The First Winn-Dixie Marketplace | Big Lots #5375

The Valdosta Daily Times (Courtesy Henry H.) - March 1984

The Original Winn-Dixie Marketplace

Five Points Plaza

110 East Northside Drive

Valdosta, GA 31602

Marketplace Madness 2025:  The O.G.

Original Publication: February 23, 2025 - Revised: February 24, 2025

Hey y'all, welcome back to this year's edition of Marketplace Madness: The 1980's!  To kick off my annual series on all things Winn-Dixie, we're going to explore the store that started it all:  the first ever Winn-Dixie Marketplace.  I was tipped off about this by friend of the blog Henry H. and was shocked to learn that the notorious concept made its debut in Valdosta, of all places.

None of that insight would have come to light without Newspapers.com adding a huge backlog of The Valdosta Daily Times to its collection back in January 2023.  The only problem is that the website quickly revoked access to the scans before either of us had the chance to save any clippings (besides the photo above).  To make matters even more strange, The Times experienced a brief resurrection in February 2023, which made us think the paper was back for good.  That's when I managed to save the two clippings we'll see below, but again, I neglected to snag anything else before the paper was gone for good.  Why did they have to tease us like this!

Anyhow, I feel like that episode is representative of much of this post in that we will get a nice glimpse at the past, but the vivid detail of reality is seemingly lost to time.  I'm sure you'll see what I mean.

In spite of this, I felt like a look at Winn-Dixie during the 1980's wouldn't be complete without an exploration of the now 40-year-old original Marketplace concept and even the few pieces I found are better than nothing.  So, what do you say, shall we begin?

 

March 1, 1984

Winn-Dixie entered Valdosta in 1952 with a store at North Patterson and Magnolia Streets. This was replaced by a store in the Five Points Shopping Center in 1967 (shown below), which itself was replaced by the store we will tour today.

The Valdosta Daily Times (Newspapers.com) - January 30, 1981

In addition to Five Points, the clipping above showcases the circa 1972 Brat's Plaza location (replaced by #173 in 1996) and the circa 1973 Lake Francis Shopping Center store (#32), which is the only one of these three to remain in business.

I'm sure that management thought these stores were sufficient for the area until some dramatic changes began to brew in the early-1980's.

The Valdosta Daily Times (Newspapers.com) - September 23, 1983

Coincidentally, in September 1983, Kroger announced it had purchased seven acres of land in Valdosta but had no immediate plans to build a store.  You know where that site was, though?

Google Maps - Northside Valdosta Winn-Dixie Locations

It was three blocks down the road from the Five Points SC Winn-Dixie and directly across the street from where the prototype Marketplace store would rise.

Considering how Valdosta's three Winn-Dixie stores were small and dated, by 1980's standards, management probably took this as a cue to "defend the home turf" against Kroger's South Georgia expansion.  The threat of Winn-Dixie's new store must have worked considering how Kroger eventually abandoned its plans and ceded the land to Bruno's, who built a brand new FoodMax on the plot in 1989.

Courtesy Valdosta State University Archives (Flickr) - February 29, 1984 - Winn-Dixie Dedication

With the danger of Kroger neutralized, Winn-Dixie moved forward with the grand opening of its brand new concept. 

Courtesy Valdosta State University Archives (Flickr) - February 29, 1984 - Winn-Dixie Dedication

These photos from The Spectator (Valdosta State University's newspaper) show the dedication of the brand new store on February 29, 1984, in preparation for its grand opening on March 1st.  Winn-Dixie management seem to have donated to the school as a gesture of goodwill, while granting us some of the only clear pictures from opening day.  At least we get a nice view of the vestibule!

This store's debut may have been impactful, but it also seems as if the foundation had been set for The Beef People's woes to come.  Was this too little, too late?

I began researching this years ago, and many news articles as far back as the 1980's were painting a grim picture of Winn-Dixie's outlook; I never realized that the 2005 bankruptcy (which by the way, celebrated its 20-year anniversary yesterday) had such deep roots. 

The Miami Herald (Newspapers.com) - June 25, 1984 - Photo of WD #210 in Tamarac

The above piece from The Miami Herald explicitly calls out how, "the opening two months ago of the first 'Winn-Dixie Marketplace,' a prototype 44,000-square-foot store in Valdosta, Ga.," was designed to 'right the ship' and counteract the new troubles the company was facing.  

It describes the new store as, "an upscale one-stop supermarket, the type that more trendy competitors have been building for a number of years.  The marketplace, a giant leap from the 21,000- to 30,000-foot stores with few nonfood items that has been Winn-Dixie's stock in trade for years, includes a pharmacy, a large array of general merchandise – including a floral shop and cosmetics counter – plus a delicatessen, bakery, cheese bar and fresh seafood market."

