Winters Chapel - Dunwoody, GA
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| Siju Kurian John - Google Maps - December 2020 |
Winters Chapel
Sing Food Store
Atlanta, GA 30360
This post marks the first time I have covered one of the Sing Stores that was sold off before the 1990 Amoco merger. I'm not going to lie, had it not been for the More Than Convenience portion of this post, it probably would have been much longer before this station got its brief moment in the sun. I am much more excited about my new mini-series "Publix Waves Goodbye," but I thought it would be an injustice to the surrounding Sing stations if I did not give them a shout out. Unfortunately, I don't have any historic photos of this store and only found out about it from an ad in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
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| Courtesy Newspapers.com - The Atlanta Journal and Constitution - June 13, 1976 |
To make matters worse, I wasn't really motivated to visit this store when I found pictures online from inside store (It is rare to have such extensive coverage of a convenience store on Google Maps). Since the pictures proved that the layout is not original, I did not feel compelled to even drive to this store.
Built around 1972, this station looks like it was constructed using the same template as Tallahassee #3. I only know of three Sing Stores to have the outer columns supporting the awning made out of brick, and the ones on this building perfectly match the style of Tallahassee #3. With that being said, let's see how this store looks today! If you need a refresher on how it would have looked in the early 1970's, check out my Tallahassee #3 post because I have a number of old pictures there. From what I can tell, Sing sold this station sometime before 1984 based on what I have found in the tax records.
The Store
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| Maruf Khan - Google Maps - December 2019 |
Taking our first look at the front of the building, this station reminds me of most semi-run down convenience stores. As visible by the columns out front, the building has retained Sing's original awning structure, but the sloped shingle portion has been covered up.
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| Carl Minor - Google Maps - October 2020 |
What really threw me off about this location is that it has been subdivided since Sing sold the property. I've visited a few of these late-1960's, early-1970's Sing Food Stores that have not been subdivided and they already feel cramped. I can't image how small this food mart feels on the inside.
The left side of the store looks like it was most recently used as a restaurant and has a wall which separates it from the convenience store. I say "was" because according to Google Maps, McAdoo's Comfort Food closed in August 2021. This is totally random, but the owner posted this picture to Google for some reason; I always find it entertaining to see what kind of bizarre photos I can dig up on a Google Maps listing. That one certainly makes the list!
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| Maruf Khan - Google Maps - December 2019 |
Stepping just inside the door we can get a bit of a feel of how cramped this store is. The drink coolers are in the original nook where Sing left them (in the back right corner of the store), but the wall that has the Bud Light Atlanta poster on it was added at a later time. The convenience store originally stretched another 10-15 feet to the left, which would have given much more space between the cashier counter and the door. To the right are a few short aisles of snacks and candy.
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| Maruf Khan - Google Maps - December 2019 |
Not an entirely different perspective, but we can get a better view of the cashier counter. The person taking this picture had their back immediately to the door, and turned slightly to the left. I also want to note that Sing's configuration would have placed the door in the center of the façade, which would be the current location of this cashier counter. Judging by these pictures, it looks like this store's primary focus is lottery tickets, cigarettes, and beer because I know there isn't room left for much else based on how small the space is!
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| Maruf Khan - Google Maps - December 2019 |
Back outside, it looks like the pump canopy could be a leftover from Sing based on how wide the concrete pads are. When Sing sold the station, separate pumps for each fuel grade would have still been the norm, requiring much more space than the modern multi-product dispensers.
With that out of the way, let's take a look at some street / aerial views before we move on to the former Publix #477.
