Tallahassee #14 | Winn-Dixie #3 - Monticello, FL
Sing Food Store | Deli
3211 Mahan Drive
Tallahassee, FL 32308
Amoco-Sing #50xx | Circle K #5170
Scroll Down for today's MTC posts on Winn-Dixie #3, former Publix #137, and former Winn-Dixie #193
Welcome back to The Sing Oil Blog! I apologize for being a week late with this post, but I ended up spending much more time researching the topics of this post than I intended. Likewise, I intend for this post to be my last before my annual "summer vacation", so I figured it wouldn't hurt for it to be a little longer than normal. I hope you enjoy it!
Similar to how it had been over two years since we last stopped by Columbus, it has been over a year since we last explored an old Sing Store in Florida's Capital City. The occasion, if you'll remember, was to check out the unlucky Tallahassee Sing #13 and tour the first (second-generation) GreenWise Market as it transitioned to a regular Publix.
Today's post will be a tad different, considering how we get to see on old Sing which remains a gas station. What's even more special is that this was the last store Sing Oil Company opened in Tallahassee (not counting the three locations Amoco opened in the 1990's). Furthermore, the fact that we have already covered so many Sing stations in Tally means that I'm running low on MTC topics. We'll get to breeze past two old supermarkets on either side of the convenience store, but I plan to spend most of my time with The Beef People in the next town over: Monticello. You know that the news must not be good if I'm rushing to cover this Winn-Dixie . . .
Sing Oil Company purchased the land we see here on January 23, 1986, for $160,000. County property records indicate the convenience store was completed the following year; the first mention I found for the Sing was a classified ad hiring for all positions in an October 1987 newspaper.
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| The Tallahassee Democrat (Newspapers.com) - December 19, 1987 |
Unlike many of the other Tallahassee stations, I don't have a lot of newspaper information on the old #14. I have to imagine this is because Sing was already toying with the idea of selling the company by the time 1987 rolled around, and they weren't as interested in spending a lot on marketing in the saturated city. After all, the Amoco merger was announced halfway through 1988, and Sing was comfortably the market leader at the time.
In spite of this, I did fine one article of interest describing the kidnapping of a 21-year-old Marathon man. The piece states that the victim, Ralph Phillips, was not injured, but was forced to ride from Miami to Tallahassee in the trunk of a 1977 Toyota. It was at the Mahan Drive Sing that he managed to break free from his confinement, jump into the driver's seat, and speed off in search of a payphone to call police.
That is quite the disturbing story, but it isn't the only time a Sing Store has made headlines in a kidnapping case. At least the victim here managed to flee.
The building itself was constructed in the style typical of Sing's mid-1980's convenience stores, and leaves little ornamentation save for the corduroy concrete block walls and the small touches of wood paneling below the windows.
Then again, out of all of Sing's convenience store designs, this one has certainly aged the best – I guess it helps that it was the company's final look. In contrast to the original mansard roof used on the older revisions of this design, I believe Tallahassee #14 still has its original awning in place that would have matched LaGrange #5. I'm just a bit surprised that I can still see Sing's old fluorescent lighting trough under the current awning, and I also think I see the framing for Sing's old canopy backlight.
Stepping inside, we once again find ourselves in the midst of a modern Circle K.
At least the floor tiling perfectly matches this store's sister in Bogalusa, LA, which tells me that one piece managed to survive.
I photographed this store back in 2021, and I am honestly shocked at how well my pictures turned out. That must have been before I had ever been confronted by any angry customers or any employees who accused me of being with the distributor!
I wonder what Circle K managed to stuff behind that curved wall. It looks neat in execution, but it seems like a lot of wasted space for such a small store in practice.
The missing ceiling tiles near the fountain machine aren't exactly a good sign. Was there a small roof leak before I got here or were they still finishing up the remodel away from Circle K's diamond plate and black interior.
Looking along the front wall of the store, we find a selection of FSU stickers, koozies, and beer-pong ping-pong balls next to a large shelf of Coke products.
Circle K moved the register up to the front left corner, as I believe Sing originally had it situated in the middle of the store (hence all of the replaced tiles where I'm standing).
We can also see one lonely piece of diamond plate that stuck around on the side of the chip shelf.
Those are some decent looking bananas for a convenience store! It's a shame that they cost $1 a piece compared to being only 25¢ at the Publix across the street!
This store may lack some of the cool and vintage pieces of several of the other Sings we have seen, but it is nice to see that the space has been kept up to modern standards. It's also reassuring to know that the station won't be torn down anytime soon like its former sibling on Crawfordville Road.