Courtesy Pleasant Family Shopping (1975 Annual Report)

That is all well and good, but essentially, Winn-Dixie realized it was falling greatly behind other regional supermarket trends.  The 1970's were a time when Kroger launched its Superstore format in Winn-Dixie's northern territories and when Skaggs-Albertsons combination stores began to take over Florida.  Both of these competitors realized the value of tacking pharmacies onto traditional supermarkets all while throwing "premium" service departments,  housewares, and extended grocery selections into the mix.

Kroger Superstore #25-363 - Pearl, MS - June 2024 (Opened in 1975)

This turned out to be a winning recipe for the chains, despite some of these locations for Kroger ranging only from 25,000 to 42,000 square feet (a paltry number by today's standards). 

To add insult to injury, beef consumption was in decline following new reports that too much red meat was bad for Americans' diets. "In an increasingly turbulent industry, the nation's third largest chain with $7 billion in sales last year has been notably short of change, generally clinging to a business as usual posture."  

The article goes on to say that Winn-Dixie began to notice declining sales during the early-1980's and found it necessary to make a change from its frugal ways.  

Courtesy augustv123 (YouTube) - Winn-Dixie Promotional Tape

That change, of course, resulted in a massive spending spree.

Lights!

Camera!

Action!

Following the grand opening of the prototype Valdosta store, Winn-Dixie began a campaign to spread the design across the Southeast until it had touched over 70% of its stores. ¹

Courtesy augustv123 (YouTube) - Winn-Dixie Promotional Tape

Of course, with any good expansion comes a hefty marketing budget.  As part of this blitz, The Beef People produced promotional VHS tapes showcasing new store features that were mailed to area residents prior to a new supermarket opening (a common practice during the 1990's).  It was stated that these tapes cost the company $8 apiece and were mailed to nearly 100,000 people on Florida's West Coast during one such September 1992 campaign.  The above graphics were pulled from that tour and happen to depict a scene awfully familiar to images I've seen of the original Valdosta store.

Courtesy augustv123 (YouTube) - Winn-Dixie Promotional Tape

One thing that set the early Marketplace stores apart from their later peers was the use of tile behind the seafood signage rather than chrome.  Furthermore, these stores used a different font for the neon lettering. 

Do you need proof?  Just keep on reading.

Courtesy Pleasant Family Shopping (1984 Annual Report) - Valdosta Marketplace

Why is "fishermans" lowercase while "Wharf" is capitalized?

Shortly after Henry H. sent me that info on the Valdosta store, I came across a post written by my friend Mike Anonymous in Houston (Sorry!) from Houston Historic Retail.  In the article, AiH describes how much knowledge is presented in annual reports in addition to the traditionally "boring" financial data.  He specifically linked to an archive of Winn-Dixie annual reports, and my mind was blown.

Sandwiched within the 1984 booklet (mislabeled as 1983 on Archive.org), were full color photos of the prototype Valdosta store. 

1984 Annual Report (Archive.org) - Valdosta Marketplace

The only problem, I might add, is that they were of terrible quality.  That makes two strikes for a "near miss" on information!

Thankfully, Dave at Pleasant Family Shopping found his own copy of the report and made high-quality scans of several of the photographs.  I still wish I could see more, but at least not all is lost.

During the 1980's, fake skylights and metallic finishes became all the rage and would replace many of the wooden finishes from the decade prior.  We at least can see how one faux fixture made an appearance in the produce department above.

Courtesy augustv123 (YouTube) - Winn-Dixie Promotional Tape

It's especially cool to see all of these "futuristic" service department graphics.

Courtesy Pleasant Family Shopping (1984 Annual Report) - Valdosta Marketplace

Stock photos like this usually feel so distant (as if they were a scene from Blade Runner), making it even harder to believe that Valdosta was once home to this prestigious store.

Courtesy augustv123 (YouTube) - Winn-Dixie Promotional Tape

Fancy cheese, too?

Courtesy Pleasant Family Shopping (1986 Annual Report) - One of the early Marketplace stores

Yep, as an extension of the dairy department, I believe this cheese island was situated in the front left corner of the store.  It also appears that the deli was on the front wall, while the bakery was found on the side wall – an interesting placement considering how Winn-Dixie later separated these departments in opposite corners of the store.

Then again, The Beef People did reunite many of them during the early-2000's as a cost saving measure.  You only need one manager if you are running a combined counter!

Courtesy augustv123 (YouTube) - Winn-Dixie Promotional Tape

Unfortunately, the real photograph doesn't show us the hybrid signage we see here.

