Dixie will reduce its workforce by 28%, or 22,000 employees. During its Q2, the latest quarterly financial period the company has reported, in February, the grocer posted a net loss of $399.7 million compared to $79.5 million for the same period in fiscal 2004. Same-store sales during the quarter dropped 4.9% from the same year-ago period.

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This can't be good for Florida's economic growth :(

It's funny - I stopped shopping at Winn Dixie because the store qualities tended to be lower than Wal-Mart's and the prices higher than competing supermarkets.

The store went into the wrong direction with it's leadership and everything went down the drain. The name also happens to invoke the south and might not exactly be appealing in most markets. I' rather shop at Albertsons, Publix or Sweetbay (by name only) than a southern fried franchise named Winn-Dixie (or another example -- Piggly WIggly).

Winn-Dixie Closing 326 Units
By Ian Ritter
Last updated: June 21, 2005 02:08pm

Ian Ritter is national online editor for GlobeSt.com/RETAIL.

JACKSONVILLE, FL-Bankrupt grocer Winn-Dixie is closing 326 units.

"Creating a smaller, but more profitable store base will best position Winn-Dixie for long-term financial help.

Winn-Dixie is keeping its presence in some areas of Florida,

The company is also shutting three of its 10 distribution centers

As a result of this restructuring, Winn-Dixie will reduce its workforce by 28%, or 22,000 employees.

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This can't be good for Florida's economic growth :(
Mr. Man :) , what do you mean not good for Florida's economic growth, Winn Dixie's been dying for years, ever shop at any lately, long lines at stores where less than half the cash registers are open to serve you, something smells bad in the meat department, floors are dirty, milk is outdated, eggs half cracks in them, and forget about any carry out to your car, there's not enough employeees for that anymore.
We go to Publix :wave: , Albertson's, Sedano's, Super Target and Super Walmart , and these stores will proudly hire all 22,000 laid off employees by Winn Dixie, I say close them all :banned: and bring back Food Fair or A & P Foods. :cheers:

i must say winn-dixie sucked for the last five years...there stores are always so dark,dirty and empty i like publix better

anyways now that winn dixie's out of the way publix is growing faster than a nasty weed..its kinda reminding me of walmart...we need more of a variety of supermarkets before publix owns florida

Don't forget, Albertsons is leaving Jax.

Don't forget, Albertsons is leaving Jax.
Matt Tampa :) , well , just like the Miami Area Albertsons that closed in the last 5 years, Publix and Sedano's took over their stores and hired their employees.
I'm sure Publix and other great retailers in the Jacksonville area will take over these Albertson Stores, and Winn Dixies , too.
Remember Everyone :) , Publix is runned by their own employees, no unions or companies. please let me know if I'm wrong. any comments ??? :cheers:

Winn-Dixie is a joke. Sweetbay is the future.

Mr. Man :) , what do you mean not good for Florida's economic growth, Winn Dixie's been dying for years, ever shop at any lately, long lines at stores where less than half the cash registers are open to serve you, something smells bad in the meat department, floors are dirty, milk is outdated, eggs half cracks in them, and forget about any carry out to your car, there's not enough employeees for that anymore.
We go to Publix :wave: , Albertson's, Sedano's, Super Target and Super Walmart , and these stores will proudly hire all 22,000 laid off employees by Winn Dixie, I say close them all :banned: and bring back Food Fair or A & P Foods. :cheers:

Winn-Dixie does suck. But 22,000 jobs loss can't be good news. They aren't exactly the best employees (due to lack of management leadership) so I don't see Publix bring on the whole lot. I shop at Publix which is amazing and I can see why Winn-Dixie is slowly dying.

Don't forget, Albertsons is leaving Jax.

I thought there were just undergoing a name change... but to what I don't know???

I'll stick to Publix and Albertsons. Sweetbay (aka, Kash N Karry, aka Food Lion) is just as lame as Winn Dixie IMO, only for a different reason.

And of course, I absolutely avoid Wal-Mart, unless my g/f is with me and we're pressed for time.

Winn-Dixie is a joke. Sweetbay is the future.

Sweetbay AKA Kash N Karry is the next Winn Dixie in my opinion. I've only been in their stores a few times, but each time I've had to stand in line for long periods of time. The employees were rude and the store was dirty, and this was a new one. I lived in NC, and Sweetbay is the same thing as a Food Lion - an undesirable place to shop. Publix on the other hand is great. Clean stores, nice employees, great service. Great, now I sound like a commercial. I've never been in Albertson's, so I can't judge them.