Sing only ever built six stations of this design (half of which were in Tallahassee), but a subtle revision was made in 1987. I believe the major changes consisted of adding this window on the left side of the store and switching from the mansard to the rectangular awning. Based on my experience at LaGrange #5, I believe the window's purpose was to provide light for the deli seating area, while the awning was changed to accommodate the 1986 yellow Sing logo. It's a shame that Circle K simply covered over the glazing here.
What Circle K didn't do was remove Sing's old air and vacuum station. $2 seems like a lot to pay for air when QT and Wawa give it out for free.
While I may not have enough content for a full MTC post on these next stores, I wanted to make sure and highlight the two former supermarkets which literally sandwich the old Sing Store. First up, let's take a look at some street views of the old Sing.
Street Views
Google Street View - March 2008
Google Street View - May 2017
Google Street View - February 2025
Aerial Views
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| Historic Aerials - 1984 Future site of Tallahassee Sing #14 |
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| Google Earth - February 1995 Tallahassee #14 Amoco-Sing |
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| Google Earth - January 1999 Former Tallahassee #14 along with Publix #137 and Winn-Dixie #193 |
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| Leon County GIS - February 2007 Kraft Nissan, Circle K, and Lafayette Place |
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| Google Earth - March 2025 Former Tallahassee Sing #14 as a Circle K |
Additional Resources:
Parcel ID: 1127202400000
The Top Slice
Former Publix #137 | Former Big Lots #5327
Lafayette Place
3111 Mahan Drive
Tallahassee, FL 32308
Publix operated Tallahassee's store #137, the fifth Publix in the city, from May 28, 1987, until November 7, 2012, when it was replaced by a brand-new supermarket across the street. This "40E" used Publix' standard layout of the time and was presumably built in anticipation of the growing residential developments along Highway 90 / Mahan Drive.
I still think Publix and Sing may have been in cahoots with each other, or at least used the same metrics, because this is yet another one of the eight former Sing Stores located within a block of a Publix.
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| The Tallahassee Democrat (Newspapers) - May 27, 1987 |
Anyhow, the Lafayette Place location also happened to use a circa 1967 store number despite its opening 20 years later.
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| The Tallahassee Democrat (Newspapers.com) - May 28, 1987 |
Me being who I am, of course could not resist the challenge of finding the original Publix #137. That sent me into a research tailspin when I realized that there was only a single store #137 in my spreadsheet.
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| The Orlando Evening Star (Newspapers.com) - December 7, 1967 |
I ended up learning a lot about Publix stores from the mid-1960's but still came up empty handed until The Albertsons Florida Blogger sent over one of his recollections. He happened to remember an old Publix he had come across in Titusville, and realized it fit the bill perfectly to be the original #137: it opened on December 7, 1967, and closed on September 24, 1986, the night before its replacement, Publix #298, opened. With the suspect location closing in 1986, that paved the way for Publix to reuse #137 for a 1987 store opening. If you think that is confusing, don't even get me started on the Food World stores, some of which were assigned three different store numbers over the course of their tenure.
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| Courtesy of Joe B. (Foursquare) - January 19, 2012 |
The Lafayette Place Shopping Center was named for the nearby Lake Lafayette, and included other businesses such as Walgreens, Southern Sun Florist, The Haru Inn Chinese restaurant, Hoffman's Chocolate Shoppe, Dawson's Yogurt, Baby's Delight, and Easy Mail Inc.
Walgreens ended up moving to a freestanding store across Capital Circle between 2008 and 2011, while the other businesses have also since closed or moved.
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| Courtesy of Robin Y. (Foursquare) - December 24, 2011 |
It is still hard to remember a time when Tallahassee had a 1980's Publix like #137; all of them have now been gone for over a decade. This store's replacement, #1401, has since sported three different interior looks in that time span, and the old Big Lots in this space has totally come and gone. There's no telling who will move in now that Big Lots has gone belly-up, but I can say that the inside of this space no longer resembles its former supermarket past.
All of this leaves #533 in Bradfordville as the oldest Publix in Northwest Florida, which makes scenes like the one below feel very much out of place.
Even with Big Lots taking over the space, the old tile mural of the historic Florida State Capitol has managed to stick around on the left side of the store.
As expected, we find Pati Mills' signature on the right side of the piece. I'm really glad to see that this was preserved and not simply painted over or torn down like so many others!
