WINN-DIXIE - Life in America 

I worked for WD for 18+ years from 1989 to 2007, and went from Produce clerk to Assistant Manager. I saw a lot of changes in the Co., some good, many not. But the local WD that I still shop at is well run. Most of my co workers at the time did feel like family and we made friends with so many of our customers that they still recognize me from WD. We did what we could to give our customers whatever they wanted and needed, even after Hurricane Andrew in '92 when we gave out water, ice and whatever else we had delivered in the parking lot. My best memory of WD is that I met my wife there in 1999. Although I still shop there, I admit to being a much happier customer than associate. I hope they do well as part of Southeast Grocers. Thanks for this history lesson and my own trip down Recollection Road.

As a kid, I remember a bag boy that worked at one of our local winn Dixies. He would work his way all the way up to store manager. He gave me a job right out of high school. One of the coolest guys there was. His younger brother though....not so much 😄 and somehow He was an assistant manager. That Winn Dixie is still there

God bless America 🇺🇸

I miss Winn-Dixie so much! There were two in my small town but they were both closed about six years ago during re-structuring. It was a real loss to the community. All we were left with was Wal-Mart and a local grocery. I only shop at the local now; greedy WM is Not getting my business. Winn-Dixie, please come home! Also, I had a cat that I found in the Winn-Dixie parking lot; she was called Winnie Esmeralda, named for the store.

Winn Dixie was my mother's third choice for groceries behind A&P and Food Giant. She mostly only went there when they had good deals in the meat department for steak and ground beef. She'd also purchased the their store brand softdrinks Chek because they were very cheap and had a huge variety of flavors, grape, rootbeer and strawberry were my favorites. When our local A&P closed mom switched entirely to shopping at Winn-Dixie. I got a part time job in W-D's in house photo lab while I was in college in the early 90's and enjoyed my time there. In the early 2000's all the Winn-Dixie grocery stores in the northwest Georgia area began to close and that was the last time I was in a Winn-Dixie. I hope they experience a come back and return to my little corner of the world as I would gladly renew my patronage of their store.

Good for them. The old days when being conservative meant lifting up everyone. Just like Dave Thomas of Wendy’s. Nice story. Retail grocery has always been cutthroat, so no shame there.

I worked at Winn Dixie from 1997-1999 in Hampton, VA, while in school at William and Mary. I was new to VA, coming from San Diego. Everybody was genuinely nice, courteous and real down to earth. I miss that store. I especially miss all the co-workers and my favorite customers.

I was in there, just this morning, as they opened. The Davis family are great people.

Please Winn-Dixie come back to Charlotte nc !!!!

I work for Winn-Dixie for over 20 years! It was such a wonderful place to work. The Associates at each store world like family. I was working for them when the last day of us brother was still in charge. He retired and then they hired two different presidents from Albertsons that absolutely ruined the company!!!

When I was little my grandparents always shopped at Winn Dixie. We lived in New Orleans and my parents shopped at this huge store called Shwegmanns. It was the early 60's. I'll always remember the experience when I spent the weekend at my grandparents and it all started with a trip to Winn Dixie on Friday night. Thanks again for the great video and good memories.

I've never been inside a Winn-Dixie because they weren't in my area of Northwest Ohio, I believe the closest was in Columbus but I could be mistaken. The thing that I miss most about grocery stores today is an actual butcher in the meat department. We only have 2 grocery stores left in my hometown (we used to have 6 in a town of about 20,000), a Walmart which I despise and a Kroger which isn't much better. Kroger built a new store a couple of years ago and it doesn't even have a deli counter, everything is pre-sliced and pre-packaged. Luckily, there are 3 actual butcher shops still in the area and they're always busy because of the excellent service. Oh, I forgot, we also have an Aldi so I guess we have 3 grocery stores left, still no butcher in the meat department though!

