Winn-Dixie opened a new discount grocery store at Kass Circle, seven years after closing another market at the same site in 1996.
By BETH N. GRAY
Published October 3, 2003
[Times photos: Maurice Rivenbark ]
Customers shop at Grocery Bargain Depot at Spring Hill Plaza. Winn-Dixie opened the store to test its no-frills concept. Items at the store are displayed in their shipping boxes, and shoppers bag their own groceries. The grocery chain operated a similar store in Orlando and has planned one for New Port Richey.
Shirley Wilcox chooses produce at Grocery Bargain Depot. The store carries name brands, generic brands and Winn-Dixie brands.
SPRING HILL - On a recent Saturday morning, as Roger and Marian Jimmo squashed 5-pound bags of frozen chicken into two cooler chests, ice cubes spilled into the trunk of their car. Other bags of groceries sat in the yellow grocery cart waiting to be unloaded, as they packed the trunk in preparation for the ride home to Tampa.
Minutes earlier, the Jimmos were driving by Spring Hill Plaza at Kass Circle when they noticed the new blue sign, Grocery Bargain Depot, and wheeled in.
"Prices on the specials are terrific, 18 cents (a pound) for chicken leg quarters," Marian Jimmo said.
"Get in there," her husband urged. "There's only one left."
But inside the brightly lit and spacious store that opened two weeks ago, manager Chuck Novick was restocking the chicken display.
The seven-day-a-week Grocery Bargain Depot is the first store in Winn-Dixie's new no-frills chain, said Joanne Gage, vice president of advertising/marketing for the Jacksonville-based Southern grocery chain. Another store has since opened in Orlando, while a third is set for launching soon in New Port Richey.
No frills means customers bag their own groceries. A lot of items are stacked in their shipping boxes on pallets.
"So, it takes a lot of the labor out," Gage said. The store is being operated by six full- and part-time employees.
"This is a test concept," she said. "Some items will be there week in and week out, but some will come and go as we get good buys, so it'll be while supplies last.
"It's a different use of a store that we're still paying rent on," said Gage.
The Depot is utilizing only 20,000 of the available 36,000 square feet once occupied by a Winn-Dixie market. In the summer of 1996 the store closed, to the consternation of many elderly and fixed-income neighbors, when the company opened its larger Winn-Dixie Marketplace on U.S. 19 at Weeki Wachee. A petition campaign and an attempt to boycott the new markets failed to save the smaller store. Bruce Larocca, location director for the company at the time, said the Kass Circle market lacked sufficient business to remain profitable.
Customer Diane Emerson vividly remembers the 1996 controversy.
"I'm very happy for the older people. They were very upset when (Winn-Dixie) closed," said Emerson as she shopped at the Depot last week. The Spring Hill resident doesn't live in the immediate neighborhood but heard about the new store from a lunch companion. As she was passing by, she decided to check it out.
Her verdict?
The prices were "pretty good," but the selection and prices of meat were "not as good" as at Save-A-Lot, Emerson said as she loaded her car with groceries.
"I won't make it my priority stop, but I'd come back," she said.
Groceries include national name brands, Winn-Dixie brands and generic brands. While some goods are stacked on pallets, the store includes shelving and moveable display tables, artful produce displays, fresh and vacuum-packed meats, a generous dairy counter and a selection of frozen foods from vegetables to ice cream.
That's enough to entice Roger and Marian Jimmo to include the store on their itinerary during their next trip to Spring Hill to check on their cousin's house. The Tampa couple said they'll bring their pickup and four insulated coolers to take advantage of the bargain grocery shopping.