With that brief tour of the old Publix out of the way, let's get the rest of this bread.
The Bottom Slice
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| Courtesy of Leon County GIS |
Former Winn-Dixie #193 | Kraft Nissan
Winn-Dixie Marketplace
3111 Mahan Drive
Tallahassee, FL 32308
Just east of the old Sing is former Winn-Dixie #193; certainly, the unluckiest of these three businesses. Why, you ask?
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| The Tallahassee Democrat (Newspapers.com) - March 25, 1997 |
Well, the drama started before the store even opened as area residents were worried about the additional rush hour traffic the new Winn-Dixie would introduce. They feared that the then two-lane Mahan Drive would be unable to accommodate all of the extra shoppers in addition to the drivers from the booming nearby housing developments. Regardless, construction was allowed to progress thanks to a zoning rule that allowed developers to ignore maximum traffic capacities in the case that a road was scheduled to be widened within the next three years.
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| The Tallahassee Democrat (Newspapers.com) - October 1, 1998 |
The brand-new Winn-Dixie Marketplace managed to open before construction had even begun on Mahan Drive, and the rest is history.
It wasn't long before an angry neighbor wrote into the newspaper complaining about how Winn-Dixie got away without installing a turn lane on Mahan Drive due to the planned widening. He stated that he would simply not support the store until a new lane was installed, and it seems that he wasn't the only one.
Residents also complained about how the new developments disturbed area wildlife and the adjacent Lake Lafayette.
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| The Tallahassee Democrat (Newspapers.com) - May 2, 2000 |
All of this bad publicity, and seemingly bad traffic, undoubtedly contributed to this store's lackluster sales. Winn-Dixie #193 officially closed on May 3, 2000, along with #165 on West Tharpe Street, marking one of the first large fissures to emerge prior to the company's 2005 bankruptcy. A brand new store closing after nineteen months is never a good sign. (At least that's still better than eight months.)
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| Leon County GIS - 2001 |
Unfortunately, this aerial photograph is the best image I could find of the very short-lived supermarket. We can see that it looked like most other Deli Café Marketplace stores of the era based on the shadow!
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| The Tallahassee Democrat (Newspapers.com) - April 18, 2004 |
The building was vacant for almost four years before the local Nissan dealership became interested in the site. They pitched the property as a natural fit considering how they could simply retrofit the existing structure into a car dealership and keep all of the current paving and irrigation. Kraft Nissan ended up opening the dealership in 2005 and has remained ever since.
With the two Mahan Drive supermarkets behind us, let's dive into a nearby Winn-Dixie that has enjoyed much more longevity.
Made In Florida
Winn-Dixie #3 | Future ALDI
Jefferson Square
1245 South Jefferson Street
Monticello, FL 32344
Of course, nothing can last forever.
Since I didn't have much to share regarding those two Tallahassee stores, I figured we'd take a short 20-minute drive down Highway 90 to the one-and-only Winn-Dixie #3 in Monticello. I knew I'd have to cover this store at some point, and figure there is no time like the present!
Monticello (pronounced "MA-ni-SELL-oh" or "MON-tiss-EL-oh" by Wikipedia), is the county seat and only municipality in Jefferson County, Florida. The town of roughly 2,500 people is home to a quaint selection of historic buildings and an annual watermelon festival but is otherwise fairly standard for Florida's Nature Coast with its rural charm.
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| Courtesy of MapChart - Doesn't Leon County (just to the west of Jefferson) look like a shoe? |
It seems to be no coincidence that Jefferson County's neighbor to the north is Thomas County, Georgia. While the latter was established in 1825 and named for Jett Thomas, an officer in the War of 1812, the former was created two years later and named for Thomas Jefferson himself, who had passed away in 1826. Logically, the county seat was named for Jefferson's Virginia estate.
As we can see above, Jefferson County is also the only county in the state to boarder both Georgia and the Gulf of Mexico America. It may not be as tall as Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, or Walton Counties (which span between Alabama and the Gulf in West Florida), but it has more bragging rights!
Jefferson County was ranked the third most rural county in the state of Florida by a click-baity looking article; however, I can attest that the county indeed lacks any formal traffic signals (only a blinking light or two)
Examining the Winn-Dixie in particular, we surprisingly have to turn back the clock to the early-1950's and explore a company that I was not very familiar with before now: Lovett's.
For those who don't know, Lovett's is one of the early predecessors to Winn-Dixie, considering how proprietor William Davis purchased the Winn & Lovett grocery company in the 1930's and continued to use the Lovett's brand throughout the company's home turf of North Florida until 1956.
