Winn-Dixie #683 / Future Aldi #2XX
36348 Pure Water Way (formerly State Route 54), Zephyrhills, FL - Zephyrhills Marketplace
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| Today's post is a presentation of Pasco County retail |
Not too long ago we toured the former/future Zephyrhills Winn-Dixie site over on AFB, so while that's still somewhat fresh on our minds and I have a little bit of time to throw together an MFR post, let's take a look at the store that replaced/will be replaced by the one down the road. Today's post will be a pretty quick one, as my photos of this store didn't turn out all that great, but it's something and I think I was still able to pull off a decent overview of this Winn-Dixie's main features with what I got. Anyway, let's get right to business here and learn a little more about Winn-Dixie #683:
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| Of all the things the local paper could have paired the announcement of the new Winn-Dixie with... |
In the late 1990's, Winn-Dixie was on a store modernization spree. With the Marketplace concept sweeping the chain at the time, remodels and new locations were appearing at a rapid pace. Upgrades were occurring not only to older stores dating back to the 1960's and 1970's, but also some of Winn-Dixie's own 1980's builds (of which the Zephyrhills store was one of). Even though it was only 13 years old at the time, plans for the replacement of the Zephyrhills Winn-Dixie appeared in 1996, with the company wanting to relocate to a modern Marketplace newbuild 1 mile to the west of the Westgate Plaza store. After ironing out some issues that appeared to be a bit less controversial than the nudists' request for a tiki bar, Winn-Dixie was eventually able to get their store approved by Pasco County commissioners with a track for a 1997 grand opening. (And as for the nudists, I have no idea if they ever got their tiki bar or not, but if nothing else, they did get a Winn-Dixie where they could buy their alcohol instead - clothing required though.)
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| Don't knock the old Winn-Dixie site too much, as you'll be ending up back there again in 30 years! |
The new Zephyrhills Winn-Dixie Marketplace held its grand opening on July 17, 1997, with all of the fancy features a Winn-Dixie of the 1990's could have had at the time, such as an in-store dry cleaners, an in-store chef, and a bank. Also to note was this store originally operated 24/7, something Winn-Dixie only did sporadically in certain markets back then.
As the years went on this store remodeled to the Post-Bankruptcy decor in the late 2000's and remodeled one last time to Down Down in 2020, a fairly common remodel sequence for these Marketplace-era buildings. The liquor store was actually added as part of a separate project, constructed in 2021 about a year after the main store remodeled in what used to be the pharmacy box. Due to the timing of the liquor store's addition, the liquor store opened with Winn Win decor even though the main store had Down Down.
Stepping inside, we can see some windows into the liquor store beyond the check lanes. Until the liquor store was added, the customer service desk would have been located on that side wall, but was moved to the front of the check lanes between the two doors when the liquor store was added.
Following the usual Marketplace layout, produce is the first department we enter, located in the front right corner of the building.
The main produce signage is located along the front wall, with the additional "Fruit & Vegetables" sign painted onto the side wall. The woodgrain-style flooring we see in here was installed during the Post-Bankruptcy remodel, and would have been used by Winn-Dixie in the Down Down remodel anyway had it not been installed prior.
Wine and beer links together the produce department with the deli in the back right corner of the building.
Leaving the wood-grain flooring areas around produce, we find some examples of the Post-Bankruptcy floor tiles still floating around too. Thankfully Post-Bankruptcy's tile pattern is quite muted and doesn't clash with all the red from Down Down.
Greeting cards ended up alongside the water in aisle 2, a common placement in some Winn-Dixie stores due to this aisle being situated just behind the floral island.
Being a later Down Down remodel, the service departments received a woodgrain-style background on the walls instead of the all-red featured in the rest of the store. I feel this treatment makes the red seem less overwhelming, as a lot of one bright color can be a bit much!
Following the deli counter is the service meat and seafood counter (seen prior), and beyond the meat and seafood service counter are the meat coolers, seen above.
Chek marks the soda aisle, and interestingly, there are reports that C&S is rolling out Chek soda nationwide to other stores it distributes to, per this retailwatchers posting.
The front halves of aisles 3 and 4 were home to the Dollar Shop, complete with its own overhead sign.
The Dollar Shop in this store, as well as in most other Winn-Dixie stores I've been to of late, were looking a little sparse. With the Dollar Shop (like the not-really-a-dollar-anymore Dollar Tree) facing increased pricing of late, I wonder if these Dollar Shop departments aren't doing as well as when they first launched (when everything in this section actually was $1). I've noticed some stores had the Dollar Shops removed completely, however some have survived remodels to Centennial (with matching updated signage), so I really don't know what Winn-Dixie's is trying to do here.
