Winn-Dixie #2271 - Oviedo, FL

Winn-Dixie #2271 / Future Aldi #XXX

1021 Lockwood Blvd., Oviedo, FL - Lockwood Shopping Center

Today's post is a presentation of Seminole County retail

     As of mid-2025, Winn-Dixie is in a strange place. On track to lose 220 of its once nearly 400 stores by the end of 2027 to Aldi, we're at a pivotal moment for the company's future. While only released from the predatory clutches of Aldi this past February, it's still a bit early to tell what exactly new management's plans for the future are as not a lot of detail has been released on that front. However, I will say this - Winn-Dixie isn't dead yet. Down to 165 go-forward stores after years of misfortune and false hope, it remains to be seen what the company's future holds, but the next year will be critical as the ultimate game plans becomes clearer. While 165 stores are hardly anything compared to Publix's nearly 1,400 locations, it's still a significant base to build off of. Yes, Aldi is creating some gaping market gaps for Winn-Dixie, but hopefully we'll see some of that rectified with nicer new stores to replace the older ones Aldi took for their own selfish gain. Remember, some of the stores in the go-forward batch have been receiving investment throughout the Aldi ownership days and into the present, including reported examples of new floors, new doors, and total grocery resets to name a few. I feel there's something brewing at the corporate level for a future for this beguiled chain that's been through so much. While it seems like there is a lot of negativity toward Winn-Dixie these days due to the damage Aldi has caused (on top of all the lingering negativity toward the chain from years of neglect), I'd say don't give up hope just yet. It's a new era that still has to prove itself, and I want to think Winn-Dixie will be given one last chance after the Aldi mess subsides. However, as for the store we'll be touring today, it appears it won't be around much longer to see what the "new" Winn-Dixie will bring to the table, as I have it on good accord that this was one of the 220 stores Aldi kept for itself. After all that build up on my hopes for Winn-Dixie's future I hate to bring this post back around to that, but it is what it is I suppose, and we'll see what the Oviedo Winn-Dixie is all about before folks start coming to this building to stock up on red bag chicken:

     For many years, Oviedo was a sleepy suburb of Orlando located on the edge of Central Florida's metropolis, home to a small downtown and farmland. However, as the nearby University of Central Florida grew into one of the largest colleges in the nation in the 1980's and 1990's (located just to Oviedo's south), nearby Oviedo began to experience a population and retail boom as the University's reach began to swell. As such, while many Florida cities have been home to a Winn-Dixie (or one of its predecessors, like Kwik Chek) for years, Oviedo only received its first Winn-Dixie in 1995 - this store on Lockwood Blvd, located a few miles east of the town's center.

     The first Oviedo Winn-Dixie opened for business on June 22, 1995, the advertisement above touting some of the new features that came with a Winn-Dixie Marketplace of the time. The new 45,000 square foot store offered such amenities like a pharmacy, deli cafe, dry cleaning, 1-hour photo, and a key making machine. While the Deli Cafe drawing at the top of the advertisement would lead you to believe this store was a Food Pavilion build (as the sketch shows one of those store's deli island set-ups), Winn-Dixie #2271 was not a Food Pavilion, instead opening with the older Marketplace floorplan featuring the deli in the back right corner and the bakery in the front left, putting those departments about as far apart as possible unlike what you see in that sketch!

     As the 1990's went on, Oviedo would eventually gain two additional Winn-Dixie Marketplace stores, those located on the far southern and far southwestern reaches of town. The store on the southern side of town, #2375 on McCulloch Road, was built directly across the street from the UCF campus (and on the Orange/Seminole County line), while the southwestern store, Food Pavilion #2294 on CR 426, served newer developments located between Oviedo and Winter Park near the newly constructed SR 417 expressway. However, those additional Oviedo Winn-Dixie stores both closed in the 2005 bankruptcy rounds, and after sitting empty into the early 2010's, #2375 was demolished for student apartments and #2294 became a church. That left #2271 as not only the original Oviedo Winn-Dixie, but the only Winn-Dixie serving the town for the last 20 years.

Photo courtesy of Google Streetview

     The grainy 2007 Google Streetview image above shows us what the Oviedo Winn-Dixie looked like back in the early 2000's, when it still had its original Marketplace interior inside.

Photo courtesy of Google Streetview

     As Winn-Dixie began to recover from its 2005 bankruptcy, this store was one of the many selected for a Post-Bankruptcy remodel in the late 2000's, that remodel happening ca. 2008. From 2008 until 2019, the Oviedo Winn-Dixie looked like it did above, until remodel #3 began...