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| The Valdosta Daily Times (Newspapers.com) - March 3, 1955 |
If you zoom into the above 1955 newspaper ad, you can see mention of a Lovett's store at 165 Walnut Street in Monticello, along with all of the other Lovett's locations at the time. (I want to thank frequent contributor Henry H. for his help with the historical research).
Based on county property records, I believe the roughly 6,200 square foot grocery store, situated one block from the Jefferson County Courthouse, dates back to 1952 and would have been similar to outlets in nearby towns like Madison, Perry, Tallahassee, and Thomasville.
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| Courtesy of John Margolies (RoadArch) - 1979 |
Photos of 1950's supermarkets are often hard to come by; however, there is quite a bit of documentation on the market featured at the center of the ad. Of course, that Lovett's was in Jacksonville, and was captured in 1979 as a Winn-Dixie by John Margolies, a famous roadside architecture photographer.
That old Lovett's still stands to this day, and the Road Arch blog has a bit more to say about the historic structure. I also have to thank Charles Burgess for sending me the pin for this store just as I was researching the Winn-Dixie ancestor!
Anyhow, a 1956 ad for S&H Green Stamps listed the Monticello store as a Winn-Dixie, rather than a Lovett's, meaning that the Jacksonville-based Winn & Lovett had successfully completed its merger with Greenville, SC-based Dixie Home Stores and rebadged its legacy locations under the combined Winn-Dixie name.
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| Google Street View - 2011 |
I annotated the above Google Street View to sloppily show how I believe the old market looked during the 1960's and 1970's. In the 2011 Street View, I can make out the shadow of the word "DIXIE" on the right side of the building, but I can't tell for sure how the other letters were laid out. It would, although, make sense if the signage matched what was used on the Jacksonville Art Deco edifice.
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| Jefferson County Property Records - January 12, 1979 - Deed Book 90 / Page 712 |
I also couldn't resist including this 1979 deed which refers to the Walnut Street property as "the old Winn-Dixie grocery store." It isn't often that I find digitized deeds dating back to the 1970's, much less ones referencing former property tenants!
Being so close to Florida's Capital City, I knew I was bound to dig up some information about Monticello's supermarket history in the Tallahassee Democrat. I'll just say that the paper did not disappoint.
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| The Tallahassee Democrat (Newspapers.com) - May 8, 1975 |
Hall Properties of Jacksonville, likewise, announced the development of a brand new shopping center for Monticello which would open in 1977; the company had recently constructed a number of other Winn-Dixie supermarkets and shopping centers across South Georgia and North Florida, such as Claxton Square or Clermont Shopping Center.
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| Courtesy of Otherstream (Flickr) - July 9, 2005 |
I'd imagine that the Jefferson Square WD originally looked like the now-demolished Winn-Dixie #2801 in King's Mountain, North Carolina (shown above). Winn-Dixie supermarkets from this era were known for their metal façades with a distinct trapezoidal protrusion in the center.
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| The Tallahassee Democrat (Newspapers.com) - October 15, 1978 |
Winn-Dixie #3's doors officially swung open to a 20,000 sq ft sales floor on November 17, 1977, and marked a new chapter for The Beef People in Jefferson County.
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| The Tallahassee Democrat (Newspapers.com) - February 28, 1980 |
Notice how almost all of the locations above were in Winn-Dixie shopping centers. The exceptions being Quincy, which was the town's former Winn-Dixie, and Southside, which was across the street from Winn-Dixie.
The supermarket was joined by a 6,500 sq ft Eagle Family Discount store (the same Eagle Discount brand which was adjacent to the Perry Sing #1) as a junior anchor, while a larger TG&Y Family Center was slated to open in 1979. All of that was fine and good, except for the fact that Hall Properties promised much more when the center was originally pitched to area residents.
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| The Tallahassee Democrat (Newspapers) - December 27, 1979 |
Mitchell Ward, owner of Ward's Pharmacy, mentioned how the shopping center was promised to provide a whole host of businesses, including a pizza restaurant, shoe store, and a sandwich place, yet many of those had not materialized after 26 months.
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| The Tallahassee Democrat (Newspapers.com) - August 16, 1978 - Sales ad for Ward's Drug Store |
Mr. Ward was angry with the developers because, despite him reaching his sales targets, he claimed that "the vacancies out here are detrimental to our businesses," and that "it would have been a lot easier if more stores were full."