We just moved to Ormond beach, Fla and there’s a Winn Dixie right down the road😊. The best chicken - fried or wings and I enjoy not only the prices but small, personal feel the store has rather than the huge stores where you are just a number! I also am very familiar with the SE Grocers brand as I used to shop at Bi-Lo in NC until they closed! Imagine my surprise ( a very nice one!) when I walked into Winn Dixie and saw my familiar brands there! I will continue to shop at Winn Dixie as they are the most reasonable and the store is always stocked and immaculate. Keep up the good work👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻❤️

My second job ever was at Winn-Dixie. This was in the late 80's, and it was a good company. They started you out considerably more than minimum wage, full time with benefits, and opportunity for advancement. It is sad to see good companies go down, while places that treat employees like garbage thrive. I am mostly pointing at Walmart. I have worked at two. One was good. The other was like a North Korean concentration camp.

The Winn-Dixie in Laurens, SC was my grandma's favourite grocery store. Sometimes when she had other things to do, she'd send me by myself to get the milk and whatever other few things we needed. As a kid I felt so proud to be helping out! My grandparents lived not far from the railroad tracks, and whenever a freight train went by, all the kids would run out to watch. Grandpa worked at the paper mill and when the whistle blew, my brother and I would run out to meet him as he walked home. Grandma was usually finishing up lunch (which in the South is "dinner") and then we'd all sit down to the biggest meal of the day. RIP Grandma and Grandpa, I miss you! 🤗🤗💜💜

I feel very lucky to have grown up in the best of times in America and then through the long slow decline.

I was at Winn Dixie yesterday.

Our Winn Dixie is 2 miles from my house. Love my store. Many people here (south Florida) are Publix snobs but I find Publix to be more expensive. Winn Dixie has the best meats. “The beef people”. I can remember when they used to do the BOG2F, buy one get 2 free. Loved those days. My store is still great about doing lots of BOGO sales.

Last time I went to Winn-Dixie was sometime in the mid-2000's. The one in my hometown ended up closing down around that time. I remember feeling disappointed as there were only a handful of grocery stores left with Walmart being the biggest. The problem is Walmart tends to get so crowded it makes it hard to shop there. You basically have to go there at certain times of the day to avoid the crowd.

Growing up in the Atlanta area Winn Dixie was mostly my family's go to store once Wal-Mart started opening super centers in the mid 90s in the area, was when the beginning of the end of Winn Dixie's presence in Atlanta. Eventually they tried a rebrand called SaveRite but it ultimately failed and they left the Atlanta area for good. Today most of the former locations became Food Depot after some were bought by Food Lion before they to left the Atlanta area. With Depot buying some of the former Lion converted locations as well.Though even before Wal-Mart, they had Ingles, Kroger, A&P and later Publix also coming in.

Wow didn't know the history of Winn Dixie. My Wife I go there all the time. It's 10 minutes from the house. I can't explain but we like going there because it feels more friendly and helpful

I love winn-dixie. I go there at least once a week.

I'd like to see more videos like this, about other famous stores, supermarkets, restaurants....

My mother was a secretary at the Dixie Home Stores in Greenville when they were purchased by Winn & Lovett. She loved the job and was treated like family before and after the sale. Salesmen would leave promotional items with employees in the office. One year my brother and I received a Campbell Soup electric train from "Santa" for Christmas. Her boss, knowing she had two young kids, insisted she take it home. Winn-Dixie always will have a place in my heart.

this bring back a lot of memories for me since I lived in florida and Winn-Dixie was everywhere down there and we went to either to Winn-Dixie or Publix but mainly to Winn Dixie that was a great store

Winn-Dixie was still in Texas in the early 90s. On my wedding day, it was the last place I went to as a single man, to buy some film for a camera in 1992 lol Moving to Fort Worth, there was a Winn-Dixie a few miles from where we lived, and we frequented it often, as the Great Satan (Walmart) was not yet spawned in our area. It was a good time, a simpler time, and WD could always be counted on for fresh food at a good price.

Sadly today, USA monopolies are just that. We don’t have variety anymore.

I started at Winn Dixie when I was 14 and worked 5 years . My brother retired as a store manager with about 25 years.

I live in saint petersburgh, florida, I shop at winn dixxie every saturday. It is a good supermarket.

Thank you Thank you

Today. I recently started shopping only at W-D. They have good prices.

