Local grocery stores closing
Published 6:00 am Friday, July 30, 2010
Two Meridian grocery stores, both of which are near Wal-Mart Supercenter locations, will be closing before the end of the summer.
Winn-Dixie announced Thursday that it will close 30 stores in five states throughout the Southeast. In Meridian, the Winn-Dixie store on Hwy. 19 N. and the Save Rite Grocery Warehouse store on N. Frontage Road will be closed. The Save Rite store is operated by Winn-Dixie.
Most of the closures will take place in Florida, where Winn-Dixie is headquartered. Meridian is the only city in Mississippi that will lose Winn-Dixie stores.
A press release issued by the chain on Tuesday said that the 30 stores are “under-performing” and have not undergone the remodeling that some other stores have. Winn-Dixie operates 514 stores in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi.
Along with closing the 30 stores, Winn-Dixie will lay off 120 corporate and field support staffers.
Peter Lynch, the chairman, CEO, and president of Winn-Dixie, said in the press release that Winn-Dixie has experience “a particularly difficult economic and retail environment in the Southeast.” Lynch said the store closing and layoffs will allow Winn-Dixie to improve their remaining stores, including “lower(ing) our cost structure.” He also said there are plans for more remodels and new store openings.
Several local residents blame competition from nearby Wal-Mart stores for the closings.
The Save Rite store on N. Frontage Road is located less than half a mile from the Bonita Wal-Mart Supercenter. Another grocery store in the area, a Foodmax store at the Cloverleaf Shopping Center, closed soon after the Wal-Mart Supercenter opened.
The Winn-Dixie on Hwy. 19 N. is located within one mile of a Wal-Mart Supercenter, also on Hwy. 19 N., that opened in 2007.
The Winn-Dixie store on the Hwy. 39 and North Hills Street intersection and the Winn-Dixie on Hwy. 45 near the Coca-Cola bottling plant, both of which are not near a Wal-Mart Supercenter, were not on the list of stores scheduled to close.
