Other Metro Area Projects

[spenser1058]

There's a new prototype of smaller Publix now open in St. Pete and Gainesville similar to the sf of our College Park, Paramount and Colonialtown stores (which I shall always remember as the "gay" Publix thanks to Billy Manes in his days at the Weekly).

The trade off is less frozen and packaged goods in exchange for better produce, deli and prepared foods. Paramount's next redo is in 2018 and I'm hopeful we may see the switch.

Like many traditional grocers, Publix has a conundrum. Packaged/frozen goods are falling out of favor, especially with millennials but are a source of slotting fees from Big Food for the retailer. Walmart got away from that model and Publix will have to as well, but Publix, as they have since the '90's has gotten too conservative on some changes. Here's hoping.

[JFW657]

26 minutes ago, codypet said:

Colonial and Shine got an update last year.   It's limited in what it can do due to size.  I don't know much more they can do about it in that location without a full reconstruction.

Build a second floor!!!! 

[TRENCH]

1 hour ago, neoanderz said:

I went to an Aldi before (east Orlando).  I felt like I was in an almost out-of-business Kmart.  Nothing special as far as food goes.  If they came from the same parent company as Trader Joe's then it certainly does not show at all.  I guess Aldi is cheap but then again so is Walmart Neighborhood market - and we've already got those all over the place.  I don't quite understand the Aldi craze.  I've heard others raving about it too and just can't wrap my head around it.

Aldis is 'successful' (specifically to middle and lower class income people) because it is cheaper food but with great taste.  We know that the cheaper a food product is, the worse in quality it goes, but Aldis retracts from that formula. Also, the store layout cuts off the excess crap that Walmart (which ridiculously has gone up in price), for example, makes you have an idea of what they do and don't sell. I go to the one on Sand Lake Rd. by SkyLake and it's always packed after 3pm with people doing blown out grocery shopping 

[popsiclebrandon]

The best thing about Aldi is they and Trader Joe's clearly share some suppliers so you can get some of the TJ specialty items for much cheaper. Like the peanut butter filled chocolate pretzels and the corn salsa are available at Aldi sometime for half the price of TJ.

[aent]

3 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

Like many traditional grocers, Publix has a conundrum. Packaged/frozen goods are falling out of favor, especially with millennials but are a source of slotting fees from Big Food for the retailer. Walmart got away from that model and Publix will have to as well, but Publix, as they have since the '90's has gotten too conservative on some changes. Here's hoping.

Walmart really left that model? I figured with the continued movement towards internet shopping, it makes more sense then ever... didn't Best Buy switch to that model and thats what saved them? They ultimately really needed their expenses covered without selling anything, cause manufacturers were benefiting from their products being on display and people running and buying it from Amazon or some other online discount retailer. Manufacturers didn't want to have no place for people to see the items, and by doing that, Best Buy was better able to compete on price, ultimately saving it from whats happened to every other consumer electronics retailer... As I look at the online grocers... I'm not super comfortable with picking items and having it delivered without knowing exactly what it is... I want somewhere to go, and then maybe if I repurchase it, I'd be more comfortable doing it online (once it gets price competitive with physical locations, which from what I've seen, there is still a premium for online grocery shopping)

Outside of new comers to the market, the one I forgot about that recaptured marketshare from me would be Sams Club... I dreaded going there previously because of the checkout lines but Scan N Go makes it faster then anywhere else.

[jrs2]

On 6/17/2017 at 0:33 AM, Jernigan said:

Luckys is going at Pineloch and Earth Fare is going at Lucerne 

Yes.  My bad.  And I think Earth Fare is also going in Lake Mary or already is there.

The Lucky's at Pineloch...is this part of that larger development proposal like a mini-SoDo?

[Jernigan]

Yes - I think Mills Park is a more similar layout but yeah all one large project.  I've seen it referred to as both "Southside Shoppes" and "Southgate"

[HankStrong]

I'm far from a Millennial, but I love the ALDI/LIDL model.  I also enjoy TJ.  I don't shop at any of them regularly, because they aren't close to where I live or work.

I shop at Publix because of the convenience and service.  I know many of the employees by name and enjoy shopping there.  My Publix has awful produce most of the time, though.  Just awful.  We buy so much less because of that.  I'm excited to try their take on the Blue Apron/Hello Fresh concept, but it isn't here yet.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/retail/will-the-new-meal-kits-at-publix-rival-blue-apron-and-hellofresh-we-put-it/2323695

The interesting connection for me is that I try to shop Publix like I keep reading that the Millennial crowd is shopping ALDI/TJ and it's difficult with the large stores, extensive frozen foods selection, and poor produce.  I'd love a local TJ/LIDL/ALDI instead.