1986 Annual Report (Archive.org) - One of the early Marketplace stores

With the concept still being novel by the time the 1986 annual report was published, it appears that we may have several bonus pictures from a different early Marketplace.

Courtesy AxlCobianVedder (Reddit) - 1984 Annual Report - Valdosta Marketplace

Our parting shot showcases the frozen foods aisle and its assortment of brightly-colored flooring tiles.  It wouldn't be a Winn-Dixie without those coffin coolers!

This picture also makes it look like this was the first WD to move the frozen foods aisle to the center of the store.   We'll see later on in this series how that previously wasn't the case despite it being one of the concept's most notorious features these days.

1984 Annual Report (Archive.org) - Valdosta Marketplace

Before we move on, take a moment to read this excerpt from the 1984 annual report on how Winn-Dixie intended to, "rededicate ourselves to goals and strategies that will prepare our Company for the competitive arena of tomorrow."

One of the obvious takeaways is that The Beef People were rightfully proud of their new full service Prestige Meat Shoppes.  

Emphasis was also put on the bulk Harvest Fresh produce where shoppers could buy as much or as little as they chose to.

Most importantly, though, was the introduction of the first Winn-Dixie Marketplace along with a number of 35,000 square foot Superstores which featured "expanded lines of general merchandise," and these specialty departments: a Deli, a Bakery, a Nutrition Center, Fisherman's Wharf, a Pharmacy, a World of Cheese, Beauty Aids, and a Floral Shop.

Don't these novelties summate to the antithesis of the modern ALDI?

1984 Annual Report (Archive.org) - Valdosta Marketplace

In addition to the aforementioned "specialty shops," expanded lines of General Merchandise "that range from kitchenware and automotive supplies to greeting cards, [made] the new Winn-Dixie stores truly one-stop shopping centers."  But what 1980's supermarket wouldn't be complete without the addition of Optical scanning (barcode readers at checkout), Automated teller machines, or Photo processing!

One last point that the piece above drove home was, "Winn-Dixie expects to open, through new construction or remodeling, Superstore or Marketplace facilities in each of its operating divisions in fiscal 1985."  While I can't prove whether or not Winn-Dixie met this goal, I can say that they made it pretty close. 

Now that we have learned about all the things which made the original Valdosta store special, let's take a brief look at twelve of the other Marketplace stores which round out the top fourteen.  (That's right, we were only able to find 13 of the 14 original locations).  I'll also take this time to thank my resident Winn-Dixie historian, Henry H., for the help he has provided in doing all of this research.

The List

 

June 21, 1984

The Robesonian (NewspaperArchive.com) - June 24, 1984

Following Valdosta, the only other Marketplace store to open in 1984 was at Biggs Park Shopping Center in Lumberton, NC.  That location moved into an old 42,000 square foot Wood Variety Store that went out of business; the new supermarket offered quite the variety of products itself:  everything ranging from lamps to fishing poles.  The fact that the location wasn't new construction seems odd to me (as do a few details that I'll discuss in a moment), but nonetheless, the article showcases all of the bells and whistles of a Marketplace along with specifically highlighting the original Valdosta store as being the first of this new breed.  Lumberton closed sometime before the 2005 bankruptcy and is now home to Everhart Cardiology, among other things.

 

May 2, 1985

Bryan-College Station Eagle (Newspapers.com) - May 1, 1985

1985, however, was when things really began to take off.  The third Marketplace store to open was in Bryan, Texas, the sister city to College Station.  

Based on the newspaper architectural graphics included here, I believe this store was nearly identical to the Valdosta location.  It's quite possible that these are even the same renderings I remember from my brief glimpse at The Valdosta Daily Times.

Bryan-College Station Eagle (Newspapers.com) - May 1, 1985

What's interesting about this cheese shop rendering is not the foreground but instead the service department located just beyond it:  is that supposed to be the natural foods section?  If it is, that may mean the cheese island was in the back right corner of the store (in line with the produce department) rather than the front left corner. 

By the time 1999 rolled around, Winn-Dixie had cooked up a plan for its Texodus which involved selling most of its stores in Texas and Oklahoma to Kroger.

Thanks to a comment below from pseudo3d, I learned that deal never went through and Winn-Dixie ended up closing this store along with the division in 2002.  He has an extensive write-up about this location published only a few days ago over on his blog.

This store is now home to a Texas Workforce office.

 

June 10, 1985

Bryan-College Station Eagle (Newspapers.com) - May 1, 1985

Marketplace number four on my list happens to be just down the street from number three (3.8 miles, to be exact), in the city home to Texas A&M University.  That building now houses an Ace Hardware and a Planet Fitness, and contrary to Bryan, closed in 1995.

