did winn dixie sell out?

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by P_Mac

Rouses has great meat as does Fresh Market. Mosley's has great meat as well.

I wish Mobile had a legit old school butcher. Whole animal style where you could get any cut you wanted. Maybe one day.

Haven't those dwindled away just about everywhere? I suppose some are left in large cities, but supermarkets pretty much put butcher shops out of business when they came about 60 or so years ago, best I can tell.

[Carolina Knight]

Supermarkets eliminated many grocery, meat, and produce specific stores. Butcher shops and produce stands are still around.

[P_Mac]

Originally Posted by RocketDawg

Haven't those dwindled away just about everywhere? I suppose some are left in large cities, but supermarkets pretty much put butcher shops out of business when they came about 60 or so years ago, best I can tell.

They are making a comeback big time. People love "craft" anything now a days and people are starting to cook and eat better food too. I'll bet we have an old school butcher posted up in the city within the next 5 years.

Heck, I wouldn't be completely shocked if Whiskey Ridge Cattle Company in Baldwin Co did something along those lines. They already do Dry Aged Beef, Wagyu, bulk ordering, etc etc.

[edtv411]

Winn Dixie is simply outflanked by it's competition. The only way it stands out is with the "gimmicks" they have through their loyalty card, which itself has been a trainwreck because it's morphed from Winn-Dixie, to Plenti, and now SE Grocers (which is a rebranded W/D card due to the failure of Plenti).

Publix has BOGOs and awesome service, Rouses has specialty items and good deals, and Walmart still has a slight edge on price and dominates the market. That leaves Piggly Wiggly and Greer's (and all of the Cost Plus stores)

Even Kroger beats Winn Dixie in most regards of gimmicks and better prices. I still think if SE Grocers fails, Kroger will swoop in and run the Winn Dixie stores after weeding out the bad locations and those in places where they already compete with Kroger.

[southernnaturelover]

Winn-Dixie sold the Atmore store to a Mississippi based chain called Ramey’s. Everything still pretty much looks the same, except the store brand items have changed to Best Choice. The deli has actually improved a bit, it got to the point where W/D was closing it at 2:00.

[PortCity]

Originally Posted by southernnaturelover

Winn-Dixie sold the Atmore store to a Mississippi based chain called Ramey’s. Everything still pretty much looks the same, except the store brand items have changed to Best Choice. The deli has actually improved a bit, it got to the point where W/D was closing it at 2:00.

Best Choice is Rouses Market's house brand also.I wonder if the two are related in anyways ?

[southernnaturelover]

Originally Posted by PortCity

Best Choice is Rouses Market's house brand also.I wonder if the two are related in anyways ?

The local Piggly Wiggly here also sells Best Choice. I think it’s just a common generic brand.

[Carolina Knight]

I wonder if Best Choice is a brand sold by customers of C&S Wholesale Grocers.

[southernnaturelover]

Originally Posted by Carolina Knight

I wonder if Best Choice is a brand sold by customers of C&S Wholesale Grocers.

Associated Wholesale Grocers (AWG).

[edtv411]

When Belle Foods liquidated, it was AWG that bought many of their stores. Going back to Bruno's auction and sale to Southern Family Markets, it was a division of C&S. The C&S distribution continued into Bill White's purchase of Southern and conversion into Belle Foods.

About the same time, Rouses had a falling out with their distributor and joined forces with AWG. Greer's is a longtime customer of theirs and with AWG's help, they were able to quickly expand with their "cash saver" stores.

Several other smaller grocery chains in this region also use AWG, and even their "cash saver" format. Needless to say, they pounced on the opportunity to acquire many of the Belle Foods stores when they became available and divided them amongst their distribution customers.