Jason, you should stick to your guns and avoid WalMart at ALL costs!!!
Your girlfriend will understand.

^No she won't. It has to do with the fact that our 10 month old daughter isn't too keen on shopping just yet, so if we need some mundane household items and groceries, the super Wal-Mart that's barely two miles away (closer than any other gen merch store, and as close as any other grocer), becomes the best choice, since we will only have to drag her in and out of the car and store just once.

Sweetbay won't be going anywhere for a while, especially down the road Winn-Dixie took. Now WD and Albertsons are leaving, Sweetbay has an even greater chance at success. Just give them a chance, I'm sure things will get better once actual new stores start popping up around the Tampa Bay area instead of the remodeled stores.

What's the deal with ALbertsons exactly? I went into my local store and they had an advertisement talking about Savon representing their pharmacy now? No sign the store was going to close ...

Never been to a sweetbay.

The only Albertsons stores closing, are the 7 in the Jax metro area. They were bought out by a former Winn-Dixie executive, who plans to convert the stores into his own chain called Roy's Supermarkets.

Winn-Dixie does suck. But 22,000 jobs loss can't be good news. They aren't exactly the best employees (due to lack of management leadership) so I don't see Publix bring on the whole lot. I shop at Publix which is amazing and I can see why Winn-Dixie is slowly dying.

Most of the 22,000 jobs aren't in Florida. They're in markets like North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina, etc. where Winn-Dixie is completely leaving the market. W-D's plan is to focus on its core market, which is Florida and parts of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

Never been to a sweetbay.

If you do live in Tallahassee then you probably won't see a Sweetbay up there until next summer.

Most of the 22,000 jobs aren't in Florida. They're in markets like North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina, etc. where Winn-Dixie is completely leaving the market. W-D's plan is to focus on its core market, which is Florida and parts of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

Strangely enough, the few FL locations set to close are almost all in my vicinity of Brandon/Valrico.

The Winn Dixies around here have been messy, dark, and sombering. My parents used to only shop at WD. No clue what happened.

Yeah we shop at the Publix in Riverview on Bloomingdale. The Winn Dixie on Lumsden is closing...and I'm not suprised. It was always empty and dirty. I've been to several Kash N Karry stores and not been impressed at all...its the Florida version of Food Lion...which never impressed me. I've been to a brand new Sweetbay store in Punta Gorda and it was okay, but I still wasn't impressed. When will we see Sweetbay stores in the Tampa area? I probably won't shop there, but Kash N Karry definately needs a makeover.

That's where I shop as well. The faux classical facade is pretty impressive for a grocery store. I can probably say its the most beautiful grocery store i've ever seen. :dunno:

That's where I shop as well. The faux classical facade is pretty impressive for a grocery store. I can probably say its the most beautiful grocery store i've ever seen. :dunno:

Yeah my wife and I always joke that its the "prettiest" grocery store we've ever seen.