After I published this post, pseudo3d left a comment below correcting some of my information on this store (His full write up on this location can be found here).  An excerpt of what he said follows:  "According to Newspapers.com, the area was the most over-groceried area in the nation per capita. For a city of around 60k people, it featured (in its city limits, not including Bryan) two Albertsons stores, a Kroger, a Randalls, an AppleTree, and an H-E-B Pantry. For many years it was a Lacks Furniture until the chain went bust."

Since these two Texas stores opened so close to each other, I figured I would just continue on with the renderings from the Bryan store's grand opening ad.

When we first discovered the newspaper ads for the Valdosta store, I made the comment to Henry H. that, "There was a ceiling fan in floral?!"  It's hard to remember what I saw over two years ago; however, this image shows clear as day that ceiling fans were indeed part of the original floral department design.

Courtesy Albertsons Florida Blog (Flickr) - Winn-Dixie #2355 - October 2016

It is also very easy to see how the vaulted ceiling in that graphic matches the one The Albertsons Florida Blogger captured in Fort Pierce over the floral and produce departments.

Bryan-College Station Eagle (Newspapers.com) - May 1, 1985

The last sketch we'll see showcases the "Prestige Meat Shop".  

Are those mountain graphics on the walls?  I saw a similar looking landscape in one of the blurry annual report photos, in addition to spotting the ones next to the seafood counter which looked like cowboys riding into the sunset.  How Texan of them!

August 1, 1985

The Baton Rouge Advocate (Genealogy Bank) - July 1985

Based on my count, Winn-Dixie #1585 was the fifth Marketplace to open.   This store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is one of only three on this list to survive until the 2005 bankruptcy closure round.

Courtesy Jason Scoggin (Google Maps) - September 13, 2018

This building may now be home to Shoppers Value Foods, but it still looks a whole lot like a repainted 1990's Marketplace interior to me.  If you zoom into the photo above, you can even see Winn-Dixie's original brown bakery tile backsplash, faux skylights, and wall graphics still on display.  The "Cold Beer" letters hail from The Beef People, to boot!

 

August 29, 1985

The Atlanta Constitution (Newspapers.com) - October 9, 1985 - Marietta Marketplace

Seventeen months into this experiment, Winn-Dixie decided it was time to circle back to Georgia and introduce its Atlanta division to the future.  

The Atlanta Constitution (Newspapers.com) - August 29, 1985

That's right; the Winn-Dixie at Olde Mill Shopping Center in East Cobb opened as a "playground for food shoppers" on August 29, 1985, and served as what was likely the sixth incarnation of the Marketplace concept.  Gone were the days of WD's "functional and spare" approach to supermarket design and in were the days of, "using spotlights on vegetables and false skylights to heighten the store's visual impact."

The Atlanta Journal (Newspapers.com) - August 29, 1985

Other than the fact that I now know this store had, "a fountain where customers can have 30 flavors of carbonated drinks mixed for take-out," the above photo also showed me something new:  these stores originally had black ceilings.

Former Winn-Dixie #470 (Auburn, AL) - October 2022

Well, at least the lower portion of the ceiling over the produce department and front end was painted black.  Based on the picture of the man stocking potatoes, it looks like Winn-Dixie used black ceiling tiles in that part of the store to emphasize the faux skylight cutouts for a "heightened" visual experience.  

Meanwhile, we can see how the rest of the Marietta store still had the traditional white acoustic tiles and fluorescent lights.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Newspapers.com) - September 5, 2002 - SaveRite #2727 or #2737

Things seemed to go well for this store . . . until two new competitors moved to town.  Notice how over a 10-year period, Publix and Walmart essentially wiped out the market share previously held by Winn-Dixie, Big Star, Cub Foods, and A&P.

In response to this, The Beef People again decided to change things up and pivot to a discount format for nearly all of the Atlanta Division.

This store, likewise, converted to SaveRite #2729 between 2001-2002 and eventually closed with the rest of the Atlanta stores during the 2005 bankruptcy round.  The building is currently vacant, but most recently housed a Walmart Neighborhood Market that closed in 2024.

 

August 29, 1985

The Atlanta Constitution (Newspapers.com) - August 27, 1985

Tied for the number six spot is the aforementioned Marietta store's twin:  the former Snellville Marketplace in suburban DeKalb County, GA.  Both of these locations opened on the same day and were also the last (known) locations to feature the original 1984 logo outside.  I know the Valdosta store had its exterior signage swapped to the later logo in 1992, and I'd have to imagine the two Atlanta stores followed suit.

