Winn-Dixie #446
Westport Shopping Center
Montgomery, AL 36108
I also discovered that this store replaced an older Winn-Dixie just down and across the road at 5333 Mobile Highway (Southlawn Plaza). Unfortunately, that building was torn down in the mid-1990's to build an elementary school.
Although the remaining Marketplace stores often look pretty rough around the edges (remember this one I wrote about a few weeks ago?), they at least feature signage that doesn't look like it was pulled out of the 1970's! I was certainly surprised to find out a non-Marketplace store was profitable enough to survive all of Winn-Dixie's bankruptcies, but it seems like this store serves a large portion of Montgomery's southern suburbs along I-65, including the community of Hope Hull.
Another piece that could have contributed to this store's longevity was the fact that Winn-Dixie had a large presence in Montgomery, and even used to operate a distribution center there. Unfortunately, Winn-Dixie decided to close this DC several years ago and consolidate its operations with those of the Hammond, LA, plant, which is where this store would now be serviced from.
While the primary Winn-Dixie signage may look old, all of the secondary signs seem to use the same font as a Marketplace store from the same era. If you didn't know it already, "The Beef People" call this building home!
Stepping inside, you immediately find yourself in the cart storage area, with shelves of promotional products off in the distance. Although this store has some of the same cubical Valentine's Day balloons that we found in Publix, the Valentine's forest doesn't seem quite as invasive. These buggies also seem to be a bit worn out, adding to the feeling that Winn-Dixie has nearly forgotten about this store.
Turning back toward the doors, we can see the customer service desk which is located directly behind the pharmacy.
Here we see a wider overview of the front end of this store, and one of the Valentine's balloons who tried to make a mad getaway. {Thank}fully, he was pinned down by a ceiling tile and a florescent light. Whew, that was a close one!
I find it interesting how this store and the Chiefland store both received a dropped ceiling throughout, without any architectural effects over the produce department or the registers. These stores also seemed to get the large Kmart-style air vents which don't help with the dated aesthetic. As with many Winn-Dixie stores, produce is located in the front right corner, buffered from the registers by an additional section of promotional items.
I'm not sure what this store would've looked like when it opened, but I believe the non-Marketplace stores originally featured Winn-Dixie's 1980's interior package before it was remodeled to Purple / Maroon around the early 2000's. That being said, I'm not sure if this green section of flooring is original to this store's construction or not.
Contrary to the Chiefland Winn-Dixie looking run-down in pictures but feeling well-kept in person, this store felt pretty tired. Regardless, I was glad that I had the opportunity to document a store with this package before it went extinct! I'm sure the residents of South Montgomery will be pleased to have a remodeled store as well.
I don't like how WD lists "Harvest Fresh Fresh Produce" on the sign; it seems a bit redundant!
Another thing that bothers me about this package is how none of the fonts quite match. Obviously, the script is different than the serif font which isn't too bad; however, if you compare "Produce" in the two pictures above, the font is actually slightly different. The serifs look to be thicker and blockier on the wall-mounted letters as compared to the pre-fab sign. It also bothers me that these two walls have the same phrase, but one used the sign while the other used lettering.
Anyway, at least the produce in this store actually looked well-stocked and seemed to be fresh. The same can't be said about every older Winn-Dixie I have seen!
We'll take one last look at the produce department before we move on to the rest of the store.
Next up is floral. I didn't see anything too notable about this section, other than the fact that this store actually had a floral counter, and that one of the glass panels has the old WD logo. Those peace lilies also look to be well cared for since most have blooms and none seem to have brown or yellow leaves.
Fortunately, I don't believe Montgomery shoppers will have to suffer the agony of having their beloved champagne moved away from orange juice – because it already has been! Moving wine and beer to this side of the store seems to be a common practice of Winn-Dixie during its remodels, so it looks like this store is already good-to-go! Wine also managed to get a sign on the wall in this package, but beer did not.
Here we see a close-up of the aisle marker for aisle 1. I applaud WD's creativity for adding a faint logo behind the number and on the maroon section at the top of the sign.
This store's seafood counter is located in the back right corner. It also seems to be one of the few departments to have received some sort of architectural accent with the small black awning.
I didn't notice much of interest along the back aisle of this store, just a number of pallet drops of sale products. Maybe it has been a while since I bought a 12-pack of soft drinks, but doesn't 2/$12 seem like a bad price? I thought I remembered that being how much CVS would charge when they were not on sale! Inflation is at work!
Oddly enough, WD decided to go back to the Fisherman's Warf phrasing for the seafood department with this package, while they discontinued its use during some of the Marketplace years.
To the left of the seafood counter were the pre-packaged meats. These refrigerators look like they are original to this store's opening.
Oddly enough, it seems like many (if not all) of these older stores I have been to seem to feature these same Transformational category signs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner meats. Such a random thing for Winn-Dixie to decide to upgrade.
Taking a look down aisle 5, we see a large assortment of items followed by snacks in the distance. I believe the green tags on the shelf indicate that this aisle was the "Dollar Shop", even if this store didn't have a sign stating such.
