Grocery Gossip: Lake City's New Winn-Dixie #1671
Following eighteen years without a remodel, Food Lion's Floridian folly sees a transformation into the world's newest Winn-Dixie.
Winn-Dixie #1671 (2026-)
Harveys #1671: 2014-2026
Harveys #2413: 2012-2014
Food Lion #2137: 2008-2012
Heritage Oaks | 4506 SW Heritage Oaks Circle | Lake City, FL 32055
A lot has happened with The Beef People lately, and I want to spend today by giving a quick update on some recent news. Several months ago, I provided an exclusive first look at Winn-Dixie’s new interior design language with a tour of the St. Cloud store’s remodel progress. I then chased that with the inside scoop on WD’s first new store opening in over two years.
Today, I am proud to present another exclusive look at a store I showcased several years back: Lake City’s own Harveys #1671. If you’ll remember, this supermarket started its life as a Food Lion back in 2008 before converting to the sister Harveys banner in 2012. Delhaize exhausted its efforts of attempting to root Food Lion in Florida come 2012 and eventually decided to cut its losses and close its few remaining stores in the state. Store #2137 in Lake City must have been profitable enough to keep because rather than closing it, the Belgian grocer decided to rebrand the store as a Harveys Supermarket and combine its operations with those of nearby stores in South Georgia and North Central Florida. Following a light remodel and a sign swap, Harveys #2413 held its grand opening on February 29, 2012, taking full advantage of leap day and all of its mystique.
A year later, BI-LO Holdings (later Southeastern Grocers) announced it would purchase the entire Sweetbay, Reid’s, and Harveys portfolio from Delhaize Group with the intent to dissolve the Sweetbay and Reid’s brands. The Harveys banner was lucky enough to be preserved (there is a rumor that Delhaize stipulated this condition for a certain period of time), and store #2413 in Lake City was renumbered to Harveys #1671 during the integration process.
Despite receiving minor updates over the years (such as a new Winn-Dixie tomato cart around 2023), this Food Lion-era interior was beginning to show its age. Not only were the graphics beginning to fade due to prolonged UV exposure, but there were also traces of excessive dust and mildew accumulation around air conditioning returns. Signs and letters were literally falling off the walls (that’s what happens when you don’t reinforce your sticky pads with finishing nails or screws, folks). As much as I loved this supermarket’s ambiance, it was due for a refresh.
That overdue remodel (to Winn-Dixie’s Centennial-themed interior) eventually took place during Q1 of 2026. Following on the heels of Winn-Dixie’s exit from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Central Georgia, the new Winn-Dixie Company announced it would convert all surviving Harveys stores into Winn-Dixie locations, bringing an end to the 102-year-old banner.
Winn-Dixie #1671’s grand opening celebration is set for this Saturday, May 2nd, at 8 AM, which is two weeks ahead of its remaining brethren. On the other hand, this store was already operating as a Winn-Dixie with everything from the weekly ad to the receipt header claiming such during my visit last week.
Only a few small traces, such as the unplugged coupon machine and the fleet of shopping carts, reflected this store’s recent past. I wonder if they were simply waiting on a shipment of used buggies from a closing Winn-Dixie.
Rather than installing standard fluorescent fixtures, Winn-Dixie’s design crew opted instead to retain softer track lighting above the produce department. My biggest complaint about former Winn-Dixie #112 near St. Augustine was that the bare concrete floors and harsh lighting made the space look too sterile. I’m glad that we are not faced with the same problems here.
Store #112 was an identically converted Food Lion; however, Winn-Dixie opened that store in 2021 after the building sat vacant for nearly a decade. It is interesting to compare the two and I’m personally happy that Lake City was the location spared by those dastardly Germans. Winn-Dixie #112 officially closed for conversion on August 17, 2025, and was not so lucky.
Both of these perspectives, nonetheless, are vastly different from how the store presented itself less than a year ago. Food Lion’s wooden trellis, while still open, significantly closed in the space in for a much cozier effect. The dark walls and indirect spotlights further enhanced the ambiance. It's as if every department was its own room in a house.
As for Lake City’s layout, not much has changed since the Food Lion days. WD opted to sell off the fake floral arrangements Harveys was known for and reintroduced a full fresh flower case at the end of the “grand aisle” of service departments.
It is interesting to compare #1671 to the slightly altered layout that was implemented at #112 considering how the latter store received a full butcher and seafood counter. Food Lion previously operated a butcher counter but never seemed to be as focused on fresh seafood departments in these “Rutherfordton-style” stores (coined for the city where this concept made its debut). Then again, it has been nearly 15-years since I last stepped foot in an active Food Lion of this design.
To compensate for the lack of width, Food Lion designed the bakery in this store to extend through a section of aisle one under a blue and gold awning.
It should come as no surprise that the awning was removed (despite some of the original black track lights remaining).
Winn-Dixie preserved Food Lion’s original crown molding on the walls and atop the meat cases while simply painting it off-white. These refrigerated cases are all unchanged from Harveys’ time in the store; the original accent lighting remains as well.
Scanning the back wall of the store, we continue to see more remnants from Food Lion in Lake City than creations of The Beef People. These two pictures present the alternate realities of how virtually the same space was treated differently over the span of five years.
On the left, we find Food Lion’s (mostly) original flooring, lighting, and product configuration contrasted with Winn-Dixie’s new layout, lighting, and bare concrete floors on the right. Is this a case of “what’s old is new again” or simply a broader sign that the Jacksonville-based grocer is just trying to “put lipstick on a pig” at this point? I feel like it is more of the latter given how I can personally confirm that both the aisle markers and the department signs used in #1671’s 2026 remodel were recycled from a closed location.
The grocery aisles paint a starker picture that I hope only resulted from my premature visit. While the flooring around the perimeter store remained original to the building’s 2008 construction, the tiles within the grocery aisles were partially replaced by a cooler-toned off-white vinyl. The new pattern lacked the warm undertones found throughout Food Lion’s original design and really clashed with the remaining original flooring. I hope this was only temporary and is remediated before the grand opening.
The original paint color of the dairy cases (shown above) at least works surprisingly well with Winn-Dixie’s current wall palette.
One of the most interesting design choices Food Lion made with these stores is to forego all overhead lights above the frozen foods aisles. This feat only seems achievable in an era before motion-activated freezer lights given how the constant glow through the glass doors is the only source of illumination.
I still vastly prefer the mood this creates when compared to the sterile and blown-out feel #112 possessed.
This store was interestingly the first one where I’ve witnessed Winn-Dixie’s new shopping basket design. I’m not surprised by this, other than the fact that the basket features the 2016 logo rather than the 2026 flavor.
The beer and wine department appeared to be largely unchanged from the Food Lion and Harveys days, similar to the rest of the store’s front-end.
The only noticeable difference is the lack of a trellis over the checkouts and the presence of employees (mostly) wearing red uniforms.
I still saw the same checkout fixtures (featuring unmarked Winn-Dixie lane lights) and a single cashier donning her Harveys green.
All-in, this location felt nice as a Winn-Dixie. I consider it a downgrade from the Food Lion days, but then again, it looks far better than what Food Lion would have installed themselves. In some spots, the cut corners don’t harm what was already the hands-down nicest Harveys Supermarket in the fleet, such as retaining the existing lighting. In others, however, the halfhearted remodel reveals some serious flaws if not mitigated in the near future, such as with the flooring.
What are your thoughts? Make sure to air them out in the comments!
Until next time,
- Sing Oil Media
Funny how this is Winn-Dixie taking over a Food Lion when W-D usually was the proto-Food Lion north of Florida!