Eventually, more storefronts filled, considering how I found ads for businesses like Capital Realty Associates, County Seat Bar-B-Que Barn, D's Casuals, the Jefferson County Library, Martha's restaurant, R. D. Jordan, D.V.M., and Family Dollar throughout the 1980's in The Democrat.
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| The Tallahassee Democrat (Newspapers) - July 5, 1980 |
I suspect that the Eagle store was sold to Family Dollar in 1980, considering how Dollar General purchased 206 other Florida stores from the chain in 1985.
That Family Dollar stuck around until sometime between 2013 and 2016 when the company built a brand-new, sand-alone store across the highway. It wasn't long after that when the new Family Dollar swapped to its sister brand, Dollar Tree.
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| The Tallahassee Democrat (Newspapers.com) - July 29, 1980 |
I'm honestly shocked that Jefferson Square could support so many discount stores, but then again, Monticello currently has the aforementioned Dollar Tree, a Dollar General, and a Dollar General Market.
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| The Tallahassee Democrat (Newspapers) - May 9, 1987 |
Family Dollar still ended up coming out on top because by 1987, TG&Y had called it quits, leaving Winn-Dixie to fend for itself in the shopping center.
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| Google Earth - March 1994 |
In any regard, The Beef People seemed to get by just fine . . .
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| Google Earth - January 1999 |
. . . considering how the store (the space at the north end of the center with the white roof) expanded to the north and west between 1994 and 1999.
The Winn-Dixie doubled in size during this time, ballooning from its original footprint of roughly 20,000 sq ft to the then-standard 45,000 sq ft Deli Café layout. To bring the store up to snuff, the rear wall was pushed back nearly 65 feet, while the north wall was shifted another 40 feet. Welcome to The Marketplace.
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| Courtesy of Charles Burgess (Flickr) - November 2011- That orange is just hideous! |
Sometime before 2011, the property owner spruced up Jefferson Square by painting the exterior some wild colors. I have to say that the original white looked much better!
My friend Charles didn't get a picture of it back then, but this store also managed to keep its Marketplace road sign up into the 2010's. Notice how they removed the "Cafe" lettering around the time of the 2005 bankruptcy as a way to cut costs and reduce service departments. Sneaky, sneaky!
Does that Burger King look like an old Hardee's to anybody else?
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| Courtesy of Hull Style Productions (Google Maps) - August 2016 |
To combat the dated image that The Beef People couldn't seem to shake, Winn-Dixie decided to upgrade this store's exterior signage around 2014 to showcase a red check in place of the old Marketplace diamond sign on the building and at the road.
I still have to wonder, why bother? All you are doing is putting lipstick on a pig! If there is anything that frustrated me about Winn-Dixie during the 2010's, it is the fact that the company would spend money on extravagant remodels and new stores in some places, while executing meaningless upgrades at others. This made me wonder if Winn-Dixie would ever ultimately leave the 1990's . . .
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| Courtesy of Charles Hamilton (Google Maps) - July 2017 |
. . . and finally forget that Deco Rose and San Jose Blue were ever a thing.
As for the inside of the store . . . not much changed until the full Winn Win remodel in 2021. Prior to that, the Type III Rose & Teal Marketplace interior looked like it was straight out of 1994.
It was only after this store's transformation that I realized Winn-Dixie was truly on a path toward modernization. A path that seemed like it would lead to success – that is, until Aldi came in and crashed the party. Those damn Germans.
With that, let's see one of the reasons why I no longer care to support the German discounter. If I didn't have reason enough to avoid the grocer, thanks to its limited selection and my aversion to making multiple grocery trips on a given day, the fact that they are stealing the stores which are finally nice to shop at just rattles me to my core. I would have been much better with the situation had Aldi swooped in before 2021 and converted what they wished, but it is the fact that Southeastern Grocers teased us with what Winn-Dixie could have been which makes me upset.
Following its 2021 remodel, the Monticello Winn-Dixie is one of the nicest SEG stores I've shopped at and could easily compete with Publix (if the county was big enough to support one). Now, once again, Monticello will just be relegated to the land of discounters and shoppers will have to drive 30 minutes if they want to find a mainline supermarket. (Okay, maybe Bob & Jeff's Neighborhood Market isn't that bad. I just don't have much faith when the only image on the Google listing is of the loading dock . . .) On the other hand, at least Monticello will still have a nice local farmer's market and a local meat market.