     …and I just so happened to visit this Winn-Dixie as its third remodel was coming to a completion, a new coat of red paint being applied to signal this store's transition into the late 2010's Down Down decor. While the exterior work still needed to be finished up, the interior portion of the store's remodel was pretty much complete, so we won't be seeing any strange remodel scenes in there.

     While I was happy with how my 2019 interior photos turned out, I did stop by this store again in 2025 for a few photos of the completed exterior. I also hadn't been in this store since my 2019 visit as well, so I figured I was due for another stroll around the inside, especially with this store's conversion happening before long. That being said, other than a few exceptions, most of the photos we'll be seeing in today post's will be from the 2019 visit, as nothing has changed at this store since the Down Down remodel.

     Back in 2019, as I was approaching the store, the painters were just getting into position to add another coat of red paint to the facade before the new signage was installed. Other than that final coat, what we see here is the paint scheme the store still carries to this day, at least until Aldi gets their hands on this place and paints everything brown and gray.

     Entering the store, we find a variant of the Down Down welcome sign and historic photo collage on the wall next to the cart corral.

     Turning right from the entrance doors, we enter the produce department in the front right corner of the building.

     As you'll see as we get further into the salesfloor, this store's Down Down remodel was on the cheaper end of the spectrum. The remodel primarily consisted of new wall decor and a grocery reset, with the wood floor we see on this side of the building hailing from the Post-Bankruptcy days. As we'll see as we get further into the store, the Post-Bankruptcy remodel wasn't the most elaborate redo either...

     Looking away from produce, the store's grand aisle takes us next into a dedicated Natural & Organic department (carried over from Post-Bankruptcy in terms of placement, but receiving new Down Down signage), followed by Wine & Beer, with the deli counter at the end in the back right corner.

     Dedicated natural foods departments were mostly on their way out toward the later part of the Down Down era, as stores remodeled around that time had the natural products mixed into the regular grocery aisles. Being that this store received a cheap remodel and this department already existed from the Post-Bankruptcy days, it appears Winn-Dixie just added the new signage and called it a day instead of trying to integrate the natural foods into the rest of the store like a more thorough late-era Down Down remodel would have entailed.

     Also speaking of the Post-Bankruptcy decor, the wood floors installed in the produce department and into natural foods during that remodel compliment the Down Down decor rather well too. I wish I could say that about the rest of the flooring in this store though...

     Moving away from natural foods, here's a quick look at the Wine & Beer department, primarily the beer though in this shot. The wine was located in a few short aisles next to the beer, in a similar arrangement to the natural foods area before it.

     Working our way into the back right corner of the store, we find the former "deli cafe", now home to the kitchen. While not quite as impressive in terms of prepared foods like its later Food Pavilion counterparts would have been, this store was probably a testing ground for some of the items that later became a Food Pavilion standard.

     Even though the interior remodel was mostly complete by the time of my visit, there were still a few of these "fresh new look" banners placed around the store bragging about the changes. While Winn-Dixie was proud of its half-hearted Down Down remodel in 2019, I don't think they'll be bragging too much about the "fresh new look" about to come to this store by 2027!

     Like many of the other Winn-Dixie stores Aldi took, I think this location in Oviedo was another higher-tier sales location based on a few small clues I spotted during my 2025 revisit. First of all, the prepared foods selection at this store was extensive, with the hot bar stocked with some of the company's rarer offerings like the pulled pork sandwiches (which I highly recommend if you ever find them for sale) and even hamburgers (that was a new one for me - I've never seen a Winn-Dixie with deli hamburgers before, and I've scoured many of Winn-Dixie's hot foods offerings these last few years!). All the sandwich cases were full too, and the hot bars were fully utilized as well (as many stores only use part of the hot bars these days). Also as a bonus, the two ladies working at the deli the day I visited in 2025 were really friendly and helpful too. Knowing that a well run store like this one is on Aldi's hit list just makes the situation worse!

     While this store passed the pulled pork sandwich test during my 2025 visit, my 2019 photos are showing this store devoid of anything in the hot bars! The timestamps on my photos shows these were all taken during the 9:00am hour, which really isn't prime hot foods time at the Winn-Dixie deli, whereas my 2025 trip happened in the afternoon. Anyway, from the kitchen and the deli, the photo above looks toward the meat and seafood counter next door, which continue the deli's wood grain wall texturing too.