Speaking of that 1984 logo, notice how the "Marketplace" font above is different from the wordmark we're used to seeing over the last number of years – this early look featured a typeface akin to the University Roman Bold font.  I totally understand why the company opted to change the logo after only a year because the early look is something I would associate with the British Arts and Crafts movement or the French Art Nouveau period rather than the "futuristic" look the interior designers seemed to have sought.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Newspapers.com) - January 5, 2004

Consequently, I have to imagine that this store's exterior signage was swapped out at some point during the mid-1990's (coinciding with the interior remodel this store received based on the photo above).

This store unfortunately closed on May 24, 2000, along with 16 other Georgia locations and the Atlanta division headquarters as part of a major company restructuring.  As the newspaper above mentions, the building was later taken over by Hobby Lobby before eventually converting to an Ollie's Bargain Outlet. 

 

November 7, 1985

The Orlando Sentinel (Newspapers.com) - November 7, 1985 - Winn-Dixie #2343 Grand Opening

#2343 in DeLand held its grand opening on November 7, 1985, following the two new Atlanta-area stores.  Not only was this the eight-known Marketplace to open, but it also marked the first of these fancy new stores to open in Florida.   

The thing that confuses me is how this Tampa Bay Times article from November 10th cites how the Jacksonville grocer only had six examples of the new concept.  That math obviously doesn't add up considering how we have chronicled eight stores thus far, which leads me to two conclusions: 1). Winn-Dixie didn't like to include the Lumberton store in figures since it wasn't built from scratch (and the DeLand store could have opened after the interview took place), or 2). the journalist didn't have all of her facts straight.  Part of me is leaning toward the latter since a map included in the article doesn't show any stores in Louisiana.  Based on current stores alone, future Aldi #1448 in Covington, LA, opened in 1984 which proves this graphic was inaccurate.

The Orlando Sentinel (Newspapers.com) - November 14, 1984 - WD #2343

Anyway, Winn-Dixie #2343 also had some other "firsts" up its sleeve, including being the first ever "hockey stick" store and the first WD to utilize the familiar Marketplace logo.

Courtesy The Albertsons Florida Blogger - Winn-Dixie #2343 - 2019

The oldest operational Marketplace has since been through several subsequent remodels, one of which removed the distinctively diagonal look from the exterior.  (#2306 in Sanford happens to the only remaining Winn-Dixie to bear that honor.)

Courtesy The Albertsons Florida Blogger - Winn-Dixie #2343 - 2019

Likewise, the DeLand store now sports Winn-Dixie's Down Down interior instead of its original neon Marketplace package.  AFB gives us a nearly identical perspective to the one from the Marietta store's grand opening newspaper article, and we can see how the faux skylights have been removed to reveal the fluorescent strips above.

 

November 21, 1985

The Tampa Bay Times (Newspapers.com) - November 20, 1985

That same month, a new store in Spring Hill opened and reportedly marked the 10th such store in the chain.  How we jumped from eight, to six, to ten beats me, but I do know that this store was also one of the first on this list to close.  At least the grand opening ad gives us some more insight into how these supermarkets looked when they first opened.

Google Earth - December 31, 1998

Satellite imagery from 1995 and 1998 indicate that this store closed sometime within that window which leads me to believe that #711's opening is to blame.  Situated just three miles to the North, Winn-Dixie #711 opened on July 18, 1996, as a Food Pavilion on a much more commercialized stretch of Highway 19.

1986 Annual Report (Archive.org) - Watauga, TX, Marketplace

Following the Spring Hill store (and if we trust the newspaper counts) presumptive Winn-Dixie Marketplace number 11 opened in Watauga, Texas, on February 27, 1986, while number 12 opened in Hurst, Texas, on April 30, 1986, (both suburbs of Fort Worth).  These two stores most likely closed at the same time as the Bryan / College Station locations.

With that, the next location we have is Winn-Dixie #803 in Cary, North Carolina.  That supermarket held its grand opening on June 12, 1986, and was followed shortly thereafter by store #2003 in Charlotte which opened on June 24, 1986 as "the second such N.C. store," and reportedly the fourteenth overall.  Again, I don't know how there are so many discrepancies in such simple math!  Both of these stores survived until the 2005 bankruptcy and Winn-Dixie's exit from the Tar Heel State.

By the time the 1986 annual report was published in June 1986, Winn-Dixie had opened 15 Marketplace stores.  That number more than doubled to 33 by June of 1987.  The 1987 annual report also featured a store's floor plan on its cover, which is essentially identical to the layout which carried the company through the 1990's.

The main thing that caught my attention after going through all of these openings was, why were these stores mostly in towns that you've never heard of?  

It seems obvious that Winn-Dixie was targeting the suburban crowd with the new concept, but you still would have thought we could have seen one in the city of Dallas or in the city of Tampa.

Also, what about Jacksonville?