Situated on the Florida-Georgia Line Parkway, this store seems to hearken back to a bygone era at first glance. When was the last time you saw a Winn-Dixie with a sloped metal façade?
The answer for me is, not in a very long time (if ever). I've seen plenty of long-gone stores sport the look, but #3 has always been unique in my book.
I also know when I first realized that this store was Winn-Dixie #3, I was shocked to think of how old it may be. It was years later when I learned that The Beef People's store numbers are much more dependent on geography than the opening date (especially considering how #7 opened in 2016).
Anyhow, the circa 1977 space originally ended where the solid red trapezoidal façade subsides on the right. Notice how the store isn't quite symmetrical due to the shopping center being built on an incline.
That slope becomes much more pronounced when we turn our attention toward the old TG&Y and Eagle Family Discount spaces at the south end of the plaza. It's a shame how modern times have still left Jefferson Square in the position of needing more tenants. I wonder how long the newly-vacated 1/2 Winn-Dixie will sit idle . . . and how many jobs will be lost in the process.
Speaking of sitting idle, I spotted a Redbox machine still sitting out front during my most recent visit earlier this month (June 2025). The DVD rental service went kaput almost a year ago yet still has the machines just wasting away. I'm sure Aldi will find a way to dispose of it.
As I prepared for this post, I realized I had done an underwhelming job of photographing this store. Knowing its fate, I decided I should change that; I promptly found a reason to travel back to Monticello and fix my past mistakes. The only problem is that I may have over-corrected . . .
I went from having about 15 photos to having 65. Forgive me! I tried to remove as many duplicate shots as possible, but I felt that both of these exterior angles were too good to let go. This building looks so handsome after its 2021 glow-up!
Stepping through the doors, we find the cart coral in its typical vestibule home. Along with the fresh new signage, we also get a perspective of the building's original brick color. I'd say it works as a nice contrast of textures!
What's also a nice contrast is the produce department. I love how the Winn Win package uses green to differentiate this section from the rest of the store.
What else sets it apart is the fact it features the only color wall graphic in the entire store: some nice strawberry (?) fields.
I feel like "Meet your mushrooms" is supposed to be a pun, but this one isn't quite checking the box for me.
What does check the box is a nice seasonal display of watermelons and peanuts; I'd say that is a winning combination!
I also want to point out how the ceiling lights transition from wider fixtures over the produce department to narrower ones over the registers. Keep this in mind because it will come into play later.
From a taste of summertime to a taste of the tropics – this store has everything! I only remember seeing this display at one other WD, but I appreciate the effort the grocer went through to make some of these Winn Win produce departments feel more exotic. I especially love that custom sign! I will say, however, that Georgia peaches aren't quite tropical.
To continue with the specialty produce fixtures, we'll take a look at the notorious tomato cart. It's really a shame how many of these I've seen up for sale at fixture auctions!
Doesn't this corner of the store look so fresh?
Last, but not least, is the pepper cooler. They even spelled "Poblano" correctly here!
Like all good things, our time in the Produce Patch must also come to an end . . . next up, we head to the dark side.
We'll also have to make do with the fact that I neglected to photograph the floral department during any of my trips. At least we catch a small glimpse here, and Charles Burgess got a better shot of the sign during his visit last year.
At this point, you've heard me harp about how much I dislike center cut-through aisles, but something else just struck me with this picture: How often do you see three markers for aisle 1 in a single frame?
Turning to the right, we see a typical configuration for an old Deli Café Winn-Dixie, with Beer & Wine occupying the old "Cheese World" and hot food island while pallet drops of beverages take up the old seating and floral areas.
Hello, hello! I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello.
Doesn't that look like a lot of juice and tea? I'd say it is time we spill it!
Regardless, one of my favorite parts of the Winn Win interior is the local banner on the right side of the store. It's the subtle things that matter, and this small piece of standardized variance goes a long way to personalize this space.
Following my recent visit to store #3, part of me wished local residents would take action like the people of Crescent City: this store felt so nice! On top of how much brighter and cheerier this store looked as a WD, compared to its imminent doom, it is bound to be one of the largest employers in the small town of Monticello. The thought of how much this town is about to lose truly pains me considering how this is one of the nicest Winn-Dixies I have shopped at (post remodel, of course). If there is any consolation, at least the nearby Bob & Jeff's will benefit from a traffic increase (or the "nearby" Publix).
I may not be a supermarket expert (or am I?), but Busch Light and bottled water (that's where the individual bottles have been hiding!) dang sure don't look like deli items to me. That brings me to my next point . . .
