Kash n' Karry - Fresh, Fast, n' From the Farm

Kash n' Karry #1746 / Sweetbay Supermarket #1746 / Detwiler's Farm Market #3

6100 N. Lockwood Ridge Road, Sarasota, FL - Parkway Collections

Today's post is a presentation of Sarasota County retail

     With the Albertsons store across the street not being the most exciting former supermarket in the world, why not dedicate today's MFR post to the most interesting of the 3 former supermarkets located at the intersection of University Parkway and Lockwood Ridge Road? For today's AFB/MFR double shot, we're going to jump across the road (and the county line) from the old Albertsons to the former Kash n' Karry store that once called this intersection home. Kash n' Karry (and its later incarnation, Sweetbay Supermarket) overlapped with Albertsons for 9 years before this store called it quits, with the building sitting empty for a while until the two current tenants made a home in this space. Some fun stuff to see over here today, so let's get things started and learn a little more about this building's history:

     Kash n' Karry opened this location in 1990 as the second supermarket at the corner of University Parkway and Lockwood Ridge Road, two years after the opening of Publix #358 across the street in the Walmart plaza. With its 1990 opening, this would have been one of the first few Kash n' Karry stores to use the design we see here, a futuristic take on supermarket design (at least for the early 1990's) that was supposed to get Kash n' Karry out of its slump.

     After Lucky California sold off its Kash n Karry stores in a leveraged buyout in 1988, the company was riddled with debt during a time when the competition on Florida's west coast was pretty intense. Kash n' Karry had a reputation for running small, old, and somewhat dumpy stores at the time, so to boost sales and modernize the company, the prototype we see here was introduced. With its smooth, rounded exterior, windowed facade, and unusual orange interior, Kash n' Karry wanted to make a bold statement for the 1990's with these new stores. A number of these buildings were constructed throughout western Florida in the early 1990's, with older stores being remodeled to the orange interior debuted in the new prototype as well. Even with the work that was being done to modernize the chain, Kash n' Karry could never shake the financial damage that was done in the leverage buyout, with the company eventually selling to Food Lion's parent company Delhaize America in 1996 as yet another effort to help the struggling grocer. Delhaize retired the design we see here with one of their own following the sale, with Kash n' Karry using that Delhaize design until the brand was retired in 2004.

     The Lockwood Ridge Kash n' Karry was converted to a Sweetbay in the mid-2000's, but this ended up being one of Sweetbay's shorter-lived locations, closing in 2009. The building sat vacant until 2015, when local upcoming grocery chain Detwiler's Farm Market took over half the space, with a furniture store taking over the remainder of the old Sweetbay. This Detwiler's location, the 3rd in the chain, was the company's first true "supermarket" location, with a complete selection of grocery items and service departments you'd find in a store like Publix or Winn-Dixie. The first two Detwiler's stores (the original on Palmer Parkway in Sarasota and the 2nd in Venice) were closer to that of a farmer's market with a primary focus on produce, and other services being an afterthought. The Lockwood Ridge location laid the ground for Detwiler's future, taking the chain to its current position of being a "farmer's market and so much more".

     I really like Detwiler's stores, especially the supermarket sized locations like this one and the Palmetto location I linked to before. The prices are fair, the product selection is different, and the bakery is really good too. Detwiler's has created a really strong following for themselves, and as of June 2024 has 6 stores throughout Sarasota and Manatee Counties, with the most recent store in Bradenton having opened in December 2023. In May 2024, Detwiler's announced the construction of a new headquarters and warehouse in Palmetto, while also hinting at future expansions into areas like Pinellas, Hillsborough, and Charlotte Counties toward the end of the 2020's. Things are looking good for this up-and-coming Floridian grocery chain, so let's head inside and see more of what Detwiler's is all about!

     Detwiler's occupies the right half of this former Kash n' Karry/Sweetbay building. Stepping through the front doors, you enter the large produce department - the store's centerpiece, as Detwiler's started out as a roadside produce stand in Eastern Sarasota County in 2002. Detwiler's first true store, the Palmer Parkway location in Sarasota, didn't open until 2009.

     Detwiler's stores, even the newer locations, still maintain the farmer's market aesthetic with a decor comprising of hand-painted murals on the walls and handwritten posters with prices and product descriptions. The murals are different between stores too, but they're all tied together with various farm themes.

     The produce department is located in the front right corner of the building, located in the same location where Sweetbay and Kash n' Karry used to have their produce department. For an idea of what this store used to look like during the Sweetbay and Kash n' Karry days, this Publix in a similarly designed building still has the original layout.

     The original Kash n' Karry produce department would have had more of an alcove feel, with Detwiler's opening up the corner a bit during their remodel.

     A lot of detail was put into the mural, with its depictions of a cartoon Detwiler's store nestled among Floridian farm scenes.

     Who says in-store barn props are only a Grocery Palace Albertsons thing? Detwiler's has their own in-store barn decor, although over the produce department instead of dairy like Albertsons had.

     From produce, here's a look across the store's front end, looking over toward the furniture store half of the building.

     In addition to the farm aesthetic, Detwiler's also added some other rustic style decor pieces throughout the store, like the vintage Enco oil sign hanging above the front end. Looking at the sign and the way the one side of it is a bit rusty, I think that may be a real Enco sign from the 1960's and not a reproduction too.

     Where the produce alcove ends and angles inward, we would have originally found Kash n' Karry and Sweetbay's floral department. Detwiler's doesn't sell much (if any) floral items, so this space was absorbed into the produce department as a prep area.

     Following the produce department is Detwiler's Sub Shop, which is part of the store's deli...