The Jacksonville Times-Union (Genealogy Bank) - December 4, 1986

Winn-Dixie wouldn't bring a new Marketplace in its hometown until December 4, 1986, when store #80 opened on Baymeadows Road.  That location went on to close during the 2018 bankruptcy and is now a Rowe's IGA.

So, what happened next?

The mid-1980's are when the company began to fall upon hard times, and when the company underwent a big executive leadership change.  Winn-Dixie  co-founder James E. Davis retired as chairman in October 1983, which seems to have played a pivotal role in the company's actions later in the decade.   One could argue that the new leaders overcorrected in some of their maneuvers, which lead to short term success but ultimately left the company with long term problems – problems that the chain is still battling today.

The Tampa Bay Times (Newspapers.com) - July 25, 1985

Stories like this one of stores being rife with rodents and in disrepair became commonplace at a time when competition was heating up for the chain.  Just two years after this article was published, Food Lion made the bold move of entering Winn-Dixie's home turf in Jacksonville which left The Beef People shaking in their boots.  A change had to come for the company to survive.

"Small stores are out; big 'marketplace' stores with everything from cheese shops to seafood counters are in.  Once regarded as a penny-pinching company that built its franchise on the cheap (it often showed in its old, drab stores), Winn-Dixie now plans to spend several hundred million dollars in the next two years to upgrade its 1,200 stores and polish its blue-collar image." ²

Tampa Bay Times (Newspapers.com) - November 10, 1985

Much like the story of A&P, "Life used to be a lot simpler for the people running Winn-Dixie stores.  While other chains sank millions into fancy megamarkets, Winn-Dixie's smaller, old-fashioned stores just kept turning out profits that were the envy of the business."  That is, until competition moved in a delivered the double whammy of forcing the company to spend millions on new stores while also cutting prices in nearly every region.

The article above states how Winn-Dixie could have easily warded off the competition had it acted sooner, but the grocer essentially sat on its hands as new players penetrated the Floridian Peninsula.  

A different piece, shared with my by frequent reader Anonymous in Houston, stated how Winn-Dixie's market share began to slide during the mid-1980's when other retailers used falling interest rates to fund expansion in the Southeast.  "In the face of these changes, Winn-Dixie stuck with its old-time strategy of pursuing market share through small and mid- size stores featuring higher-than-average prices offset by a sale or promotion. And in a time when cholesterol-fearing shoppers were turning to soy bean burgers, 'the Beef People' stuck by their red meat campaign. Winn-Dixie's performance began to suffer." ²

Courtesy Ryan B. - Winn-Dixie's award winning ice cream packaging circa 1985

This surprising and sudden drop in revenues during the early-1980's led to Winn-Dixie's new leaders taking decisive action.  Following the debut and trial of the Marketplace concept during the mid-1980's, company executives determined they needed to chart full steam ahead during the early-1990's to reinvent the grocer's image.

"[Chairman Robert Dan] Davis and [President James] Kufeldt have also broken with tradition by dipping heavily into the company coffers to try to put a little luster on Winn-Dixie's less than sparkling image. In fiscal 1991 alone, the company closed 56 stores averaging 23,900 square feet. In their place, the chain opened 42 new stores averaging 40,800 square feet and enlarged or remodeled 54 stores, 64% more than the previous year. Through the first three quarters of fiscal 1992, Winn-Dixie spent $126.1 million upgrading its stores, warehouses and manufacturing plants. (Winn-Dixie makes and sells dozens of items under its various private label names.) Plans call for another $600 million to be similarly invested over the next two years, although this figure also includes funds for improvements by Winn-Dixie's landlords (the company leases all of its stores – a lesson family patriarch W.M. Davis etched into his four sons)." ²

Winn-Dixie #535 (Pensacola, FL) - Opened 1998 - Photographed April 2022

There is no doubt Winn-Dixie went on a spending spree during the late-1980's and 1990's. Take Winn-Dixie #535 for example:  its lineage includes three different stores within a 20 year period.  The first store was a 22,000 sq ft location which opened in 1978.  By 1985, Winn-Dixie had outgrown that space and moved to a brand new 36,000 sq ft store, before replacing that with the 51,000 sq ft Marketplace & Food Pavilion (seen above) in 1998.  It costs a lot of money to replace stores which are hardly a decade old, and this is only one of the countless instances I've seen that take place.