When have you ever seen this many departments crammed so close together!
My friend, Charles, mentioned that the deli-bakery consolidation at #3 was a result of the 2005 bankruptcy and was performed in an effort to reduce department managers. That makes sense, but it is still strange to see the bakery consist exclusively of five freezer doors, while the actual deli is just signed as "kitchen."
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| Doesn't that reflection in the bottom of the case look neat? |
My 2023 shot of the Dietz & Watson deli case not only showcases the meat offerings (which includes the rotisserie chicken that I now prefer over Publix' Boar's Head variety), but it also provides a glimpse of the deli salad offerings this store once boasted. AFB and I have mentioned before how Winn-Dixie seems to have discontinued many of its former prepared food offerings, and this photo is just case-in-point. All of those salads look untouched!
Fast forward to 2025, and we find that the deli salads have been replaced by smoked turkey breast – all while the old deli case was covered by a vinyl sticker.
In spite of this, the store still had several different types of fried chicken (sauced and unsauced) along with fried rice, and a few other hot items.
Turning back toward the actual deli sign, we see the rotisserie chicken display paired with the pre-packaged containers of deli salads.
Parmesan, mozzarella, and pimento cheeses preside in a separate island fixture which overlooks the wine aisles. Once again, take note of the ceiling light fixtures in this shot.
It feels so wrong to see the bakery sandwiched between the deli kitchen and seafood departments!
In spite of this, the store still had quite the selection of baked goods arranged on shelves in front of the seafood and meat departments. That still doesn't change how I feel about a salmon glazed doughnut . . .
We'll continue our journey through the spectacular super service section with a profile view of the butcher and seafood counters. If anything, I'm shocked to see a full meat and seafood service station survive a Winn Win remodel, much less in the context of this mega service wall. Maybe the sales are strong enough in the 2020's to warrant keeping these sections open?
I still think that these rural locations are some of Winn-Dixie's stronger performers given the lack of other options. After all, the closest Publix (or Walmart) stores are 30 minutes away!
The Seafood Bakery Kitchen Deli. Hmm.
Did somebody say, "Cut Cost?"
Leaving that quirky combination, we find the much more familiar meat department in its familiar locale.
Look at me: I'm chipping through more of my photo backlog on aisle 3!
Like I said before, it is the subtle things that matter. In order to understand the history of this space, we must look up. While it may not seem like much, the light fixtures above us transition from roughly 1/4 of a tile wide to over 1/2 of a ceiling tile wide. This, much like the air vents in Chiefland, is our biggest clue into how large the supermarket originally was. It looks to me like this store's original sales floor ended roughly where the back half of the aisles being. Wow, this store was small!
Despite all of the upgrades, this store was still missing a few ceiling tiles over the back of the sales floor. I wonder if somebody found a roof leak, or if a service technician just got lazy while fixing a stray wire on a Friday afternoon.
At least that potential laziness didn't carry over to the freezer aisle: the row of island freezers may date back to the mid-1990's, but at least they were reskinned and, most importantly, the floor was robbed of its balance dated tile design.
The flooring in the rear of the store also appears to have been refreshed during the remodel.
Just imagine: if this photo was taken in 1990, I would likely be standing behind the butcher counter looking toward the front of the store. In spite of how small that seems, I can attest to how shallow those older Winn-Dixie stores are. I was shocked when I first stepped foot in one, just like how I was shocked when I realized the buggy in front of me was probably what I was pushing back in 2021 (I only know one person who would want that much grapefruit juice).
Anyhow, this shot also provides a nice perspective of the half-aisle Dollar Shop joined by the old pharmacy counter in the distance.
The pharmacy, of course, was removed during the 2023 Aldi purge and prescriptions were transferred to the CVS located across the street. Doesn't it seem odd that aisle 10 transitions from dog food to anti-diarrhea medicines? These split-aisle set ups still throw me for a loop!
Did somebody say, "flooring mismatch?" It may not be obvious in this photo, but I seem to remember noticing a subtle pink tint to the floors in this part of the store. I was also quite confused by the band of grey in the middle of the aisle, but now I wonder if that is a vestige of this store's old footprint. I can't imagine how bad the concrete underneath will look once Aldi comes to town!
Following the formal meat department, pre-packaged lunch meats round out the back left corner of the store: precisely opposite the deli counter.