Street Views
Google Street View - January 2008
Google Street View - May 2015
Google Street View - December 2021
Aerial Views
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| Historic Aerials - 1972 Undeveloped Sing Store site |
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| Historic Aerials - 1978 Fairly-new Sing Store (under leftmost "Aerials" watermark) |
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| Historic Aerials - 1988 Former Winters Chapel Sing Store |
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| Google Earth - December 2020 Former Winters Chapel Sing Store and surrounding businesses |
Where Shopping is No Longer a Pleasure
I love his dry sense of humor, and that is part of the reason why I find it fun to read his blog. The other reason is that I get to reminisce over memories of grocery stores that are long gone . . . at least I thought. After a fun day hanging out with friends, I read his comment on my post and was dumbfounded; a Wavy Pastel Publix that still existed! (Albeit not a current Publix.) I feel like the fact that an Asian Farmer's Market has embraced Publix's 1990's décor makes this series even more fun. The last time I stepped foot into a Wavy Pastels store was in 2008, long before I took conscious note of how grocery stores looked. Additionally, as far as I can tell, the last actual Publix to sport this style was store #98 which closed in 2014. The fact that this store fell in my lap nearly "out of the blue" made my jaw drop. I literally forgot any plans I had the next day to drive to see it. What's even better is there are three former Publix stores with Wavy Pastels remnants, and all are within 30 minutes of each other. Even though I can confidently say I will never see an actual Publix with Wavy Pastels, this is a dream come true and something that I never dreamed I would be able to cover on this blog, much less photograph.
Throughout this series, we will dive into some of the history behind these stores, why they met their demise, and what they look like today. As the series progresses, we will see more and more waves crash into the Chattahoochee banks of 2022 and commence with a museum-quality specimen. On the other hand, today I will whet your palette with the least-preserved example. Now that you know how much of a nerd I am about 1990's Publix décor, let's take a look at the first of these stores.
Part I
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| Courtesy DeKalb County Property Appraiser - March 7, 2003 |
City Farmers Market / Former Publix #477
Northeast Plaza Shopping Center
3317 Buford Highway NE Ste 410
History is full of black & white facts & figures, but it is often the grey that is the most fascinating. In this blog, I try to go past the what of retail history and delve into the why. The "why" tends to be the most obscured, least apparent portion of history which often means that it is glazed over and forgotten about. I strive (but may not always succeed) to dig deeper into the context surrounding my immediate focus of research in order to fully understand the reasoning why a corporation decided to build a location or why aspects of a store are different in one location vs another. This may require more time on my part (maybe I have too much of it, lol) but I feel like it would be an injustice to the stores I cover not to dive into it. In order to better understand the next Publix stores in this series, I felt it was important to take a step back and give some background on what the company was doing on a larger scale at the time. After all, some of the "grey" items I have discovered during research have been the most fascinating. You can't find the key to open the door, without first finding the correct lock!
Some History
While it was announced in 1992 as one of the initial 7 Publix stores to open in the Atlanta Metro, Publix #477 at Northeast Plaza Shopping Center opened in September 1994 as the 20th in the area. It opened 2 months ahead of schedule. As I was doing research for this series, I went down the rabbit hole of how Publix entered the Metropolitan Atlanta market, and the details are quite fascinating. As many of you know, the company opened store #412 in 1991 which marked its first store outside Florida. They followed suit in November 1992 by opening store #33 as the first location in the Atlanta Metro.
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| Courtesy Newspapers.com - The Atlanta Journal Constitution - August 30, 1992 We can see the numbers used in "flagship" Wavy Pastels stores over the checkout lines. The image above is from #412 in Savannah but store #33 would have also featured these. |
Publix certainly made waves (and not just with pastels!) with their aggressive strategy for claiming the Atlanta market. Before a single store had opened in 1992, the grocer intended to open 50 stores in the region by the end of the decade. This sort of rapid expansion into new territory can either be a recipe for disaster, or great success. Publix obviously knew what they were doing since thirty-years later, I believe they have more stores than any other grocer in the region. I found a 2019 article which states Publix had 189 stores in the state, while Kroger had 183 in their Atlanta Division (covering AL, GA, & SC). This expansion, however, didn't come without a cost. Since the AJC article above was published, Atlanta lost A&P, Big Star, Bruno's, Cub Foods, Harris Teeter, Winn-Dixie, and several others. Kroger, who was the most formidable competitor, still holds onto a respectable piece of market share, and was neck-in-neck with Publix (around 30%) in the last report I found. While Publix was able to kill off a number of competitors, it also suffered some casualties of its own in the region. I've been able to find 27 stores that closed in Georgia, with most of them being in under-performing areas and a few others being replaced; we will visit three of them in this series. Conversely, Publix has 197 stores that remain open in the state, with another 7 nearing completion.
