From Winn-Dixie to Lucky's and Back Again - Winn-Dixie #2568 (former Lucky's Market, nee-Winn-Dixie) - West Melbourne, FL

 Welcome to your new Winn-Dixie!

Yesterday, December 9th, 2020, marked the re-opening of Winn-Dixie at this spot, five years after it was kicked out for Lucky's Market. The old store was oft-described as dingy, run-down, cramped- an old store, untouched by time, and desperately in need of a renovation. Lucky's Market was taken as a breath of fresh air, and their total renovation made the store a place people actually loved to shop again.

But early 2020 brought a rollercoaster of emotions. Kroger would abruptly pull their funding, sending the suddenly cash-strapped chain spiraling. Plans initially called for the West Melbourne store to remain open, but, in what some may call an underhanded move, they were bid out of their own home by none other than the previous tenant- Winn-Dixie. Now with the full might of a leaner, meaner Southeast Grocers behind them, Winn-Dixie wanted to do it again, but properly this time.

As documented in this post on my personal site, work would begin in August with a basic interior strip-out, followed by serious demolition in October, and a quick turnaround and polish during November. All in the lead up to the big day-

Grand opening! The store would open to the public on a crisp, cold-front morning with giveaways and confetti. I didn't make it there that early, other commitments made me wait until the afternoon. But the store was still abuzz with activity!

A packed- and most importantly- repaved! Parking lot. It had not faired well over the years, and was a sunken, pothole ridden mess. Winn-Dixie's bright new exterior is also a welcome change- Lucky's was premium, but understated, and the original Winn-Dixie color scheme was just dingy. This facade is bright and eye-catching.

The liquor store was added in space that was unused by Lucky's, but originally part of the full Winn-Dixie, which originally lacked a liquor store.

Front and center when you enter the store is "WD's Taproom", located roughly where Lucky's ramen bar lived. The space provides coffee, beer, snacks, and sushi, and is the only food service area in the store.

Lucky's original cafe area, seen here, has been quietly converted into sales floor. To my left would have been the "apothecary", or health & beauty, section of Lucky's.

Dairy products live along the back wall, with some fun smaller signage about Milk of all kinds, Your favorite cream cheese, etc. Speaking of- this is a new decor! The tentative name being "Made in Florida", based on it's emphasis on local products.

This coffee section is a small reminder of the bulk goods section that used to be a trademark of Lucky's, taking up an entire aisle.

 

The more normal aisles here, starting with soda. Made In Florida aisle signs are flat with raised plates, as opposed to the otherwise standard triangle design.

Unlike many stores that collate soda and other water/sparkling water/kool aid/etc into one aisle, they're two separate aisles here at Winn-Dixie.

Our first look at the front end shows the self-checkouts, a fixture of any newly opened store these days.

Winn-Dixie's Cheese-Deli-Kitchen and Butcher & Seafood sections roughly follow Lucky's pattern- the Deli & Kitchen are located where Lucky's "The Kitchen" section was, however Winn-Dixie shifts the hot bar into the counter and out of the middle of the aisle. The Butcher & Seafood section can be seen in the back, lining up exactly with Lucky's Meat & Seafood counter, and off to the right, the "beer corner" can be seen.

While Winn-Dixie added their own full liquor store, they also re-built a beer & wine corner in the same place Lucky's had it. While it would make sense for this to connect around the back to the liquor store, I don't think Florida law would allow such.

Winn-Dixie's new Butcher & Seafood counter is definitely more seafood-focused, but that's a good thing to see. And prepackaged meats still line the back wall.

A photo of the fully *ahem* fleshed out seafood counter.

(I'll be here all week)

Sitting on two crates outside the counter are full fish, on ice. I think this is the first time I've seen this in a conventional supermarket (as opposed to something focused on Hispanic foods, or a wholesale/business supply grocer).

This shot shows the end of the International Foods aisle, showing the "World Flavors" signage that also pops ups briefly elsewhere in the store.

A back view of WD's Taproom- but what's that, along the wall?

Some WD's Taproom decorative jugs! I wonder where they got those from?

I really, really do wonder....

Anyway, going back to the store, we get an overlook of the produce section, again in the same place as Lucky's had it.

A feature new to Winn-Dixie is this calendar near the front, which is a nice touch. The whole front end is a little bit jumbled, but very nice overall.

This photo shows the crowded checkouts- pretty well designed and sharp looking. Better than the badly refurbished Marketplace-era units in many other stores.

Unlike many stores, the name of the local community is emblazoned along the right wall, instead of near the front of the store. This area, under Lucky's, would have had a large Lucky's "L" logo on the wall, with "Frozen Foods" signage mounted on the coolers. We also have the large "Made In Florida" emblem, which gives this decor package it's name. 