     Changing the angle a bit, here's a better look from the deli across the back of the store. However, more importantly, I also captured this store's old barrel of pickles in front of the deli counter! I remember when Albertsons used to have those similar barrel of pickle displays, which have mostly disappeared these days (probably a post-COVID casualty if I had to guess). Some Winn-Dixie stores still sell deli pickles though, but they're now stored in a less-fun jar on top of the deli counter, which the deli employee pulls them from.

     Before we enter the grocery aisles, here's one final look at the deli corner before we loop around into aisle 1:

     Aisle 1 runs along the edge of the grand aisle, serving as the transition between the wine department and groceries. Officially, aisles 1 and 2 are half-aisles, as the floral island occupies the front half of the space where the rest of the aisles would have run.

     This store has a center cut through across the grocery aisles, a feature present in many (but not all) Winn-Dixie Marketplace stores.

     Aisle 3 is the first full-length grocery aisle in this store, home to seasonal and greeting cards in its first half. Being the remodel was still wrapping up, the front part of this aisle (in what would later become home to more seasonal merchandise) was home to an expanded clearance section, where Winn-Dixie was blowing out a lot of product (particularly wine) that wouldn't be carried after the remodel was completed.

     Moving along to aisle 4, we find some more final touches being done to accommodate the grocery reset that came as part of the remodel. All the snack foods in this aisle were being moved around, with all the product in flux stored in the totes along the side of the aisle.

     Not that this store's pharmacy was moved or saw much change in the remodel, but as you saw in the last two photos, a large temporary arrow sign was hung between aisles 4 and 5 directing shoppers to the pharmacy while the remodel was ongoing. It looks like the arrow was placed as such so it lined up with the main entrance.

     The pharmacy was located just beyond the service desk, and we'll take a look at that in more detail in a little bit.

     While I mentioned before that the Post-Bankruptcy-era wood floors in produce looked nice with the Down Down decor, I can't say such about the Marketplace-era floor tile patterns that survived in the frozen foods department (and I can't imagine this pattern complimenting Post-Bankruptcy too well either). While you may think this was just a temporary sight being that I visited this store while a remodel was ongoing, I can confirm this tile pattern is still here and still going strong in 2025. Like the floors, the coolers are all vintage 1995 editions also, although those were repainted at some point to give them a slightly more modern look.

     The Marketplace floor tiles continue as we take a look down the remainder of the back wall, with more original coffin coolers (with their original Marketplace pink trim) down the center of the back aisle.

     Even after two remodels, this store managed to get cheap versions of both Post-Bankruptcy and Down Down, never fully shaking some very obvious remnants of its original decor. For a store that's seemingly in a higher sales bracket, it's sad to see a nearly perfectly preserved 1995 frozen foods department in here. All we're missing are a few of these signs hanging over the coffin coolers!

     Even though this store still holds onto 30-year-old tile patterns that don't match anything these days, management did try to repair the tile pattern with semi-matching tiles when that needed to be done, a small consolation I suppose. It's not the greatest color blend, but it's better than a cheap patch job with plain white or otherwise totally random tile colors.

     Moving along to aisle 9, the original pink and teal tile patterns continue when we find some of the old health and beauty tile pattern still holding out after after a reset or two, this aisle now home to pickles, dressings, and other salad enhancers.

     Like I mentioned before, even in the above 2025 photo, the Marketplace tiles are still here, and will be until Aldi starts ripping into this place.

     Over time, the health and beauty and pharmaceutical products were consolidated into the front halves of aisles 10 and 11. Most likely this consolidation happened in the Post-Bankruptcy remodel, with the Down Down refresh just spiffing up the signage with more of a late 2010's flare.

     During my 2025 visit, I had to get a quick update of the previous photo showing the health and beauty department with the now-closed pharmacy counter in the background. The pharmacy at this store closed in late 2023 as part of the sale to Aldi, and after closing, this store's order pickup and delivery staging area was moved to (partially) block the old pharmacy counter from view.

     Anyway, here's a close-up photo of this store's pharmacy counter from 2019 when it was still open, cleaned up but otherwise not changed too much from when this store first opened.

     While browsing the health and beauty aisles during my 2025 visit, I spotted the famous goat soap display in this store. Usually the goat soap (officially called Zum Bar) display is something I stumble upon at fancier Publix stores, with this being the first time I can recall seeing the same display in a Winn-Dixie. Like the expanded deli foods, this display also seems to suggest the Oviedo Winn-Dixie is a higher-tier store, as it takes a certain kind of customer to buy $17.99/lb soap! (And to take away some of that initial sticker shock, Publix prices this stuff by the ounce instead of by the pound like Winn-Dixie did).