 

 

Sidebar Walmart story that you can skip:

I hate shopping at Walmart (Super or Neighborhood) with the power of a thousand suns.  Every time I decide to try it again, I hate myself for doing so.  Alternative Walmart shopping with the same discounted prices sound like a good deal, but I've had no success.

I tried their Amazon-esque attempt at home delivery with disastrous results.  That isn't an exaggeration.  My food wasn't packed well and came over the span of 5 different days (all ordered with the same "FREE TWO DAY DELIVERY" click) to my home and not one box arrived before 3 days later.  Every canned good was mangled and beat up.  I had food all over the inside of the boxes.  They packed crackers with canned goods and when I opened the box powdered crackers went everywhere.  A jar of sauce was shattered and the contents dried like wallpaper inside another box.  They wound up reimbursing me for most of it and re-delivering some of it nearly TWO WEEKS after the first click because the single items didn't meet the two day delivery limit????

I tried their pick up at the store option as well!  First try I apparently didn't click something correctly because I pulled into the slot and the helpful girl came running out to tell me that I had nothing for pickup.  She asked me to come inside the store (defeating the pickup purpose of me avoiding going into a Walmart) and check with the service desk.  ODDLY, when I entered the store the *exact same* helpful girl greeted me at the desk.  She found my stuff almost immediately.  I had to get a cart and take it out to my car myself??? HUH???  Apparently I had selected "deliver to store" instead of "Walmart grocery pickup" and this made it impossible to bring it to my car because they are different baskets.  This was on me, so I gave it another try.

Take three was me learning from my previous two experiences.  I checked all the correct boxes.  I also downloaded the correct apps and did everything correctly.  I got the notice that my items were ready.  I went after work, pulled into the correct spot, clicked the I'M HERE button on the app, and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  And waited.  I called the number above the special parking space (specifically noted in the app as DO NOT CALL IF YOU'VE CLICKED THE I'M HERE BUTTON but it had been 10+ minutes) and someone answered.  She told me that everyone in that department was on break and there was no one to bring me my stuff.  Apparently, 5:00-5:30 in the evening on a weekday isn't considered a prime pickup time???? Another 10-15 minutes and someone finally came out with my stuff or what they called my stuff.  They didn't have several of the items so they dropped them OR replaced them with other items.  I wound up taking all of the replacement items back ("We have no Progresso Italian Wedding soup, so we've replaced that with Hungry Man Meatball Soup!"  "We didn't have 10 pouches of Starkist Lemon Pepper tuna, so we've given you a bunch of random other flavors!") because they weren't good replacements.  Approximately half of my order was dropped or replaced.  Why bother? 

Three strikes and you're out.

[jrs2]

15 hours ago, Jernigan said:

Yes - I think Mills Park is a more similar layout but yeah all one large project.  I've seen it referred to as both "Southside Shoppes" and "Southgate"

I'm really excited about this project.  I drove by there the other day and the place had the same "feel" as that scrap metal or lumber yard across from Mercedes of Orlando (which is not being redeveloped into that 5-6 story residential project next to Sunrail).  Very junky.

[alex]

I shop at Publix out of convenience, but definitely not price. I'll spare you all a full analysis, but even a quick look at this week's ads shows how expensive Publix is:

• Corn on the cob: Aldi = 99¢ for 4 vs. Publix = $2.00 for 5
• Strawberries: Aldi = $1.29/lb vs. Publix = $2.50/lb
• Blackberries: Aldi = $1.19/6 oz. vs. Publix = $2.00/6 oz.
• Grapes: Aldi = 89¢/lb vs Publix = $1.69/lb 

Almost twice the price for same or worse quality, especially with all the recent changes Aldi has done to remove pesticides, additives, etc. Publix also gets very bad grades for its seafood (in regards to sustainability) and while I like the deli, it's the same Boar's Head stuff I can buy anywhere. That said, I have friends who worked at Publix and rave about the company ethics and work environment, so that's a plus. The service is nice, but I don't go to the store to make friends. 

All that aside, I would welcome a renovation of our Shine & Colonial Publix into a SoDo-Target-style store that takes up the whole block with parking on top. 