I have read the opinions on this thread and feel maybe it is time to chime in. First, I work in management for a food broker, we are the largest vendor for Publix, Winn Dixie, Albertsons, Kash N Karry (Sweetbay), Sedano's, WalMart Grocery, etc... simply put we are the largest food broker in the world with over 10,000 empolyees, representing many Fortune 500 Companies.
My area of expertise includes the accounts for Publix, Winn Dixie, Albertsons, and Sweetbay. I can safely say " no one is leaving yet". My best guess is Albertsons would be the first to go (they are based in Boise/Salt Lake) and have alot of 80,000 s/f stores that do not do the volume needed to pay the bills. They are in the process of moving all their buying offices out of Orlando and back to Idaho. There are two or three other factors that I can't post here or anywhere that also lead me to believe this. They also may try and stay around a while longer hoping Sweetbay crumbles. Like Albertsons, Sweetbay is owned by Ahold, a Dutch investment company with U.S. headquarters in New England. They currently do most of their purchasing up there. A quick look at who has owned / sold Kash N Karry in the past 25 years. 1980 KNK was owned by the Greco family in Tampa, sold to Lucky Foods (California), LBO'd to a group of management led by Ron Floto that failed, sold to Food Lion, and now Ahold. They pulled out of Orlando about 2 years ago. P/s they filed for bankruptcy back when Floto was at the helm. Last I heard Floto was with K-Mart (another company that filed?).
On to Winn Dixie. Over the past 6 years WD has had 4 CEO's Dano Davis (founding family), Al Rowland (Albertsons), Frank Lazaran (Albertsons related), and now Peter Lynch (care to guess). I have payed close attention to what Lynch says and does. So far he is the most impressive of the 3 Albertsons boys. They have an enormous job ahead of them, but don't forget they will have almost 600 stores left and should generate revenues of 5-6 billion annually. They are based in Jacksonville and are the only chain of the three that at least keeps the revenues in Florida.
Store numbers for each account in the state of Florida are Winn Dixie = approx.350, KNK/Sweetbay = approx.80, Albertsons = approx.75 (w/o Jax.).
Other comments I have read are very accurate. Publix is, and will always be king here and wherever they want as long as continue to stay on the road and remember what got them there. Customer service is something they figured out along time ago. A close friend who happens to be in WD management told me yesterday that customer service will be the first priority now that they have their new footprint. I shared with him of some of the comments posted here and told him "it better be".
One more thing to remember about all three chains I have mentioned (excluding Publix). The bad guy here (if you need one) is Walmart and to a much lesser degree Target (Supercenters). A Walmart customer is also a WD, Alb.,KNK customer. Walmart knows that and has for the most part picked locations that reflect it. Plant City, Valrico, Oldsmar, Pinellas Park, Gunn Hwy, Wesley Chapel to name a few. You don't see many folks who shop for groceries at Publix in a Walmart for anything (present company included).
Some of the comments here reflect opinions based from experiences in a handfull of stores. I can tell you there are clean and dirty stores in all of these chains. The dirtiest stores I've personally seen are Albertsons (give or take a couple of WD's and KNK's and 1 Publix in Hialeah).
Lastly, a couple of tips about shopping for groceries I've learned over the years (a few may be obvious). Produce, can't beat Publix, same for deli and bakery. Meat, Winn Dixie (if you have a clean store close by) has the best tasting USDA choice, followed by KNK and Publix. I understand Alb. finally is going away from select up to choice. Seafood, Publix and WD both have an excellent selection and back to being based in Florida offer, to me, the best overall value. Sales items, that varies but most are doing buy 1 get 1's on national brands that are excellent values. Believe it not Publix has the most limited distribution on 'pantry staple' or dry grocery items of all four chains. They feel they don't need to carry as many sizes on a brand.
Don't know if I cleared anything up with this other than to say that we (my company) does not expect anyone leaving in the immediate future.
P/s Didn't mean to to slight Sedanos. I love their stores as well as El Presidente's. Just not relative to topic........

I hate Wal-Mart. The one in Brandon is so dirty and way too crowded at all times of the day for me to even bother going in. They always have long lines that move slowly. Give me my Publix any day.

Any WD I've ever been to was a pit, except for maybe a couple (at best). When WD was the big dog, employees never cared about how their stores looked, or about service. Now they're they're trying to play catch up because they're getting clobbered by WM and Publix. They're the equivalent of K-Mart, they don't fit into any niche. Publix is clean and you get great service, WM has super cheap prices. WD is a dinosaur (funny how most people aren't willing to pay high prices if they have to shop in a hole of a store). It needs to do more than just close stores if it wants to survive. I remember shopping at a WD that was so bad I got panhandled IN the store. When I complained to management, they didn't really act liked they cared. This particular store eventually closed due to losses from shoplifting. I also agree with one of the other people posting that it really does need a name change to something a little less hillbilly sounding.

...or so you would think. AFter reading these posts about Winn Dixie they seem to mirror current complaints about Wal-Mart SuperCenters. Long lines and as for customer service??? fahgetahboudit!! These SuperCEnters they slap up in no time are already starting to look bad and they are not even that old. I don't even think not shopping there is a sacrifice at all because it is so hard to get in and out that I would not shop there even if they were not such an ominous juggernaut.

Another thing that strikes me are the bad reports on Albertson's. In Pensacola they constructed 2 new stores and should build one in Milton very soon. The biggest money maker in the area (9th Ave. store) was remodelled. All of these stores (4 or 5 total) seemed very clean and nice to shop at which is a stark contrast to what I hear about the stores down there.

As for Winn Dixie, there are nice new and old drab stores here as well. The chain is going to have to reinvent itself. If they are able, I think that is good if they can survive. I think a regional flavor is more benficial than a homogenous landscape of the same companies that we see all over the country. Maybe Albertson's should focus on their base out West. Maybe Winn Dixie will be better off if it concentrates on the Southeast.