In retrospect, "Indeed, Winn-Dixie's costly campaign to replace its older, smaller stores with larger, modern 'Marketplace' stores offering everything from bakeries to pharmacies and film processing hasn't generated the earnings that executives had hoped. Over the past year, Winn-Dixie has released a string of disappointing quarterly reports: Profits sank 69% for the quarter ended Sept. 27. The company's $52.3 million in earnings (35 cents a share) in the most recent quarter, ended Jan. 6, fell about 7% from the same period last year. Those numbers hit analysts' expectations, but didn't impress them: 'It was the third consecutive disappointing quarter,' says Debra Levin, a retail analyst at Morgan Stanley in New York City." ¹

Former Winn-Dixie #500 (Pinson, AL) - Opened 2001 - Photographed August 2022

By 1999, the company was coming to terms with the fact that it had outspent its means thanks to Marketplace fever.  Remember that this is the same year Winn-Dixie determined it needed to exit several of its outlying territories, such as Texas and Oklahoma.

"In the past five years, Winn-Dixie has either replaced or enlarged 70% of its existing stores . . . But the strategy has been expensive: Last year Winn-Dixie could no longer fund its improvements and pay its monthly cash dividend to shareholders out of its cash from operations. Along with forgoing an increase in its dividend, Winn-Dixie also has had to borrow money to continue its expansion plans - and cover its $151 million in annual dividend payments." ¹

In retrospect, "The old-fashioned corporate culture that served Winn-Dixie well as it grew may be working against the mature company that now has size but lacks agility. Senior company managers were slow to get on the big-store bandwagon that has defined grocery retailing in the 1990s. Then, after deciding to spend nearly $2 billion over the past five years to build bigger stores and add a slew of services, they have managed the transition poorly." ¹

It seems as if the writing was on the wall by the time this article was published, and it is honestly a wonder that Winn-Dixie managed to stay afloat for another six years. 

Winn-Dixie #168 (Chiefland, FL) - Opened 1989 / Expanded 1993 - Photographed December 2021

A former Publix executive once told me that Winn-Dixie lost its way when it started the Marketplace campaign – the company alienated its traditionally blue-collar clientele with over-the-top stores yet still couldn't beat the quality or service reputation of Publix.

That idea was echoed by Jack Russo, an analyst at A.G. Edwards in St. Louis is quoted as saying, " Physically, Winn Dixie's new stores are the same as Publix's. Publix just does a better job at execution." ¹ 

The sobering fact was that, "Publix stores generate[d] nearly twice the per-store sales as Winn-Dixie's, and with fewer than half as many stores, Publix generated nearly 85% of Winn-Dixie's total sales." ¹

I have to imagine that it was quite the tough pill for executives to swallow, which may explain why Dan Davis was spending most of his time at car shows or philanthropic events by 1999. ¹

In the end, we know that the decisions made during the 1980's and 1990's ultimately led to Winn-Dixie's brutal bankruptcy filing in 2005 and one of the craziest roller coaster rides I've seen from a company.  Yet somehow, they continue to live to see another day and have, as of yesterday, made it 20 years post-bankruptcy.  The chain may have just been cut in half again, but the company will seemingly live on to see its one-hundred and first year.

¹ "What's Eating Winn-Dixie?" - Florida Trend Magazine - March 1999

² "Running Scared at Winn-Dixie" - Florida Trend Magazine - August 1992

 

Wow, we've covered a lot of ground and I'm not tired yet.  For the second part of this post, we'll circle back to TitleTown and see what became of the original Winn-Dixie Marketplace.

Unlike some of its rather unlucky siblings, the fifteen-year-old Valdosta store seemingly did well enough to warrant a replacement half a mile up the road.

Courtesy Charles Burgess, Jr. (Flickr) - August 5, 2011

Winn-Dixie #140 opened as a flashy new Food Pavilion on February 24, 2000, meaning that the old Marketplace likely closed the night before. 

Courtesy Henry H. (Facebook) - Former Valdosta Kmart and Harveys on North Ashley Street

To make way for the new store, crews demolished (or drastically altered) an old Kmart which itself was replaced in 1994 by a new Super Kmart. 

Is this not symbolic of the entire year of 2024 for Big Lots?

Following several years of procrastination, I finally made the pilgrimage to the original Valdosta Marketplace right on the heels of that chain's recent turmoil.

Since we are on the topic of Big Lots, I figured I'd also mention that my friend AFB has a post going live today which chronicles the life and death of the closeout concept.  You should check it out!

My trip fell only a week and a half after Hurricane Helene made landfall last September; let's just say I was shocked by all of the devastation in the area.

Gah lee, Valdosta has been through the wringer over the past couple of years.  In 2023, Hurricane Idalia barrelled right through the city and left it without power for days, if not weeks.  Fast forward to 2024, and the area was dealt another blow when Helene traveled smack-dab through South Central Georgia and left a huge path of destruction in its wake.

Just this past week, I again drove across Helene's path and was shocked at how much damage remained after four and a half months.  Douglas had an entire parking lot (shown here without the debris) stacked at least four stories high with trees and stumps.  Hazelhurst still had signs which had stood for decades that were completely blown out into a twisted mess.  Miles of forest around Willacoochee and Nashville looked as if they had been plucked of half their trees while the other half was sentenced to lean at a 45-degree angle for the rest of their days.  