I'm still amazed that most supermarkets separate the bologna from the Boar's Head and the Oscar Mayer from the oven roasted turkey considering how all of the above products find their way between two slices of bread (much like the Sing). Heck, Publix essentially has three lunch meat departments when you consider how Boar's Head pre-packaged meats are often separated from the main deli counter.
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| June 2025 |
Turning toward the left wall of the store, we find a selection of shredded cheeses. What's most notable about this picture is how Winn-Dixie continues to transition away from the Southeastern Grocers private label products toward the Know & Love brand – even after the Aldi sale to C&S Wholesale.
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| June 2025 |
I still don't know what the long term strategy with this transition is, but it seems to me like there is some reason why Southeastern Grocers is intent on eradicating the SEG private label.
This overview of the double-wide aisle fourteen provides a nice glimpse down the left wall of the store and showcases how well stocked the space remains.
Probably the strangest part about WD #3 is how the architectural soffit from the old bakery space remains over part of the dairy section. Despite the cost reduction in labor, it still seems like a large investment to consolidate the deli and bakery departments, which may be why the plan ultimately didn't get carried out in many locations. I just wish I could remember if there were any obvious traces of the old bakery set up when the Marketplace signage remained on the walls.
This look toward aisle 12 happens to also showcase the redesigned Mountain Dew and Pepsi logos – the former of which I didn't even realize had changed.
I'm generally much happier with how the photos from my new phone turn out compared to my old Galaxy S10; however, the white balance on this shot from 2021 looks much more appealing than what's shown below. Part of me wonders if that is due to my camera or if it is a result of Winn-Dixie swapping the spotlights for a cooler color temperature bulb.
All I know is that the fixtures in 2025 are very close to 4000K and should instead use a warmer 2700K or 3000K bulb; then again, nobody asked me.
I only recently learned this from a fixture auction, but the tall shelves used to block the old pharmacy counter are just the old prescription shelves from inside the booth. What a creatively cheap way to masquerade the space!
We'll wrap up our tour by taking a few looks toward the front of the store. This shot in particular showcases the old pharmacy waiting area.
That space, of course, has since been repurposed as a space for promotional products like outdoor rugs and umbrellas.
'Tile next time: unfortunately, there may never be a next time. Similar to how I was recently informed that there will never be a next time for me to see my beloved Chiefland store, I fear that a similar fate could happen any day in Monticello. I still have Fran-Dixie in Columbus that isn't too far out of my way; however, I continue to fear that store's relative isolation may be its ultimate downfall.
Anyhow, I suppose I should be happy for the time I managed to spend with WD #3 and pleased with how this store single-handedly gave me confidence in the grocer's future while also eventually providing evidence of Aldi's greed. Hopefully the local residents will be pleased with the change, but I know I won't be. I also feel confident that the parking lot for the future Aldi will never host this many cars on a regular week day.
With that, we have the story of Jefferson Square and Winn-Dixie's last 70+ years in Monticello.
It's crazy to think how this store has been open for close to half of Winn-Dixie's 100 year tenure, while the chain has been in Monticello for more like three quarters of that time.
Like I mentioned before, I fear that Monticello's small size will contribute to Aldi creating a large new void in Jefferson Square. You find a lot of other vacant businesses while driving along Highway 19, such as this old Amoco station or the former Fred's in the distance.
This old service station swapped to the independent Thompson's Gas Station at some point in the late-1990's or early-2000's but has likewise been closed since around 2008. I seem to remember somebody running a car wash business from the lot several years ago; however, that venture seems to have ended, too.
The property sits vacant once again, just as the Amoco "Full Service" signage is still on display and the black paint over the red, white, and blue Amoco canopy is slowly disappearing.
There is also a lonely regular gas pump that remains behind a small fence. I couldn't see any explicit Amoco branding, but I know the "Regular Lead Free" text is in the 1990's Amoco font.
On the other hand, the future of the small town isn't all doom and gloom. I spotted this new mural as I drove through the cute little downtown and realized that two women were actively painting it.
I appreciate the colorful depiction of the local longleaf pine ecosystem; the mural showcases the local environment's unique dependence on fire and its inhabitants like the Zebra Longwing butterfly . . .
. . . and the Bob White Quail.
Oh, and we can see a nice view of the Jefferson County Courthouse which sits amid the small roundabout interchange between US Highways 19 and 90.
That will conclude this long-overdue post, so I hope you enjoyed the journey! I hope you have fun on your summer vacation as well, and I plan to see you back here in August!
Until next time,
- The Sing Oil Blogger