We'll end off with my favorite photo- the front end is always the hardest part of the store to photograph, because of the abundance of employees milling about to keep a watch over and staffing the checkouts. But this time, an employee (I presume the manager) saw me taking photos, but instead posed to photobomb! It's nice to get noticed taking photos, and get a positive response, not a negative one. This was a good way to top off the visit, which was overall very positive. This may actually be the first grand opening I've ever been to, and even though I arrived around 4 PM, everyone was still very cheerful and the mood was great.

Overall, I have high hopes for this store. I loved Lucky's, and I found the last minute bid a tad underhanded, but Winn-Dixie has done a great job with this store, and in the end, I have to question how well and for how long Lucky's could have kept it afloat, as an out of the way Floridian satellite from their now Colorado-based operations. Is Winn-Dixie's decor as flashy as Lucky's? No, and I still like Lucky's decor more. But Winn-Dixie's decor has grown on me greatly since I saw it in the opening photos of the first converted Lucky's/Earth Fare stores, and it's a pleasing evolution from the very in your face "Down Down" decor.

In the end, this has been Cape Kennedy Retail. Until next time!

Don't Be Sad, Be Happy It Happened

Winn-Dixie #2268 / Lucky's Market #31 / Future Winn-Dixie #2???

3170 West New Haven Avenue, West Melbourne, FL - Plaza West

     With Lucky's Market of West Melbourne officially closing on February 21, 2020, I feel there's no better time than now to finish the story of the closing of this store. Like last time, this post will be comprised to two sets of photos taken on two different occasions. Picking up from where we left off last time, we skip ahead three days to February 18, 2020. By this time in the closing, the closing sale had dropped to 75% off all remaining merchandise, the final price cut before the store closed for good a few days later. While the deals sounded good, there really wasn't much merchandise left to stock up on...

     Stepping inside, what little grocery product was left was clustered to the left side of the coffee grinders. The groceries were very slim pickings, with the only food products remaining being some packages of spices and a few barrels of bulk dried black eyed peas. Outside of that, there was still a small selection of apothecary items, and a lot of random store supplies (pictured above).

     While some of these views are similar to what we've seen in the previous post, showcasing all the emptiness in the closed off sections of the store, I still took a few photos out this way.

     Unlike milk, it's OK to cry over spilled wine (and your local Lucky's closing). Besides that sign, behind the flatbed carts we see all the empty grocery aisles, as well as some of the other department signage poking out in the background.

     If you needed a 500-count box of plastic rotisserie chicken containers or a roll of produce bags, this was the time to stock up. The former prepared foods area was piled high with boxes of all kinds of store supplies and containers, primarily the containers used to package items once sold in this department. Unlike the actual merchandise, this stuff didn't seem to be moving very fast.

     Hidden behind all the boxes of supplies was this pole, where Lucky's used to let people write little messages and such on. Peeking out over the boxes was a message that must have been added recently by the family of the store manager, saying "Thank you to our community.", a fitting farewell to the message pole. Along with that heartfelt message, we also know that "Purple squirrel lives on again." I have no idea what that second message means, but at least we are duly informed should that be important 😁.

     While all the pizza may be gone, there were still plenty of pizza boxes to be sold off amongst the random cases of store supplies. However, a stack of empty pizza boxes doesn't do me any good, as it's the stuff that goes inside one of these boxes that I'd want!

     This photo was taken alongside The Kitchen, where The Kitchen joined with the edge of the Apothecary department. As you can tell by the signs, breads (including the sliced kind, which is the greatest thing since...wait...) used to be located along that wall to my left. In the background is the hallway to the restrooms, as well as Lucky's community room (where various classes and meetings would take place).

     Turning away from The Kitchen, here's a look toward the apothecary. All the remaining apothecary merchandise was consolidated onto those black shelves to my right.

     There wasn't much left to see here, so on my way out I took this photo of the hallway in front of the registers. I don't recall getting this view before on my visits here, so here it is. This space is Winn-Dixie's old vestibule area, which is visible in this photo. Looking at the photos from the original Winn-Dixie days and now, it's weird to think those pictures were taken in the same building!

     Here's one final interior photo from February 18, 2020, looking at the area where most of the remaining merchandise had been consolidated.

     Now that we've covered February 18, 2020, let's skip ahead to some photos from February 21, 2020 - Lucky's last day in operation.

     After visiting a few days earlier, I knew the end was going to come sooner than the originally anticipated final day of February 25, 2020. On a whim I decided to pay Lucky's a visit on February 21st to see if the place was still open, and it was - for only another 10 minutes by the time I got here! 