Fresh meats come next along the back wall of the store, sandwiched between "Luncheon Meats" and "Frozen Meats".
While I don't think this was an intentional capture on my part, aisle 14 seems to be unsigned in this store. Maybe Winn-Dixie decided to shuffle some aisles around and forgot to add some signage?
Well, looking back over the rest of the store, it looks like aisle 11 may be unsigned as well. Additionally, it looks like there is a really large gap between aisles 8 & 9 where the freezer section was (sorry I didn't get any pictures of that aisle, but it must have been really crowded).
Similar to the Marketplace stores from this era, the restrooms are in the back left corner of the store, adjacent to the dairy aisle.
Speaking of dairy, we can see that it occupies most of aisle 15 and the section along the back wall between the restrooms and the corner. It also looks like a few light bulbs need to be replaced in the egg refrigerators!
Up on the front left corner of the store is the deli and bakery. While I wasn't sure about the flooring in the rest of the store, it seems like the tiles in this corner were replaced during the last remodel because early-2000's Marketplace stores also feature this checkered design in this department. We can also see the edge of the pharmacy counter next to the deli. I'm not sure if it fell off or if it never received one, but the "Delicatessen" sign seems to be missing its WD logo as well.
Otherwise, this corner looks familiar to anybody who has been to a Winn-Dixie from this era.
Looking back at the checkout lines, we see the rare occasion of an old Winn-Dixie where the checkout cubes match the rest of the store's interior!
THANK YOU FOR SHOPPING your somebody's neighborhood WINN-DIXIE. This won't be my last Alabamian Adventure, so stay tuned as we will venture north to see another unique grocery store. But first, I have a number of Publix posts in the queue. If I can finish it in time, I'm planning to release a fun post on a former Sing, a former Publix, and a modern store on my blog this Saturday. Stay tuned!
- The Sing Oil Blogger
Aerial Views
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| Historic Aerials - 1981 Southlawn Plaza Winn-Dixie (now demolished) |
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| Historic Aerials - 1998 Winn-Dixie #446 - Westport Shopping Center |
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| Google Earth - 2015 Locations of the current and former Winn-Dixie stores |
The old Southlawn store looks interesting from that aerial. What could have it been like given its size? Looks like a small country market to me.
ReplyDeleteSince #446 is approx. 35,000 sq. ft., I'd guess the old Southlawn store was closer to 25,000 sq. ft. or less. Unfortunately, Google Earth doesn't have a clear enough picture for me to get a more accurate measurement. I do know that the old store didn't have a deli or a seafood counter, while the new one touted those additional features.
DeleteI almost didn't get the "{Thank}fully" part. Man that's clever.
ReplyDeleteYou know I love my puns; I'm glad you were able to catch that one!
DeleteAlthough other parts of Texas, mostly North Texas, had their share of Winn-Dixie supermarkets (and hardware stores!), The Beef People never made their way into Houston so my knowledge of them is quite limited to some visits, not particularly pleasant ones, I made to them in the 1990s while traveling in Florida. With that in mind, it's quite shocking to me to hear that this store was built in 1992! As you allude to in the post, there are elements of this store which look more at home in the 1970s rather than the 1990s.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize that The Beef People, or anyone for that matter, were using those Kmart-like HVAC vents into the 1990s. Those HVAC vents and strip lights certainly does give one Blue Light Special vibes. On the positive side, unlike most Kmarts, it appears that the drop ceiling tiles are quite clean and so are the HVAC vents. Maintenance at this location must be decent I would guess from what I can see in the photos.
I guess one very 1992ish thing I see in this store is a general layout feel that seems quite similar to Food Lion. Food Lion came to Houston in 1992, which was bad timing for a few reasons, and failed pretty quickly. They made Albertsons' tenure in Houston seem long! Here's a Fiesta Mart in an old Houston-area Food Lion which has a lot of Food Lion remnants left in it even though the strip lights have recently been replaced by modern LED lights: https://goo.gl/maps/EgZqPLSBd3rpL69f9
The combination of italicized and cursive lettering with standard lettering is quite odd here, but in a way that does seem rather 1990s-like. In addition to reminding me of Food Lion, the back actionway of this store reminds me a bit of a Greenhouse Kroger.
Winn-Dixie hardware stores?!?! I didn't know there was such a thing! It is surprising how your visits during the 1990's weren't particularly pleasant considering that was the height of WD's supermarket reign. I believe many of WD's non-marketplace stores from the 1980's and 1990's were essentially slightly-newer versions of stores from the 1970's. I still wonder if they stole the sign for this store off the old building though!
Delete"Blue Light Special vibes" -- I love it! Although the ceiling tiles and vents in this store do look fairly clean, this location felt much more run-down than Chiefland, FL's WD #168 which I wrote about a few months ago. It is shocking how both of these stores from the 1990's received those old HVAC vents and strip lights.