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| Courtesy Superchevy3 (eBay) - Publix #33, Publix #477, & Publix #621 façades in pamphlet entitled "Making History" |
I don't know this for a fact, but I imagine Publix's rapid expansion into the Atlanta market was fueled by the city's bid to host the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. The Olympics are credited as one of the major factors in shaping modern Atlanta since they initiated hundreds, if not thousands, of new developments and brought the world's attention on the city. A number of people who came for the games, never ended up leaving, which provided Publix with a growing new market to gain control of.
Additionally, Publix's expansion into Georgia is probably the primary reason the Wavy Pastels décor came to exist. I read in a 2005 article that "the company also listened to focus groups that spoke with a Georgia accent. 'They said, 'don't make us think we're in Florida,'' Moore said. 'So we were careful not to use beach scenes or palm trees in our advertising. Instead we used Georgia landscaping.'" I still feel like Wavy Pastels is very Floridian. Classy Market 1.0 is probably the first decor package that felt like it fit the Georgia market, with details such as the colonial-style crown molding, serif fonts, and a neutral color palette (although Evergreen Evergrey has taken neutral to a whole new level).
With the company making such an ambitious entry into the Metro, many Atlantans were not pleased to see their city changing. Everybody from workers unions, local residents, to the competition all tried to convince the greater public that Publix was not going to take over their hometown; ultimately, Publix won this battle royale.
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| Courtesy Newspapers.com - The Atlanta Journal Constitution - August 30, 1992 Publix's 7 initial planned locations. In reality, this is not the order these stores were opened in. |
I don't know much about this store while it operated as a Publix, but it was the first location announced to be "ITP" (Inside The Perimeter, or I-285). Publix #282, which opened in January 1994, actually won the title for the first store to open "ITP" (and in Fulton County) since most of Publix's other early stores had opened in the northern suburbs. What I can tell you is #477 was a 56D store, which was the larger mid-range format Publix used in the early 1990's. I wrote up a page describing Publix's various store layouts which helped me figure out why all three of the stores in this series looked slightly different. If you need help figuring out how this store was laid out as a Publix, look over the information on the 56D, 47N and 56N stores on the page above. All three of these prototypes may have their differences, but all have the same basic department layout.
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Courtesy Newspapers.com - Reggie Adams, an associate at the Publix Northeast Plaza store, assembles food bags for the Food for Sharing campaign. - The Atlanta Journal Constitution - December 19, 2002 |
Publix operated this store for 11 years, before shuttering it in 2005. While I believe it retained its Wavy Pastels decor during its entire run, I was tipped off by a commenter about the picture above, showing the store did receive Metallic Marketplace aisle markers (a common practice for non-MM stores). It is typically rare for Publix to close a store outright, without a replacement in mind; even today, the closest Publix to this location is over 2.5 miles away (and happens to be one of the original Sienna 54M prototype stores, built in 2011). If you want to know why Publix closed this and the next two stores we will explore, look no further than demographics. With such a forceful entry into the Atlanta market, the company was bound to make miscalculations on where to place its stores. There is a reason why Publix began its initial expansion in Atlanta's northern suburbs, because they tend to be more affluent neighborhoods where shoppers would prioritize a "pleasurable" shopping experience over the price on their receipt. Store #477 is located on the edge of the well-off Brookhaven neighborhood, but its address is Buford Highway, a thoroughfare known for its cultural diversity and being the place to go in Atlanta for reasonably-priced international cuisine. Publix may do well in the densely Hispanic communities around Miami, but Atlanta is a much more diverse and complex market.