     Usually timing like that doesn't work in my favor, but for once it did! I was actually planning to head over this way later in the day, but I'm glad I changed my mind when I did. Fittingly enough for a final day, the weather outside was cold, gray, and gloomy. While the weather outside could be described that way, the attitude of all the employees inside was surprisingly the opposite. The employees all seemed to be having a party in the cafe when I arrived, and were in really good spirits for being their last day employed. I'm sure on the inside the employees were sad, but they were making the best of their situation.

     Signs were taped to the front door announcing February 21, 2020 as the final day in business. Since we're on a time crunch, I had to make my business inside quick...

     On the last day, what product remained inside was essentially the same we saw a few days prior. The main difference was the last little bits of grocery stuff were gone, with a small amount of apothecary items and cases of supplies floating around. That rack of cards also appeared on this trip too (although it could have been floating around somewhere on my other visits, but I never noticed it).

     Besides one lady combing through the tiny bit of apothecary items remaining and another lady paying for her stuff at the register when I arrived, most of the people in here right before the closure were either employees or family members of the employees. They were all walking around, hanging out in the cafe, taking pictures and videos of the store and each other, and having a good old time as the final minutes neared.

     Empty, empty, empty...

     A parting shot of The Kitchen...

     And my final photo taken inside Lucky's Market of West Melbourne, minutes before Lucky's Florida presence came to an end.

     Lucky's will miss you, states the sign. Not only will Lucky's miss serving the people of West Melbourne, but the people of West Melbourne will miss Lucky's too:

     I pulled all these screengrabs from Lucky's Market of West Melbourne's Facebook page, specifically from the store's final post on February 21, 2020 announcing Lucky's was officially closed. That was just a sampling of the comments too, and not counting the outpouring of sadness on any of the store's previous posts during the closing process. In addition to the outpouring of sadness and well-wishing to the employees, anger toward Winn-Dixie could also be found in the comment section of those Facebook posts:

     Again, that was just a sampling of the anger from locals that Winn-Dixie was coming back to this location, as there are other comments on the Facebook page with similar sentiments toward Winn-Dixie. People I've spoken to about the situation also feel Winn-Dixie pulled a dirty deed buying the West Melbourne store out from under Lucky's, and refuse to support the new store. I'm sure there are still a lot of people out there who are indifferent to the situation or don't care, but I've never seen so much emotion flying around in regard to a closing store/stores before than I've seen with the Lucky's situation (especially West Melbourne's case). It just goes to show that a store really can be thought of as more than a place to buy groceries, but a true asset to the community.

     So folks, that was Lucky's Market of West Melbourne. Even though that finishes my coverage of the closing, that's only half the story. Sometime in the coming months we'll begin to see progress as the new Winn-Dixie begins to take shape. While I don't plan to cover the actual renovation of this building back to Winn-Dixie, I am extremely curious to see what the new store will look like once it's open, and how much of Lucky's layout is kept or changed. Winn-Dixie plans to open this store later in 2020, and I'll be sure to keep everyone updated on an opening date as I learn more.

     However, before I end this post, I do have one more thing to add about Lucky's. I discovered recently that a new locally-owned organic market will be opening in the nearby city of Indialantic sometime in early 2020. The new market, called Djon's Village Market, will be located about 5 miles to the east of here on US 192, the same road Lucky's was located on. Djon's Village Market, which will be owned by local restaurateur Djon Pepaj, is being described as a "food mecca" with three levels and a rooftop bar, amongst other features. The manager of Lucky's announced he would be taking on the position of manager at Djon's Village Market, continuing his journey in the field of organic shopping. As manager of the new market, he plans to reconnect with many of the same local and small vendors who sold their products at Lucky's, so people living in the area could still purchase these harder-to-find items. The manager also extended out an offer to any Lucky's employees who wanted to make the transition to Djon's too, hoping to reunite much of the Lucky's crew at the new store. While Djon's Village Market will be different than Lucky's, at least some parts of Lucky's will continue to live on in Brevard County, even if it is indirectly.

     That being said, to end today's post, I will turn the table to Lucky's themselves to provide us with some final words:

"We are sad to announce that our doors are permanently closed. We’re grateful for the support from this community, since opening our doors in 2017. What we built with you, our loyal customers, was not in vain. You helped contribute to our mission: Good Food For All. We appreciate all of the shopping trips you put in, the community organizations you helped us support and the friendships that we made along the way. We wish you the best, and an abundance of good food in your future."

Lucky's Market of West Melbourne

1/11/2017 - 2/21/2020

"We could have gotten away with this store too, if it weren't for that meddling SEG!"