Oh yes, I can see how this store is similar to a 1990's Food Lion. While I haven't been to one that was actually a Food Lion, I've been to two former stores which gave me a good idea of the layout. Hopefully it won't be too long before I can get around to sharing them (I'll share one over on my primary blog, while the other one will be posted here on MFR). It is also interesting how the Fiesta Mart still uses Food Lion's Futuristic décor.
The rear actionway is a bit reminiscent of a Greenhouse Kroger, especially with the placement of the hallway to the restrooms.
Yep, Winn-Dixie hardware stores! When Winn-Dixie entered North Texas, they did so by buying the Buddies supermarket chain in the 1970s. With the Buddies name perhaps having a lot of name equity in North Texas, Winn-Dixie did not completely erase the Buddies name from North Texas stores even in the 1990s at the very least as I've seen a video from the 1990s of a Ft. Worth Winn-Dixie Marketplace store that also had a Buddies sign on the front (in much smaller lettering than the Winn-Dixie name) even though that store was likely built long after the Buddies buy-out.
DeleteAnyway, Buddies also had a chain of hardware stores called Buddies Handy Man Centers (I think they also had smaller stores called Buddies Hardware). These were purchased by Winn-Dixie along with the supermarkets and Winn-Dixie continued to operate them at least until the mid-1980s. Here's a newspaper ad from 1983 showing an ad for Buddies Handy Man Centers, a subsidiary of Winn-Dixie. Yep, The Beef People were also the home improvement people for a while in Texas! Link: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth760856/m1/24/
I had heard a lot about Winn-Dixie before visiting my first one in 1997 in Florida. I think I visited ones in Orlando and Daytona Beach. I had high expectations. Sometimes Winn-Dixie ads would make their way to Houston even though we didn't have stores here. It seemed like they would be a fine grocer, but after visiting their stores, I found low-grade produce and other problems that made the stores feel inferior to the supermarkets we had in Houston. Conversely, Publix was a store I had no familiarity with, but I also went there in 1997 and found their stores to be very nice! I suppose my experiences weren't too far off what other Floridians experienced at that time given the general popularity of those chains.
My first visit to an Albertsons was also in Florida in 1988! That was a positive experience and I was excited to see them come to Houston in 1995. Sadly, like Food Lion, they didn't last too long here.
Food Lion in Houston is a bit of a strange thing because there are some supermarkets to this day which still use 1990s Food Lion decor even if the buildings they are in were never Food Lions! There must be a local sign company which made signs for Food Lion which still uses their designs for other grocers. Check out this Hong Kong Food Market, for example: https://goo.gl/maps/1fCYS2knYUwqvjPC9
Or this Food Town in a former Safeway/AppleTree: https://goo.gl/maps/nSphi7tNHgTpwktQA
Both Hong Kong Food Market and Food Town have locations in old Food Lions as well so maybe that has something to do with those chains adopting Food Lion decor in some of their locations. Here's a Food Town near me in an old Food Lion which uses Food Lion decor. Ironically, the original name of the Food Lion chain was Food Town! Link: https://houstonhistoricretail.com/2016/12/19/a-look-at-one-of-houstons-former-food-lion-locations/
Long story short, while Food Lion's presence in Houston was short, their legacy continues to live on in a number of places via their 1990s decor!
Fascinating! I guess Winn-Dixie had to dabble in all sorts of retail as they were expanding their footprint in the late-twentieth century.
DeleteYeah, I feel like there is a reason Publix is now Florida's #1 grocery chain, and has rapidly expanded into much of Winn-Dixie's former territory. I do feel like WD is finally turning themselves around though.
It still surprises me how Food Lion made it all the way to Texas and Oklahoma in the 1990's. Although I have only seen Food Lion's Futuristic decor through a dusty window, something about the Hong Kong Market version looks like a knockoff that was only inspired by the original. Especially all of the glossy plastic. The Food Town seems to look more convincing (minus the 3D elements on the lettering), and it seems likely that the chain just wanted to copy the decor in their other store. This is similar to what Nam Dae Mun did with Publix's Wavy Pastels in Atlanta by purchasing former Publix #520 which still had the interior, adding signs to former Publix #535, and adding obvious knockoffs in another former Publix.
That is rather small for a store of the 1990s. Most supermarkets of the time were building in the 50,000 sq. ft. range.
ReplyDeleteThose carts are less than ten years old and boy have they aged worse than the black ones they used to order. There's a reason most retailers don't order their carts with chrome frames.
I agree, the store does seem small for the timeframe. I'd assume Winn-Dixie's reasoning is due to the fact that it replaced a much smaller store, wasn't a Marketplace prototype (for whatever reason), and probably was supported by a smaller population of people than other stores.
DeleteWow, I'm shocked to hear that the carts aren't even ten years old (you could've convinced me that they were much older)! Publix's chrome carts seem to fare better than these did, as I have seen some floating around which are 15+ years old and don't look too shabby, like these.
Nice post! The "The Beef People" sign reminds me of Giant-MD's "The Quality Food People"
ReplyDeleteThank you! I can certainly see the resemblance between these signs, as both of these stores want to be Noteworthy People!
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