With that being said, I found a 2005 article (Page 1, Page 2) describing how the Georgia Hispanic population was exercising their surging purchasing power. It is stated that a local Korean-American businessman, Tony Chong, decided to open several farmers markets which "cater[ed] to Mexican and Central American tastes." One such store happened to be in the former Publix #477 on Buford Highway. This leads me to my next point, Publix closed this store because it was under performing, but this did not mean the area could not support a 56,000 sq. ft. supermarket. On the contrary, when I visited the Mercado del Pueblo (City Farmers Market), it was the busiest I have seen a grocery store since the last time I went shopping on Christmas Eve! (And this visit was just a regular Sunday). We'll see more of this in the subsequent portions of this series, but Publix simply couldn't cater to the local clientele which forced them to close this location.
The Store
Now that you have some context, let's take a look at the former Publix #477 and what traces of Wavy Pastels we can find in 2022. As a bit of a spoiler, this store had the fewest remnants of a Publix past, but still had some fixtures that Publix would have long since gotten rid of if they still controlled the space. Make sure to check back for the next two posts to see more striking reminders of Publix's 1990's interiors.
We can see that the current tenant has swapped out the signage and repainted the architectural accents, but the façade of the store looks largely unchanged. I don't ever remember seeing another Publix use this particular façade design, but they are commonly built to match the look of a shopping center rather than to use a particular style. From what I found, the Northeast Shopping Center was built in 1985, nearly 10 years before the Publix.
You may wonder why I titled this post "Where Shopping is No Longer a Pleasure" and my reasoning is two-fold: first, Publix left the building, so obviously they would have taken anything with their slogan on it with them, and second, I despise running into crowds at the grocery store, so I was well into my claustrophobia for the majority of this trip!
With that being said, I didn't get many pictures of the front-end of the store since there were so many people around. When you walked in the door, you were funneled to the right between pallet-drops of produce and other items. The right side of the store would've been home to Publix's bakery and deli but is now home to produce. The City Farmers Market still has a bakery in the old section used by Publix, but it does not extend into the sales floor. You can catch a glimpse of the orange bakery sign below the piñata in the picture above. I don't remember what this store used the old deli counter for; all I know is there was a crowd of people over there! I also wonder why most of Publix's original florescent lights in the dropped ceiling were either turned off or burned out. Somebody has installed separate fixtures which seemed to be the favored option to use, but they left the store looking very dark.
I was able to sneak a peek at the storage area to the left of the bakery counter and spotted my first Wavy remnant: the peach and teal tile design. Unlike newer stores that use a different pattern for each department, Publix kept it simple and used this same square design in the deli, bakery, meat, and seafood departments with Wavy Pastels. I also noticed that the right side of the store had some sort of black material taped over the terrazzo floors. I wonder if this was an attempt to make the floors less slippery, or if it was to make the floors not look as dirty?
The next ghost of Publix past appeared in the meat department. While this store did move the produce department to the right side of the building, it kept the meat department in the back right corner. This coffin cooler with the teal cart-bumper looks like it has not moved since it was installed in 1994 (and now features Golden Jumbo Quail). The rest of the meat department largely kept its original configuration.
Back in the front of the store, we get a better look at the pallet drops that direct customers toward the produce department as they enter. I would have to guess that this is to prevent paths of exit for shoplifters to take.
In the distance, we can see the leaf-covered trellis structure that is over the current produce department. After I took this picture, I walked down the spice aisle back to the seafood department. I didn't get a picture of them, but I saw a bag of dried shrimp hanging with the rest of the spices and wondered what they would be used for.
This store still has a seafood counter located in Publix's original location next to the meat counter, but it also has several coolers with fish on the other side of the actionway. Needless to say, a large portion of the store smelled like the ocean (or a marina) with all of this seafood.
We can also see a better view of Publix's original awnings over the
seafood and meat counters. I think they still have the original shade
of teal; although, the paint looks a bit too green as I'm looking back through the pictures. It was very hard to tell for certain with so many of the lights turned off. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any Wavy Pastels signs which remained in this store. I did, however, find a bin of live crawfish (behind the wet floor cone).
