Presidente Supermarket (former Winn-Dixie) - Kissimmee, FL

Presidente Supermarket (Former Winn-Dixie)
1347 E Vine St, Kissimmee, FL

 With Winn-Dixie's remodel tear, Marketplace, once an abundant 90s relic, has become a dying breed. A mere 5 remain across Winn-Dixie's 3 states, all of them in the more far-flung corners. That means if I want a Marketplace experience, I gotta go for something a little bit (but not very!) different.

This Winn-Dixie store opened around 1987, however it held a grand reopening in 1992 after getting a thorough remodel. While this was branded as simply a Marketplace store, based on the decor it received and the timing, it's likely an early prototype for the later Food Pavilion store concept. This store lasted pretty long, albeit losing its fancier extra features over time as most stores did, until finally closing in a 2018, 94-store closure round that accompanied their bankruptcy filing. Hispanic grocery chain Presidente Supermarket, hailing from South Florida, picked up this location fairly quickly the next year in 2019.

 

 

Entering the store, it's immediately clear not much has been done to the Marketplace interior, except for a, in my opinion, rather smart blue and white repaint, and swapping the 90s/2000s W-D roundel for a Presidente one. Even the desk is original, albeit slightly modified to remove the original slats and add a new glass case.

 

 

Large Specials/Sale crates cover a lot of floor space, both behind the registers and towards the front right corner of the store where Winn-Dixie's sale cubes would have been.

 

 

This alcove may have originally been the store's photo center, however even under W-D this store feature petered out and was gone by the 2005 bankruptcy. It was often recycled into extra space for specials or sale items, and this "Quality Items For Less" text is another W-D item.

Continuing into the far right corner, the cubes turn from sale items to produce. This was also the produce section under Winn-Dixie, as evidenced by the repurposed "Fresh Fruits & Vegetables" signage. Some modifications were made, as it appears there were some black coolers here in the past, replaced with shorter white ones. The Produce sign is also reused, albeit stripped of it's "Produce Patch" raised text.

 

 

 

Turning to walk up the right side of the store, we find the wine section, as well as the deli and cheese shop counters. While the Deli is in it's original section, the sign is a new, flat painted one that replaced neon removed in the remodel. It's nice that it still emulates the Winn-Dixie style, though.  The wine section has been located from the front-left corner of the store, and the cheese shop is a new department added by Presidente.

Turning back to get a look over the whole area, we can see the extensive bulk goods section that Presidente put in, one of their few more significant changes. In it's time as Winn-Dixie, this area would have been home to various specialty displays and stands, such as florists, free samples, and new or special items, but these were often removed over time as their finances worsened in the early-mid 2000s.

 

 

the back-right corner was home to two different counters previously- the Meat & Seafood counter, and the Bakery. The Meat & Fish counter has retained it's original spot, with a repurposed sign to match, but very oddly for a Hispanic supermarket, the Bakery has been torn out and replaced with more sales space. The tile backsplash of the Meat & Fish counter is also unchanged from Winn-Dixie.

 

 

Packaged and frozen meats occupy the majority of the back wall. We can also see some pink Winn-Dixie floor blocking here, in addition to the repainted signs and old coolers.

 

 

Speaking of the flooring, turning to look down the freezer aisle and it's widened aisle, we can see some particularly iconic Marketplace printings. I believe there would have originally been coffin coolers down the center of this aisle, but they've been replaced with more palletized goods.

 

 

 

Here's a simple shot of one of the well-stocked aisles. I'm pretty sure these aisle markers are new, and if they're not, they're heavily modified and simplified compared to the Marketplace ones.

Looking down the left side of the store towards the front, we can see more pallet-stacked products, as well as dairy and beer coolers, complete with more repurposed signage.

 

 

Cafeterias are another incredibly common feature of Hispanic supermarkets, and usually quite good ones from what I hear. This one here, with a repurposed sign, was carved out of the former Beer & Wine cave, if similarly laid out Winn-Dixies are anything to go by. This also explains the relocation of Wine and Beer to separate, split sections of the store, since they were kicked out of here.

 This no name area is actually the former Winn-Dixie pharmacy- a feature gained in the 1992 remodel, and kept all the way until the end. Originally there would have been a wall dividing off the pharmacy as it's own room, but this was removed in Presidente's remodel. A smaller selection of baked goods can be seen to the right, and the space itself is being used for something indeterminate- possibly a sandwich counter, based off the graphics. Unfortunately it's blocked in this shot by those ever present pallets of stuff.

We'll end our tour with a look towards the entrance, showing that even Winn-Dixie's "Thank you for shopping at" text was repurposed- though Presidente was wise enough to replace the "America's Supermarket" part.

With that, we end our tour of this quite interesting former Marketplace Winn-Dixie. While the increasing loss of full pastel Marketplace is a bit sad, it does provide a good opportunity to go and search out the remnants and variations that decades of cheap store sell-offs have provided us.

I'd also like to thank The Sing Oil Blogger and AFB for their help in researching this store, and figuring out some of its quirks.

Until next time!