Winn Dixie is different than Wal-Mart Supercenters though. Winn Dixie charged high prices but still had no service and dumpy stores. Wal-Mart caters to lower income people, many of whom do all their shopping there, no matter how long the lines or how dirty the store is. I don't even try to go in a Wal-Mart anymore. I prefer Target, where customer service and cleanliness are basically the norm.

I agree. I will pay a little bit more than suffer the Wal-MArt experience. I once lived in Warner Robins GA. I passed by Wal-Mart just to get to Kroger. I'll pay a couple of bucks more to keep my sanity and not dread going grocery shopping.

Yeah we shop at the Publix in Riverview on Bloomingdale. The Winn Dixie on Lumsden is closing...and I'm not suprised. It was always empty and dirty. I've been to several Kash N Karry stores and not been impressed at all...its the Florida version of Food Lion...which never impressed me. I've been to a brand new Sweetbay store in Punta Gorda and it was okay, but I still wasn't impressed. When will we see Sweetbay stores in the Tampa area? I probably won't shop there, but Kash N Karry definately needs a makeover.

Tampa Bay area KNK stores north of Manatee County begin opening up as Sweetbay in the 1st or 2nd quarter of 2006. Stores here in Sarasota and Bradenton will be all finished by November.

The Lutz (North Tampa) area is getting a Super Target and Super Wal-Mart by late 2006. And they're on the same block! Currently in Lutz we have 2 Publix and a Winn-Dixie.

The Lutz (North Tampa) area is getting a Super Target and Super Wal-Mart by late 2006. And they're on the same block! Currently in Lutz we have 2 Publix and a Winn-Dixie.
FloridaFuture :) , well by Late 2006, when the two " Supers " open, say good-bye to that one and only Winn Dixie. :cheers:

FloridaFuture :) , well by Late 2006, when the two " Supers " open, say good-bye to that one and only Winn Dixie. :cheers:

Yeah probaly, which is a shame because the Winn-Dixie is the only one on the main road (US 41) in Lutz.

We have a new Super Target tentively opening early 2007 on University Parkway near Lakewood Ranch. From what I have heard, Super Target's are way better than Super Walmart's.

^^^Yes they are cleaner and brighter then Super Wal-Marts......More Winn-Dixie stores changing owner.

Winn-Dixie Sells 102 Stores In Auction
By RON WORD The Associated Press By RON WORDThe Associated Press
Published: Jul 20, 2005




JACKSONVILLE - Bankrupt supermarket giant Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. announced Tuesday that it had sold leases to 102 of its stores for $45.6 million to 30 purchasers, most which plan to operate them as grocery and liquor stores.
The leases were sold at an auction Monday and Tuesday in New York and must be approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jerry Funk. Hearings are scheduled for July 27 to 29 in Jacksonville.

Winn-Dixie announced this month that it had reached a preliminary agreement for 79 stores, but the auction produced 23 additional sales, the company announced. The aggregate purchase price for the 102 stores is about $45.6 million, an increase of $6.9 million more than previously announced.

``We are pleased with the results of the auction, which increased substantially the value achieved for the company and also increased the number of stores that will continue to operate as food and beverage stores,'' said Peter Lynch, president and chief executive officer.

Lynch said many of the stores have agreed to offer jobs to Winn-Dixie employees. Before the sale, Winn-Dixie said about 22,500 employees would lose their jobs as a result of Winn-Dixie's plan to close or sell 326 stores. Employees who do not find other jobs will be given severance packages.

Winn-Dixie, based in Jacksonville, also is seeking court authorization to conduct store-closing sales at the 224 stores that were not sold in the auction. The company would like to begin those sales on Aug. 1 and finish in September.

Michael Freitag, a Winn- Dixie spokesman, said the names of buyers and the stores they purchased will not be available until the documents are filed with the bankruptcy court.

Before the auction, preliminary agreements had been reached with about 20 buyers. They included Supervalu Retailers, based in Minneapolis, which bid $9.5 million for 37 stores in Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia.

http://tampatrib.com/businessnews/MGBS3NRXCBE.html

I like that fact that Winn-Dixie is the only store in my area with automatic check-out. If I only have 10 to 15 items I can go to the automated check out, scan my own items, bag them, pay quickly and be on my way in a minute or less. Much better than waiting in line behind some old lady at Publix counting out her pennies.

The Super Wal-Mart and Home Depot in my area has that automated checkout to. It's fast, but I worry it'll take out more jobs.