Winn-Dixie identifies closing stores

The grocery's reorganization will claim five bay area stores, disappointing regular shoppers. In all, 114 stores will close.

By HELEN HUNTLEY and JEFF HARRINGTON

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 29, 2000

Bay area closures HUDSON: 8856 State Road 52 LARGO: 1704 Clearwater-Largo Road NEW PORT RICHEY: 4028 Little Road PLANT CITY: 2520 Jim Redman Parkway TAMPA: 1601 W Kennedy Blvd.

Five Winn-Dixie stores in the Tampa Bay area will close in the next two months as part of the grocery chain's plan to slash $400-million from its annual operating budget.

The company said Friday that stores in Hudson, Largo, New Port Richey, Plant City and Tampa will close. Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. previously announced plans to close its division headquarters and distribution center at 2400 E Hillsborough Ave., Tampa.

Although the Jacksonville chain did not provide a roster of the remaining stores, the closings in the bay area appear to be in line with the company's announcement last week that it will eliminate nine percent of its stores.

Regular shoppers were disappointed Friday to learn their neighborhood stores were about to perish.

"I love this place," said Ricky Oliver, who was picking up newly processed photos at the Winn-Dixie at 1601 W. Kennedy Blvd. in Tampa. "I live a few blocks away and when it opened, we were all so happy."

Sara Thomas said she often stops by on her way home from work at nearby National Linen. "We're going to have to go someplace else, but I don't know where," she said.

[Times photo: Pam Royal] The Winn-Dixie store at 1601 W Kennedy Blvd. is slated to close May 21. The grocery chain plans to take a pretax charge of up to $550-million to pay for the cutbacks.

The Tampa store's opening in December 1996 drew cheers from the urban neighborhood. The sign that went up this week announcing the closing May 21 is eliciting a different reaction.

"We've been getting a lot of people coming in upset," said Tim Encinosa, an assistant manager. But he said the store could not generate enough sales to cover its expenses.

The stores being closed all are unprofitable, said Mickey Clerc, a spokesman for Winn-Dixie.

"We'll try to place the employees at other stores," he said. "If that doesn't work out, then we will have a severance package for all full- and part-time employees, based on their length of service."

He declined to disclose details of the package.

Winn-Dixie announced last week that it would close 114 stores in the 1,189-store chain, eliminating 11,000 jobs. About 600 stores will be remodeled.

The cutbacks in southwest Florida will be more extensive than those in the immediate Tampa Bay area. The closings announced Friday included three stores in Fort Myers as well as stores in Bradenton, Venice, Bonita Springs and Naples.

Winn-Dixie plans to take a pretax charge of up to $550-million to pay for the cutbacks.

Although most of the company's stores are in the southeast, the chain operates in 14 states.

-- Times staff writer Scott Barancik contributed to this report.

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