It's sad, y'all, to see this degree of destruction well over 100 miles from where the historic storm made landfall, and even worse to think about how long the people who live here will spend cleaning up this mess.  WTXL mentioned that Valdosta alone lost over 150,000 trees, which has resulted in worsening floods and erosion.  Furthermore, it will take a lifetime for those woods to regain the density they had such a short time ago.

Big Lots #5375

Five Points Plaza

110 East Northside Drive

Valdosta, GA 31602

As for the Big Lots, the store appeared to have weathered the storm despite the surrounding damage.  This particular location opened in 2018 and followed a long string of vacancies for the old WD.  The only other record of occupation I found was when CrossPoint Church set up shop in the space around 2012, but that did not appear to be long-lived.

On the upside, this store is also one of the lucky few Big Lots to have survived the company's liquidation to Variety Wholesalers, meaning that it will live to see another day under the new Roses leadership.

 

One of the interesting things about these original Marketplace stores is how they featured a traditional vestibule setup reminiscent of the other WDs of the time, rather than having the single concave entrance we'd eventually come to know.

This door to Big Lots, likewise, looks very similar to how it did in 1984, with the main difference being the new interior finishes added within the last decade.

 

Under Winn-Dixie's control, the higher ceiling over the vestibule would have given way to the lower black ceiling over the registers to my left; however, Big Lots' "store of the future" design predicated that the warehouse ceiling be exposed for all to see.

 

The closeout store knows it is never too early for Christmas decorations, especially once October rolls around.  The first department we'll see, consequently, is the Christmas section in the front left corner of the store.  I believe this would have originally been home to Winn-Dixie's "World of Cheeses".

The removal of the dropped ceiling means we see many more wide open spaces when looking across the front of the store. 

 

At least Big Lots spent the money to install new vinyl tile.  Now we aren't left to look at some marred concrete.

Then again, I honestly think this store would have looked much more interesting if there was still a cowboy graphic on this back wall over the old meat department.

 

The supermarket may be gone, but Big Lots still has a small assortment of pantry staples for Valdostans.  Don't they say that Tide pods make a great snack?

Continuing to the other side of the store, we find a bounty of housewares in place of the old bounty of produce.

Oh, and plenty of furniture, too!

For the best night's sleep in the whole wide world, visit my Big Lots .com – isn't that how the jingle goes?  Even the unofficial pillow king found his way to The Azelia City!

On the other hand, this furniture department is sofa king boring.  Can I get away with saying that?

It is hard to find much to say about white walls, a white ceiling, and off-white shelving:  this store is just too white.

I suppose this is the first time I've seen bug spray on the same aisle as a kid's play kitchen and Cantu protective styles haircare (?) products.

The hair products and first aid items continued as the shelves turned perpendicular to our last orientation.

Our last stop is home to "The Lot" – also known as Big Lots' closeout revitalization attempt.

The checkout counter was situated in the center of the vestibule where I believe the Winn-Dixie store manager's office previously stood (hence the smaller transom windows).

And with that, we'll conclude our visit to Valdosta's Big Lots.  Before we part ways, I figured I might as well show you a quick tour of Valdosta's airport (trust me, this won't take long).

A work trip brought me through the airport, and I'll just say that I was shocked by the size of the terminal . . .

To give you a little perspective, my back was essentially against the partition for the TSA checkpoint when I took this photo and the only thing the image above lacks are the two segments of wall leading toward the men's and women's restrooms in either corner.  This place is tiny!  I can easily say that I've never traveled through another commercial airport featuring a single gate like this.

To make things even more interesting, the room seemed to lack a paging system; this meant the gate agent simply cupped his hands to yell any announcements.  Crazy!

With a small airport comes small aircraft, just like this CRJ900.  Delta is the only commercial airline to service VLD, and many flights don't even make use of the single jet bridge (which was reportedly delayed in opening following its 2018 completion thanks to a part being installed upside down).

Anyhow, that will do it for this week.  I hope you enjoyed our little history lesson; despite Big Lots not having much going on inside, I thoroughly enjoyed researching Winn-Dixie's first attempts at the iconic Marketplace concept.   It was even more fascinating to learn how The Beef People's late entry into the "superstore" format had repercussions which contributed to the eventual 2005 bankruptcy.

Make sure to check back with me in two weeks because next time, we'll see what the Governor of Arkansas has to do with Winn-Dixie.  And again, let's hope that The Beef People can survive 20 more years post-2005 bankruptcy!

Until next time,

- The Sing Oil Blogger