Vegetable Beef Soup From Winn Dixie
Once upon a time Winn-Dixie stores spread across the Due south like dew on a summertime morning. At its peak, the concatenation had well over a grand stores and was a top 10 national retailer.
Winn-Dixie can trace its roots to Miami, FL in 1925, when the Davis Family (a significant shareholder until 2012) moved South and bought out a local grocer.
Waves of acquisitions followed and in the 1940s the chain moved its HQ to Jacksonville, FL. In 1952, the company became the starting time Florida corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Another wave of acquisitions led the original Winn & Lovett chain to rebrand as Winn-Dixie in 1955.
The name resonated inside a region and a legacy brand was built-in. Winn-Dixie in the South meant the aforementioned to the region that A&P represented in the Northeast, Kroger in the Midwest, or Safeway on the West Coast.
In the Deep Due south, Winn-Dixie was male monarch, and information technology'south cocky-declared nickname — "The Beef People" — was well known across the region.
Things pretty much progressed that style for the next 40 years. Winn-Dixie fought off encroachment from Kroger, waves of independents and even A&P and a scattering of other expansionists.
Then came trouble. And it was wearing the green and white uniform of homestate rival Publix.
The Lakeland, FL-based chain and current regional dominator began expanding rapidly in the 1990s. It's strategy quickly became clear: Motion into areas where Winn-Dixie was thriving and build a bigger, amend supermarket as close to those locations as possible.
Winn-Dixie'due south typical response was to raze its existing store and supplant it with a bigger, better Winn-Dixie Market on the same spot or nearby.
The scenario played out first in Florida, and so Georgia. It was a corporate battle that regionally rivaled the Coke and Pepsi Wars of the '80s and '90s. By 2005, every bit Publix began to roll through the rest of the Southeast, Winn-Dixie was spent out and filed for bankruptcy protection. Things have never been the same.
What we did not know so is that the battle of the Southern super-grocers may have also represented a cultural shift that has fully revealed itself only in contempo years.
Yes, it'due south Southeastern Grocers that has just filed for bankruptcy protection, with a plan to shutter 94 of its Winn-Dixie, Bi-Lo, Harveys, and Fresco y Más under-performing stores, leaving 582. SEG says information technology will trim down and come up dorsum with remodels and new concepts.
But when nosotros hear Southeastern Grocers, nosotros all think Winn-Dixie, the flagship banner: Bigger than Bi-Lo, more prominent than Harveys and with a 90-year head starting time on Fresco y Más.
After the next circular of closings, at that place will be somewhere around 460 Winn-Dixie stores in functioning, and some of those are already slated to exist rebranded under other SEG banners.
That's probably not a bad idea. Winn-Dixie may have an image problem.
The Due south'south population exploded by millions in the 1990s and 2000s, mirroring Publix' rising. This was not simply a case of Southerners making more Southerners. The vast majority of these newcomers arrived from other regions, other countries. It felt to many Southerners like some came from other planets.
Information technology'south important to note hither — Winn-Dixie did goose egg wrong. It's a coexisting association. Merely a supermarket name that had resonated with generations of Southerners and was a source of regional pride had a neutral or fifty-fifty negative impact on the incoming population.
Is 'Dixie' Tainted Beyond Repair?
It might brand Southerners uncomfortable, but the simple truth is the 'Dixie' in that name not only did not appeal to outsiders, it may have repelled some of them.
The recent cultural backfire confronting the Old South and any emblem of the Confederacy has been smoldering for a long time. When Donald Trump was elected president, the gloves came off — but that was a simmering pot coming to a eddy.
"Southern" had become doubtable. Annihilation Confederate was condemned. And anything that smacked of the Old Southward — you know, Dixie — was tainted beyond repair. In that location are a lot of statues that are no longer in public places that stand somewhere (or don't) as mute testament to that.
The newcomers to the South in the '90s and 2000s certainly more likely aligned themselves with Publix because of that chain'south superior strategy than because of a proper noun. They were all shopping at nice new Publix stores while Winn-Dixie was spending itself into bankruptcy edifice Marketplaces equally fast as information technology could.
The die was cast.
As Winn-Dixie crawled out of bankruptcy and changed hands, it faced an uphill boxing. Publix was greenbacks-rich, Walmart had exploded and the market upheaval had just begun.
In 2011, Winn-Dixie agreed to be bought out by the smaller, Carolinas-based BI-LO group, which morphed into Southeastern Grocers in 2013.
Non Much Momentum For Recovery
SEG found itself with a legacy banner that fell apartment with half its potential customers. Winn-Dixie had been the standard-bearer in suburban and urban areas. Now Publix is an e'er-growing, greenbacks-rich powerhouse in Southern cities and suburbs, well-equipped to fend off challengers.
The other pieces of the chain, Harveys and BI-LO, are country and small-town stalwarts.
Walmart owns almost of those small towns now. Brick and mortar infrastructure still costs money, and operating Harveys and BI-LOs for smaller audiences offers thin margins.
With Aldi and Lidl (remember them) still in the early stages of growth, the water will get deeper yet for SEG. And did somebody mention the net?
In that location doesn't seem to exist much there to generate momentum for recovery.
Interestingly, the only banner in the Southeastern Grocers lineup that is thriving is the Hispanic concept Fresco y Más. Just 18 stores, all in Florida, many of them erstwhile Winn-Dixie locations, catering to folks looking for a taste of back domicile and foodies looking for something new. Business is booming and the chain has grown apace since its introduction in 2016.
Winn-Dixie has spent this millennium on a defalcation treadmill (perchance a lingering expiry-spiral). Southeastern Grocers volition have to do some corking navigating to come back and compete in a cutthroat market. A potentially divisive marketing boundness around its cervix can't be whatever help. SEG had already started converting some Winn-Dixie locations to other banners before the bankruptcy. The imprint's days could be numbered no matter what else the future holds.
If Southeastern Grocers tin can't make it back — or makes a can't-win marketing move and ditches the proper noun — Winn-Dixie dies.
It will exist the cease of an era. A page will turn to a new chapter in Southern history. It may be the last Rebel Yell.
Source: https://southeastproduceweekly.com/2018/03/23/winn-dixie-dying/
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