Finally, we get a good glimpse of some terrazzo floors! The frozen food aisle is still in the middle of the store and based on the cart bumpers, it looks like the freezers are original.
The dairy coolers have retained their original configuration along the back wall of the store. We can see they also maintained their peach cart bumpers.
One thing I don't remember from the Wavy Pastel days was this milk cooler. The plastic flaps may have been a later addition, but the cooler is definitely from Publix. What I found interesting about this design is that the cooler was open to the back storage room and allows carts of milk to be rolled up to the front. How efficient! (Both ironically and unironically)
Due to the large percentage of Hispanic shoppers, this store had a large selection of prayer candles. I've seen stores have 4 or 5 varieties of these, but never this many!
Knowing Publix, I feel confident that they would not have used a teal cart bumper right next to a peach one. However, I do think Publix would have mostly used peach bumpers on the coolers around the perimeter of the store, and used teal everywhere else (coffin coolers, produce stands, freezers, etc.).
Since the produce is now in the front right corner of the store, the former department now houses a myriad of other products. The yogurt coolers on the right would've either held fresh-cut fruit or fruit juices.
Looking down one of the aisles to the left, we see a reminder of this department's past near the ceiling — a track lighting structure! Even though we don't have produce here anymore, I guess they decided the track lights weren't bothering anybody.
Now, taking a look down the left wall of the store, we see a cooler that had its cart bumper replaced by a red one. We also see a sign for "Farm Produce" which is clearly over a beer cooler (and on the other side of the store as produce, like I mentioned before). It seems to me like the City Farmers Market only recently swapped these departments, or they forgot to move the signs a while ago!
Here is a look from the other end of the aisle, toward the back of the store. I noticed that most of this store's awnings had track lights along the edges and wondered if these were leftovers from Publix too. I don't think I have ever been in one of these 54D prototype stores while Publix still operated it, much less when it had Wavy Pastels, so I don't know if these are original.
The last thing I spotted (and didn't get a good picture of) was the trellis lighting fixture Publix had over the checkout lines. I took this picture from the left side of the store, where Publix would've had their H&BA (Health & Beauty Aide) aisles. As you can see, the front end of the store was still very crowded, and this is the one piece I wish I had a better view of. I'm not exactly sure how the trellis was originally used, but these were installed in 1980's and early 1990's stores which had a dropped ceiling over the checkout lines. I imagine it looked similar to the version used in 65N stores, even though they had a vaulted ceiling over the front end. I only know of one Publix to still have a trellis over its check lanes, and that is store #172. This poor soul holds the record for the last (known) Classy Market 1.0 store in existence but is scheduled to meet its demise in a few months. AFB has another example of one of these lighting fixtures in this post.
As I was leaving this store, I noticed that the former cart storage area in the entrance vestibule had been repurposed into a barber shop. Interestingly, all three of the stores in this series repurposed that space in one way or another. I also noticed that the store had speakers mounted on the front of the building which were blaring music into the parking lot. Even though most stores don't have this, I understand having something playing outside as shoppers enter the store, but I remember this music being at an unreasonably high volume; maybe they were trying to get people's attention?
Aerial Views
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| DeKalb County Property Appraiser - March 7, 2003 Publix #477 did not seem to have a busy parking lot |
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| DeKalb County Property Appraiser - February 10, 2007 The City Farmers Market seems to draw a larger crowd than Publix |
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| DeKalb County Property Appraiser - January 30, 2021 The building looks largely the same over 15 years after Publix left |
On that note, I'm going to wrap up Part I of Publix Waves Goodbye. Check back in a few weeks for Part II of this series because it will provide even more answers on Publix's past (and a lot more questions). I will say, we will witness the classiest pastels I have ever seen . . .
Au revoir!
- The Sing Oil Blogger
Additional Resources:
Sing Parcel ID: 06 280 01 008
Publix Parcel ID: 18 197 01 041