Every week we go, living in Englewood Florida it’s the place to go. Knowing the history and the good they do it’s nice to support them even more.

I worked at WD in NC in the 70's. WD promoted itself as "The Beef People" and ruled the south back then. Started as a part time bag boy and worked up to Asst Meat Dept Mgr before leaving for a military career. When I retired and came back home, all my co-worker friends from the old days had lost jobs they'd had for 20+ years when WD went bankrupt and closed all NC stores.

My mother shopped exclusively at Winn-Dixie here in the mountains of North Carolina. During middle school I would walk from the campus to the Dixie store every Friday to meet her and help her pick up groceries. Pulling out of their parking lot she had limited visibility so she always got nervous and asked me to watch my direction for her. On the way home we always stopped at Boyd’s Drive-in for chuck wagon sandwiches. Later on in life I had moved to Florida and thought I’d give W-D a visit. I was severely let down as the stores there were all run down and wreaked of spoiled food, especially fish. They were generally unclean so I ended up shopping at Publix.

I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky...my parents did most of their shopping at Kroger, but my dad always made sure we bought our meats at Winn Dixie...

I still shop at Winn Dixie of today at Apopka Florida. It's always been my food store. And i thank God from where he brought me from back in the day in the 70s and up today.

In NW Louisiana we had Piggly Wiggly stores in the 60s when I was a kid. I remember they ground coffee fresh and bagged it right in the store. Winn Dixie didn't show up here until the 70s as I recall.

A&P, Piggly Wiggly, Big Star, and Winn Dixie were the most notable grocery chains when I was a kid in the late 70's to early 80's. I remember the Winn Dixie commercials boasting about their USDA beef, and the meat sections had assorted meats in the coolers and some hanging from the ceiling. The last time I went to Winn Dixie was last Thanksgiving to buy our holiday feast. Being a veteran, I do most of my grocery shopping in the commissary and sometimes our local Publix. Occasionally, we still go to Winn Dixie to buy things just for nostalgia.

Started WD at 15 years old bagging groceries and after 30 years I'm still here. Store manager in Jax FL. WD is all I know, miss the old days with the Davis family.

I have been with a Winn-Dixie in Central Florida for about four months. I love the people in my job. A great company for sure

Southeastern Grocers owned a chain of stores called Bi-lo that we used to go to when we moved to South Carolina but one by one they closed down and most of them reopened as Food Lion stores,they always had pretty good prices and great deli fried chicken

Thank you for bringing us this Southern Gem. Please do PUBLIX next!

There was nothing like Winn-dixie back in the day in upstate South Carolina. Great prices and a meat market better than anyone around. Sure wish we still had them once again. God Bless and keep y'all safe.

I miss the Winn-Dixie that closed here in Knoxville, Tn. I shopped there for years.

I moved back to FL in 1980 and my aunt in Jacksonville always shopped there. Interesting history.

My mother moved to Tampa from nyc & raved about Winn Dixie...when I went to visit it was on my bucket list...

Retired now, I worked at Winn Dixie for six years during my college years. The store manager was the most decent and humane boss I ever had. RIP Mr.A

Almost brings me to tears remembering going here every week with my mom as a kid in the '90s. Store was very cozy. Was always excited to see the live lobsters near the deli. This was during a time when internet, TV, games, food, and just about everything was at its peak. Crazy how you can feel nostalgic about something so simple in today's electronic age.

I worked for WD thru high school. That was back in the early 70's.

My favorite place to shop when I’m on vacation in Florida and surrounding areas

Worked 29 years at the Raleigh Division main office in NC. Loved my time at W/D and miss my family there.

In my area there were a lot of Winn-Dixie stores that were older and had a reputation for not being the cleanest. We had a Winn-Dixie store close to us when I was growing up, but my parents would drive more than 10 minutes away to shop at another Winn-Dixie store because it was nicer. I remember when they opened up some of the marketplace stores and what a big deal that was. Winn-Dixie has done a lot in recent years to improve their stores and their image. A couple stores in my area that had been purchased from another grocery or recently renovated, and they look great. It is a much brighter, cleaner, and more inviting place to shop than it used to be.