Moving along to the middle of the building, we find frozen foods located in aisles 7 and 8.
The coolers in the middle of the aisle are newer than the ones on the sides, the center ones having replaced a coffin cooler that would have been here originally.
The meat coolers along the back wall eventually transition into dairy as we move closer to the store's back left corner.
Aisles 10 and 11 are home to a rather large health and beauty department, complete with Down Down's backlit category toppers too.
The main health and beauty sign hangs over the front of these two aisles, with the old pharmacy counter-turned-liquor store partially visible in the distance. This store's pharmacy closed in the 2016 purge, so it had been empty space for a few years before being converted into a liquor store. There were a handful of other Winn-Dixies that had their old pharmacy spaces converted into a liquor store besides this one, which I found to be a good use of what would otherwise be dead space.
Aisle 12 - yes, that aisle 12 - is home to pet products in this store.
Aisle 12 is so famous, I had to get a picture looking the other way in this aisle too! Actually, that wasn't the entire case here, as I mostly took this photo to highlight some of the Winn Win-era graphics peeking out through the window in the liquor store, showing how it used the more modern decor package compared to the main store.
The last grocery aisle, aisle 15, was home to a double-wide aisle that contained the pre-made breads and dairy, another common Winn-Dixie Marketplace trait.
The front left corner of the building was home to the bakery, looking pretty good with its updated fixtures.
Leaving the bakery, the old pharmacy counter would have been to my right, where the liquor store's partition wall (and all those Valentine's Day plushies) were at the time of my visit. The front end is just beyond all the plushies around the corner.
This store had 8 full-staff check lanes, which is a lot for a modern Winn-Dixie. Two of those lanes (numbers 7 & 8) were express lanes that looked to be hardly used, with full-staff express lanes also a rarity in a modern Winn-Dixie too. Interestingly, those two express lanes replaced a bank of self-checkouts that were there during the Post-Bankruptcy era. While I've seen a few Winn-Dixies without self-checkouts also lack self-checkouts following a Down Down or Winn Win remodel, I can't think of any others where self-checkouts installed during a Post-Bankruptcy (or even Transformational) remodel were removed during one to Down Down or Winn Win.
Back outside, here's a look at the liquor store's main entrance, located to the left of the exit doors.
From a slightly pulled-back vantage point, here's a better look at how the liquor store was placed in relation to everything else.
Last up, we'll wrap up this post with a look at the store's road sign facing what is now Pure Water Way, a sign that has certainly seen better days! There must have been one nasty wind storm that passed through here before my visit, but thankfully, even on borrowed time, someone did come back and fix the sign, as this GSV taken after my visit shows it fixed.
Anyway, to complete our story of Winn-Dixie #683, I should note that it closes for good on July 26, 2026 to begin its conversion into an Aldi. While there will be a new Winn-Dixie to replace this one, a rarity thus far for the stores Aldi has taken, the replacement store at the former Big Lots site won't be ready to open until late 2026/early 2027 (see here for some recent photos of the construction progress on the new store shared to Facebook). Considering Aldi let Winn-Dixie keep the Williston store open an extra month until that one's replacement was ready, I don't know why Winn-Dixie couldn't have tried for a smoother transition here in Zephyrhills for the sake of the employees. I guess Aldi didn't have the patience to let Winn-Dixie keep this store open for another 6 months or more until the new one was ready, unlike Williston that only needed an extra month and no more. For any employees that wanted to stay on at the new store, the next closest Winn-Dixies they could go to in the mean time would be either of the new Lakeland stores, the Plant City store, or the recently remodeled Temple Terrace store, all about 25-30ish miles away but in different directions. While I applaud Winn-Dixie for seeing this void in coverage Aldi created and filling it, I feel for any employees that have to drive so far for work these next few months until the new store opens!
Seeing the new store open will be some exciting progress for this new era of Winn-Dixie, and I hope to see that new store myself at some point after it opens. For the latest on new stores and remodels coming out of Winn-Dixie in this new era, be sure to keep tabs on this page where we'll be dropping in news about those as we get information in. For now though, this isn't the end of our story here in Zephyrhills, and hopefully in the near future we'll get to see what a "newbuild" late 2020's Winn-Dixie is all about!
In the meantime, more to come soon, so until the next post,
AFB