     While the main health and beauty department is in aisles 10 and 11, some of the pharmaceutical goods aisle spill over into aisle 12, even though this aisle doesn't get any special health and beauty signage like its neighbors.

     Another quirk about this store is present on the back wall, where we find a large "Frozen Food" sign. While that sign isn't totally wrong (as the coolers below it were stocked with frozen meats), the "Meat" sign further down is actually the sign that aligns with the main frozen foods aisles in the center of the store. An interesting choice, but I guess Winn-Dixie needed something to fill that wall space with, and "Frozen Meats" may have looked strange being placed right next to the regular "Meats" sign.

     The last sign we spot on the back wall is "Lunch Meats", which mark our perimeter transition from meats into dairy. A little bit of dairy is stocked along the back wall, but most of that department is located in the coolers that run along the left side of the store.

     And like we've seen in the majority of this store outside of the grand aisle, the original Marketplace tile patterns continue along the perimeter, with some gray painted (but original) coolers holding the dairy products.

     Milk got its own feature up on the wall, with the main "Dairy" sign further up as we near the store's bakery department.

     Like most mid-1990's Winn-Dixie Marketplaces, the bakery is located in the front left corner of the building. While some earlier, more extensive Post-Bankruptcy remodels involved relocating the bakery and deli into a combined area along the right side of the store, that wasn't in the budget here, and the bakery remains in its original spot to this day.

     Like the deli, the bakery also uses the (faux?) wood backdrop for its signage instead of the red painted walls, making for a nice break in the sea of flat red throughout this store.

     Now that we've seen the bakery, we'll wrap up our interior tour with a few photos looking across the front end, this particular one looking from produce across the 6 check lanes toward self-checkout and the service desk.

     When this store was first built, both the entrance and exit would have been located straight ahead on the angle next to the service desk (with a set of swinging doors instead of the current sliding one). One of the only structural modifications this store received during the Post-Bankruptcy remodel was the addition of a new door just out of frame to my left, which now serves as the main entrance. The original entrance/exit straight ahead now serves as the store's exit doors, through which we will now head back out into the parking lot:

     During the Down Down remodel, a liquor store was added as well, situated a few doors down from the main supermarket. Located where it is, it's likely the liquor store will be spared once the main supermarket closes for its transition into Aldi, but those plans won't be known for sure until more details about the main store's transition are released.

     As of mid-2025, no permits have been pulled for this store's conversion (at least that I've found in the city's portal) and the official announcement has yet to be sent to the store, but considering a pattern that has been spotted as far as what stores have ended up converting, that announcement will likely come at some point in the next two years. So while we brace for news of that remodel to drop, we'll take one final look at the progress on this store's 2019 remodel, with the painters having covered some ground by the time I left the store. Even though the 2019 remodel wasn't anything too elaborate, and it will take Aldi to finally replace the 30-year-old floors inside, this was clearly a cared for Winn-Dixie. It really sucks to see so many decent Winn-Dixies forced to close as part of the Aldi sale, this store another casualty to add to the list. Even worse is that Aldi already has a store two miles away from here on Alafaya Trail, just south of Oviedo's downtown area - was another Aldi in the Winn-Dixie spot even necessary? While the Winn-Dixie/Aldi sale will go down as one of the worst events to ever happen in Floridian supermarket history, maybe we'll be surprised and see plans for a new Oviedo Winn-Dixie appear in 2028 - in a nicer spot in a nicer building too, one that won't have pieces of pink and teal flooring in it! Hey, it ain't over until the last store closes (unless you're named Kmart), and I want to see Winn-Dixie pull through this. Even pre-Aldi, Winn-Dixie never had a chance of beating Publix in any shape or form, but there is room in Florida for a decent second place alternative to the great green king, and is this the start for that? Winn-Dixie will have 129 stores in Florida by the end of 2027, and that's roughly around the same number of stores Albertsons and Kash n' Karry had at each other's peaks. Like the "new" Winn-Dixie, Albertsons also had an odd geographic coverage across the state (with a number of gaps and stores spaced far apart), and they did fine until their upper management began to make some poor decisions in the early 2000's. It's really up to SEG's corporate office at this point if they want to give a revival a serious try or just let the company fade away. A revival isn't impossible, and hopefully management will start giving us more clues as to the company's future as the year presses on. Winn-Dixie could really use a break for once!

     Anyway, plenty more Winn-Dixie coverage to come your way soon, and I'll see what I want to post about on here next as the summer continues. While I think about that, plenty more to see over on AFB as well, and be sure to keep checking back for more on MFR from myself and the others soon!

So until the next post,

AFB