 

[spenser1058]

Publix has made moves on seafood sustainability within the last couple of years. Here's the latest:

http://www.publix.com/products-services/seafood/sustainable-seafood

[alex]

20 minutes ago, spenser1058 said:

Publix has made moves on seafood sustainability within the last couple of years. Here's the latest:

http://www.publix.com/products-services/seafood/sustainable-seafood

Not as of 2015, apparently... http://seafood.greenpeaceusa.org/stores/publix/ 

[spenser1058]

That sounds about right- it's been relatively recently they started doing videos and shooting out all kinds of press releases and such (it's also when I noticed a significant price increase on seafood which I assume was related if they were sourcing better). Of course, Greenpeace may not accept the firm verifying their efforts and I'm not enough of an expert to know the difference, so it looks like we'll have to wait for a Greenpeace update.

[popsiclebrandon]

I guess since like 2 years has gone by and it hasn't happened it must be dead. When I was doing the DTO thing Crossman let us know that there were discussions going on with having a smaller urban supermarket in the NQ area of downtown. Apparently that fell apart which sucks, that would be a good spot for a small one.

[aent]

I don't know about greenpeace specifically, but so many of these "sustainable environmentally friendly" folks are so corrupt and have ideals so different then mine that I personally would put no value on that and would say it often has no relationship to the actual sustainability/environmental efforts of a company. Much like PETA with SeaWorld, in my eyes, is clearly just doing an absolutely terrible thing for the animals in the short term, and even worse for them in the long term.

As far as the Walmart story, the "personal shopper" style services are new, and there is a learning curve for all of them. Complaints are widespread, and Walmart is still generally ahead of the curve in even offering it... most stores still don't. I've used Sams Club curbside pickup service a few times and its been great. I went into Aldis, which never ever seems to have more then one register open, and when I got to the front, there was actually ZERO registers opened. There were already a couple people looking around wondering what to do and where to go... so I found an employee and asked them, they looked, and said "let me see if I can find someone I can't run the register" and it took like another 5 minutes for them to find someone to operate the register, with now like a line of 15 people. I can't say I've ever had that experience at any other store in my life. But I guess what you pay for, and Aldis is the cheapest of the bunch

[bulldogger]

I have started using InstaCart for shopping at Publix.  I've also used the Walmart delivery for groceries.  It's not perfect and I don't use it for all my grocery needs, but it has freed up a couple hours each week.

[HankStrong]

17 hours ago, bulldogger said:

I have started using InstaCart for shopping at Publix.  I've also used the Walmart delivery for groceries.  It's not perfect and I don't use it for all my grocery needs, but it has freed up a couple hours each week.

How has InstaCart been?

[jrs2]

23 hours ago, popsiclebrandon said:

I guess since like 2 years has gone by and it hasn't happened it must be dead. When I was doing the DTO thing Crossman let us know that there were discussions going on with having a smaller urban supermarket in the NQ area of downtown. Apparently that fell apart which sucks, that would be a good spot for a small one.

are you talking about the Southside Shoppes proposal near Pineloch?

[spenser1058]

The idea of shipping containers has been posted here but how about affordable housing?  Possible sites include close to downtown or Kissimmee.

From the Sentinel:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/classified/realestate/os-bz-shipping-container-apartments-20170609-story.html?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Contentutm_content%3D594970b5a167da00079e86b8utm_medium%3DtrueAnthemutm_source%3Dfacebook

[jgardnerucf]

9 hours ago, jrs2 said:

are you talking about the Southside Shoppes proposal near Pineloch?

Nah, he is talking NQ.

[spenser1058]

Another financial call center in Lake Mary - that's becoming a thing up there, it seems. A 30,000 sf building and 240 employees.

From Paul Brinkmann at the Sentinel (one of their better hires in recent years, I might add):

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/brinkmann-on-business/os-bz-cardworks-lake-mary-20170622-story.html

[smileguy]

On 6/21/2017 at 8:45 PM, spenser1058 said:

The idea of shipping containers has been posted here but how about affordable housing?  Possible sites include close to downtown or Kissimmee.

From the Sentinel:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/classified/realestate/os-bz-shipping-container-apartments-20170609-story.html?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Contentutm_content%3D594970b5a167da00079e86b8utm_medium%3DtrueAnthemutm_source%3Dfacebook

I would love to see this (or something -- anything really) at Colonial and Hyer.

[alex]

UCF's proposed on-campus hotel may break ground this fall, Orlando Business Journal 

[JFW657]

According to the article, it will be built somewhere in this vicinity...

...looking NE from the intersection of Alafaya Tr. and University Blvd.

[jrs2]

That's great.  It should compliment the NW Corner development well with good density.