I LOVE WINN-DIXIE!!

I just went to Winn Dixie here in Palm Bay, Florida to get groceries this Saturday. The only place I shop.

I Worked @ The Winn-Dixie Distribution Center In Charlotte, NC......It Was Harsh.......But, Love ❤️ Shopping @ Winn-Dixie......Their "Cracking' Good" Products Was Really Good......Their Brand Of Soft Drinks (Check) Had Every Flavor Under The Rainbow......😊💯👍🏾

Back in the early 80s, my grandpa used to take my mom and my aunt from our house in Atlanta to Winn Dixie in Forest Park (where I live now) to buy the best groceries. That or at A&P in the same area down here. They lived up to the name The Beef People. Ah childhood memories.

Miss you in NC, you are the first stop I make in Florida

Back when Winn Dixie came to Texas, bought Buddies grocery, my store I worked at in Mineral Wells, Texas was the first to change names when remodeled.

I feel lucky that we still have one left in our town of Deltona, Florida. Recently remodeled it is often busy and I go there often.

I wish you could do a show on Albertsons . I drove for the company for 25 years and retired not long after Joe Albertsons passed . Once he passed away the company was ran into the ground . Eventually it was sold to a holding group in Florida ( this is what I heard ) which also bought Safeway . They ended closing over 120 stores in Oregon and Washington .

Winn Dixie used to be the go to place when I was a kid in the 70's. But they were headed down hill by the late 80's or so. Now eventhough there are 5 in my area of coastal Georgia Publix is the place to go.

It was back in the early 1990's, I was on vacation and I remember Winn Dixie Supermarket Chain. I also remember Piggly Wiggly Supermarket Chain.

We still have a winn Dixie 2 miles away from us. I only know of 2 other stores each over 10 miles away. We have been shopping at our store since mid 1980,s. It has a good customer base still.

I love Winn-Dixie. I shop at my local one at least weekly. I am thinking about applying there for a job too. I hope they hire 50 year olds and up.

18 years with WD, no regrets. Miss it so much.Sad to see what remains.

I remember Winn Dixie. Loved going there.

Yesterday. It's one mile from our home in central Florida, we have two in our city. There is a publix across from both of them

Being from PA I never visited one. But I've heard of them. Sounds like a great company

As a child, I fondly remember grocery shopping every Saturday morning, sometimes afternoon with my grandmother @ Winn Dixie in the early to mid 1980's.

Back in the 80's was the last time! Loved that store!

Bagged Groceries there in 1974.

When I moved to Louisville, KY 25 years ago, there were still Winn-Dixies in the city. I had never been in one, and there were several nearby me. I think they are all gone now in Louisville.

I liked going to the Winn-Dixie here in Texas. It was a sad event when it closed down around 2002.

grew up in south florida back in 60's-70's i liked the chek soda that cost hardly anything and had a great variety .my parents were publix fans where everything cost twice as much .

Winn-Dirty is what we always called these stores in the 1980s and still do today. The stores used to reek of dead chickens. I've come across other Floridians of my age and older who called it that and have similar memories. Their stores in the 1980s were outdated and dirty. During this same time, Publix was adding new stores and constantly renovating older ones. No doubt, they did have the best beef selection out of the major grocery stores in Florida. Their house branded stuff {Super brand and Chek) were hit or miss. The Chek ginger ale wasn't the nicest tasting stuff but was the official drink of choice for summer camp belching contests. Today it is hit or miss. Some of their stores are like walking into a time capsule, frozen in time in the 1990s with the turquoise and pink color scheme with 30+ years of wear and tear. Others are clean and modern and much nicer than Publix. The one in Heathrow is an old store but with renovations is almost on par with Wegmans. Store sizes are all over the board from something the size of a CVS store to larger than a Publix store. Departments and product selection varies as well. They just opened up a new store near me which is smaller but has fantastic produce, deli, and bakery departments. BUT they don't have a single greeting card for sale! Prices have been very good over the past few years, much cheaper than Publix, sometimes less expensive than Aldi. One odd thing is that their supply chain has been excellent over the past two years. When Publix and Wal-Mart have empty shelves, Winn-Dirty's are full. The only thing they were running low on this year are bagged salads due to the recalls. Its actually become my first choice for a grocery store.

