{Biz} Winn-Dixie to Close 35 Percent of Its Stores

[BEER980]

Bankrupt Supermarket Giant Winn-Dixie to Close 35 Percent of Its Stores, Cut 22,000 Jobs

Tuesday June 21, 2:47 pm ET
By Ron Word, Associated Press Writer


JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- Bankrupt supermarket giant Winn-Dixie announced Tuesday that it will close 35 percent of its stores and reduce its workforce by 28 percent under its proposed Chapter 11 reorganization plan. The company said it will shutter 326 of its 913 stores in the coming months and will trim 22,000 of 78,000 positions. It will cease operations in four states -- Tennessee, Virginia and North and South Carolina -- and will trim operations in its five remaining states. Those are Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. It also has stores in the Bahamas.

In a statement, Winn-Dixie also said it will try to sell six dairy plants, its pizza plant in Montgomery, Ala., and its Chek Beverage/Deep South Products plant in Fitzgerald, Ga., which produces Chek soda, shelf-stable juices and condiments. If buyers are not found, Winn-Dixie said it would continue to operate the Chek Beverage plant and its Hammond, La., and Plant City, Fla., dairies. The company also said that is working to find a third party to produce elsewhere the items made at its Astor Products plant in Jacksonville and the condiments at the Deep South plant. Those plants will then be closed.

Peter Lynch, president and CEO of Winn-Dixie, has said for months that the reorganized company must become smaller. An attorney representing Winn-Dixie, Stephen Busey, said at a bankruptcy hearing last week that Winn-Dixie planned to cut 400 jobs from the 1,400 at its corporate headquarters. Winn-Dixie, which filed for bankruptcy on Feb. 21, is No. 182 on the 2005 Fortune 500 list of the country's largest corporations. Winn-Dixie was ranked No. 8 among 19 food and drug store companies, while Lakeland-based Publix was ranked No. 6 among supermarkets and No. 117 overall.

The Jacksonville-based supermarket chain listed assets of $2.2 billion and liabilities of $1.9 billion in a February bankruptcy filing. Winn-Dixie shares traded up after the closures were announced, rising 2 cents or 1.3 percent at $1.14 in over-the-counter trading Tuesday afternoon after being down most of the day.

[Skywatch_NC]

Yep, buh bye Winn-Dixie.

[CaptinCrunch]

Winn-Dixie - No longer the Beef People

[bfez1]

a Super Wal Mart just opened up by us so I have a feeling Winn Dixie won't be around here much longer ---I love Winn Dixie

[Brent]

Winn Dixie is expensive compared to other places... no surprise here. My dad worked there 15-20 years ago when I was born and he got married to my mom, but he hasn't been back since 1993.

[Swimdude]

Winn Dixie. Those of us in Houston tend to think of that place as... "Out in the country." Either that or we just don't have them here.

[Guest]

Winn Dixie. Those of us in Houston tend to think of that place as... "Out in the country." Either that or we just don't have them here.

Houston : Isn't that a Kroger hotbed? Kroger is popular around my area as well.

[Brent]

Got a list of the ones in Alabama... the one where I used to live and my grandparents still do is on there. Not surprised at all... they got a Wal-Mart Supercenter last year and it just killed them.

[MomH]

All three in my county in Central Florida are closing. I like them better than Publix (expensive) but not as well as Wally World.

[feederband]

I worked for WD about 20 years ago. It was a great company back then...Who will be wally worlds next victim....

[Terry]

Go Publix!

[drudd1]

Where can you find the list of store closures?

[LaPlaceFF]

Where can you find the list of store closures?

http://winn-dixie.com/locations/list.asp

The ones highlighted in yellow are the ones that are closing.

[gtalum]

Who will be wally worlds next victim....

Ugh, I hate shopping at Wal-Mart. I certainly hope it never comes to the point where Wal-Mart is the only choice.

[MomH]

Guess I'm still confused from the last week. Check the list for someone else and realized I had read it wrong -- our cstores are not closing -- yeh!

[CentralFlGal]

Not surprised WD is failing.

I "interviewed" at a local store - the manager who set the 8:00am *Sunday* morning appointment was an hour late meeting with me. I had nothing better to do and figured if I had to drag my body out of bed so early, I was going to make it worth my while.

So I stood by the service counter alone and read every single email left out in plain site. They were all from the district manager berating this store's management team for very poor numbers in every department - those items aren't to be left laying around in plain site. They were insightful though. Entertaining too - I never saw an adult use kindergarten terminology with other adults in a business relationship before.

When (finally) looking for a hardcopy of my electronic application (the kiosks were poorly coded and some of the questions were either not relevant or not appropriate to ask, but I digress), the manager took out a stack of photocopies of SSNs and drivers licenses and laid them on the counter for any passerby to whip out a camera phone and snap a few pics. I never imagined that I could be a victim of identity theft by going through an application process that never leaves the store.

Anyhow, I don't think I've ever seen so much mismanagement in one place before. They offered $6.74 an hour part-time and promised that there were advancement opportunities. Mmhmm, riiiiight. This store is on the closure list. Thank goodness I only wasted one weekend morning on them. The fish usually stinks from the head down, so I can only imagine what WD corporate is like.

[streetsoldier]

We still have "Wobbly Hogs" around, but thyey are also dropping away due to Wally World's presence.

[Brent]

Not surprised WD is failing.

I "interviewed" at a local store - the manager who set the 8:00am *Sunday* morning appointment was an hour late meeting with me. I had nothing better to do and figured if I had to drag my body out of bed so early, I was going to make it worth my while.

So I stood by the service counter alone and read every single email left out in plain site. They were all from the district manager berating this store's management team for very poor numbers in every department - those items aren't to be left laying around in plain site. They were insightful though. Entertaining too - I never saw an adult use kindergarten terminology with other adults in a business relationship before.

When (finally) looking for a hardcopy of my electronic application (the kiosks were poorly coded and some of the questions were either not relevant or not appropriate to ask, but I digress), the manager took out a stack of photocopies of SSNs and drivers licenses and laid them on the counter for any passerby to whip out a camera phone and snap a few pics. I never imagined that I could be a victim of identity theft by going through an application process that never leaves the store.

Anyhow, I don't think I've ever seen so much mismanagement in one place before. They offered $6.74 an hour part-time and promised that there were advancement opportunities. Mmhmm, riiiiight. This store is on the closure list. Thank goodness I only wasted one weekend morning on them. The fish usually stinks from the head down, so I can only imagine what WD corporate is like.

8:00am Sunday would be the first alarm bells for me. Ummm... that's just not right. The last thing I want to be doing at that hour, ESPECIALLY on a Sunday is have to look decent and be out of the house.

After my dad got out the grocery business... he told me to never get into it. He said at first it had it's perks(20 years ago) and then it got to be too much

[MGC]

The beef people are on the ropes. I don't like shopping at WD, thought I grew up shopping there with my parents. The WD in Pass Christian and Pascagoula are on the hit list......MGC

[drudd1]

Where can you find the list of store closures?

http://winn-dixie.com/locations/list.asp

The ones highlighted in yellow are the ones that are closing.

Thanks a bunch