     …with the main deli counter following the sub shop. The space where the deli is now would have been Kash n' Karry's pharmacy. Surprisingly, besides the conversion of the pharmacy box into a deli counter, comparing the scene in Detwiler's to the same area in that Pub n' Karry, there are still a decent number of Kash n' Karry leftovers in the design of the back right corner (such as the location of the seafood counter and the stockroom door, as well as the stepped wall above the stockroom door).

     Kash n' Karry's meat and seafood departments lined up perfectly with the placement of Detwiler's. Detwiler's completely overhauled both of these departments with new fixtures and decor though, and expanded the space into a much longer counter for Detwiler's much larger meat and seafood offerings.

     Most of Detwiler's back wall is home to the service meat and seafood counter, which you can see in more detail here. What's now the Seafood counter was the only portion where this store had a service counter when Kash n' Karry and Sweetbay were here, with the remaining space to the left home to prepackaged meats in those days.

     Following meat and seafood, the remaining back wall space is home to the store's bakery department. Kash n' Karry's original deli and bakery were located in the half of the building that's now the furniture store, leading to creative placements of these departments in the right half of the building. What's now the bakery was home to more prepackaged meat cases in the Kash n' Karry and Sweetbay days.

     This store has 4 grocery aisles total, which is about average for most of Detwiler's stores - even the larger, newer locations that push 50,000 square feet. Detwiler's is very much a perimeter-focused store, and the larger locations push a wider variety of perimeter service departments than a larger center store selection.

     While there are two different stores operating out of this former Kash n' Karry building, the building was never truly "subdivided". A three-quarter height wall was built down the center of the building to partition the supermarket from the furniture store, but the utilities and building features were never truly separated from each other - the building can be opened back up to its original size without much effort.

     The back portion of the grocery aisles contained a small health and beauty department, mostly filled with vitamins and other natural remedies.

     There is a center cut through that separates all the grocery aisles in half. The photo above was taken looking down the cut through toward dairy, mostly to profile the vintage Shell Oil sign above the dairy coolers.

     "Health and Wellness" had its own hanging sign over the back portion of aisle 3, only steps away from the temptation of the bakery - the antithesis of "Heath and Wellness" in most grocery stores!

     Detwiler's grocery aisles contained a little bit of everything, with a skew toward healthier and organic brands in most categories.

     Like I said before, Detwiler's has a really good bakery, with all of the products made in-store from my understanding. The donuts are really good...

     ...as were the giant soft pretzels on that table. You guys probably know 90% of my judgement of a grocery store comes from my thoughts on the bakery products, and Detwiler's got high marks from me in that area!

     Anyway, the last grocery aisle in this store is aisle 4, which is home to the dairy department on the partition wall.

      Near the check lanes was a drink cooler, and in it I spotted birch beer! Birch beer is a popular drink typically associated with the Pennsylvania Dutch, and is not easy to find in Florida (where most people don't even know what birch beer is, at least from my experience). I'm not a big soda drinker, but I've always liked an occasional birch beer while spending time up in the Northeast, so I had to take a bottle of this home with me.

     I spy some intriguing things over on the furniture side of this building (thanks to the short wall), so why not head over there for a quick peek after running through the check lanes with my purchases?

     In front of Detwiler's check lanes, there's actually a pass-though between the furniture store and Detwiler's, so people shopping in both stores can roam back and forth between the two. In case you're wondering why the odd setup with this subdivision, the Miller family (who owns the furniture store) and the Detwiler family are good friends. When Detwiler's took over this building, Mr. Detwiler approached Mr. Miller about occupying the space he didn't need for his new supermarket, and the pairing has worked out quite well for both families.

     Miller's Dutch Haus Furniture opened in 2015 alongside Detwiler's store, and probably benefits from people wandering in here from the supermarket next door. Miller's specializes in selling traditional Amish furniture made in Ohio and Indiana, offering everything from tables and chairs to couches and credenzas. One of Miller's specialties is actually Murphy beds, which according to that linked article, they sell quite a lot of.

     While Detwiler's did a bit of work to their half of the building, Miller's just rolled out some carpeting and began placing furniture wherever they could. This half of the building is really just a Kash n' Karry with all of the supermarket fixtures removed.

     While they were removed on the Detwiler's side, Miller's left the original points on the lower ceiling in their half of the building, where Kash n' Karry's aisle markers from the orange decor would have been mounted.

     Kash n' Karry's deli and bakery were located in the front left corner of the building, in the area where the ceiling lowers just ahead.

     The Adirondack chairs and porch swings line the area where the deli and bakery cases would have been, with the prep area now home to more furniture accessories. The backroom area behind the wall was now home to offices for Miller's.

     While I'm typically not crazy about photographing furniture stores due to all the pushy salespeople you usually encounter in those types of stores, the one employee I saw inside Miller's just sat at her desk and looked like she didn't want to be bothered, which worked in my favor (especially when compared to a different experience I had at a Kash n' Karry-turned-furniture store, where I couldn't lose that saleslady for anything!).

     Back outside, to truly complete the full farm experience we got from this building, there was a full-size antique tractor parked on the front walkway just outside of Miller's entrance. It's not a farm market without a tractor parked out front!

     Back outside, here are a few final exterior photos of this former Kash n' Karry. I've always liked this particular Kash n' Karry store design, with its modernist facade.

     Even though the former Albertsons store across the street wasn't super exciting, hopefully this store made up for that! Detwiler's is a fun grocery store to visit, and the Kash n' Karry remnants made this particular location a bit more interesting. Anyway, while the main AFB site is going on summer break for the next few weeks, I'll have to see what happens as far as posting here on MFR is concerned. A post from me is always possible, but we'll have to see what happens. If nothing else, I'll see everyone back on AFB on August 18th!

So until the next post,

AFB