I love Winn Dixie and shop there every week!

I live in Miami Florida and Winn-Dixie was the main store we shopped at back in it's heyday, today i shop at a mixture of grocery stores, Winn-Dixie, Publix, and Aldi's.

We had a chain called Buddies in DFW, Texas. Winn-Dixie bought them out. I guess that was their entry into Texas. The last Winn-Dixie I shopped in was in Grapevine, Texas. It was only a few years old when it closed. A Hobby Lobby is in that space today.

I remember shopping at WD with my mom and then working there as my first job, this was back when everyone knew everyone else and all were polite. Guess I just miss that time in general.

My parents shopped at Winn-Dixie for as long as I could remember. I did the same for as long as there was a Winn-Dixie within reach. Always good quality products.

Was there yesterday , it is our main go to store. Like your content.

I live in N. Florida, and we have a WD here!. I have always enjoyed shopping at a Winn Dixie and love the one here!

I worked my first after-school job in ‘82 at a Winn-Dixie in Ocala, FL. as a bag boy. It wasn’t glamorous work, but it taught me a lot of life lessons. I always hated having to sort the bottle returns at the end of my shift, but I did like them allowing us to buy individual Chek Cola (for 13 cents) and hide them behind the frozen turkeys till closing time. I’ll never forget the night manager always jamming the Dazz Band on his boom box and playing it over the store PA system so everyone could dance to it.

I remember the first time I went into a grocery store in Mississippi after moving there. It was called Piggly wiggly and I laughed my butt off about the name. People in my town worked there all their lives. Winn Dixie is awesome in Florida and I never go to Walmart for food. I appreciate local vendors

I use to work there as a teen and liked it very much, good people and good work! The place in Fayetteville, NC was good and let me get the money I needed when I was a teenager for what I needed back then!! Great People and management!!!

always loved that store

back in '90 there used to be one in Beaufort, S.C. We would go on deployment to MCAS Beaufort, we used to go to it, or the Walmart, down the road from it, but it closed back some 15 or so years ago, haven't seen one, or been in one since.

This was a GO-TO store back in the Day! 👍🍇🍊🍌🍞🥔🥩🧀🥧

I worked there and loved the people I work with and the management of the store I worked in Fayetteville, NC. It was a good company and a goo place to work! I wish they could come back to North Carolina!

I remember the first & last time I've seen Winn-Dixies. I used to live 30mins north of Valdosta, GA in the 2000s. I never saw them again after I moved out west & southwest.

Thanks for this one. We lost our Wnin Dixie about fifteen years ago, but have fond memories of them. Doubt they will ever be a major player again. For the record, we do have Aldi now.

I walked the isles of a beautiful & super clean Winn-Dixie yesterday & bought great steaks & pork chops & fully cooked jumbo shrimp. I shop at the best one in my opinion right before you get to lake Tuscaloosa in Northport AL. I go every week & love it. Phillip

Happy to say that I shopped at the Winn Dixie in Hammond, LA today. It's still my favorite grocery store because of the awesome selection of food and meats.

Went there a lot when I lived in Tennessee, and their "Superbrand" ice cream was probably the very best "store brand" ice cream I've ever had. It was delicious.

I used work at Winn_Dixe from 88 to 96 in Raleigh North Carolina it was great store

Just last night I was shopping at Win dixie. It is still a great store.

Yesterday... I have 2 Winn Dixie stores within 10 miles of my home. At one point there were 5 that close. Always been a good store.

I was a cashier at Winn Dixie when I was 18.. Northridge plaza, Hilton Head island..I loved it there❣️ our manager was Mr Dale West.. perfect boss...made you look forward to going to work..

As a Marine I remember the Winn-Dixie on Western Blvd in J-ville North Carolina in the mid to late 1990s. I've been back in Duluth, Minnesota since then.

I miss Winn Dixie. Shopped there quite frequently in the 90s. Unfortunately they packed up and moved out of Texas when they cut the number of stores. ☹️