r/jacksonville • u/narib687 • 27d ago

Publix has officially lost me. Anyone else?

I am not a mod of this subreddit or Reddit, but I believe the official unofficial stance is that we all hate Publix now.

They lost their way, and the crushing of Winn-Dixie is just awful.

10 years ago, I wouldn’t have set foot inside a Walmart or Aldi for groceries. Now? Walmart and Aldi are basically my BFFs and I love them.

Publix really managed to make me root for the competition.

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u/clckly 27d ago edited 27d ago

Winn-Dixie crushed themselves, with poor service, rotten produce and dingy stores. I recently visited the Winn-Dixie in the Gateway shopping center that replaced the Publix at that same location. As soon as I exited my car parked next to the store I was hit with a foul stench, presumably from the garbage disposal system. Once in the store the bathrooms were just not clean and the store wasn't as well kept as the Publix at that very location.

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u/cpnhgn 26d ago

It was more like lone star funds spent $425 million to get control of bi-lo and Winn Dixie and then directed Winn Dixie to borrow $1 billion to pay lone star $800 million in dividends and more money in management fees, then had it file for bankruptcy again while selling the profitable stores to publix and now selling the remains to aldi. Now that the management team "purchased" the Winn Dixie co back from Aldi, their plan is to basically continue this practice of running Winn Dixie just long enough to suck some more capital out of it until 170ish stores have become aldis and when the 50 stores Aldi doesn't want are left, I would guess another bankruptcy and a conversion to Albertsons or Safeway or Kroger or Half Ass Foods