DAYTONA BEACH SHORES — The Winn-Dixie supermarket here, a fixture in the community since 1956, will close at the end of business Nov. 30 to make way for an Aldi discount grocery, The Daytona Beach News-Journal has learned.
“It’s going to be missed, man. We’re going to really, really truly miss it,” said customer Fred Gaddie after being informed about the impending store closure by employees as he stood in the checkout line Tuesday, Oct. 21.
Officials for the Jacksonville-based Winn-Dixie chain and Batavia, Illinois-based Aldi USA did not respond to requests for comment.
Aldi hasn’t finished applying for a building permit in Daytona Beach Shores
Stewart Cruz, community services director for Daytona Beach Shores, said the city was contacted by a third-party representing Aldi earlier this year about the chain’s plans to take over the soon-to-be former Winn-Dixie store.
“There was an application (for a building permit) but it was not deemed complete,” he said.
Maureen Wilson is the third-party representative of Aldi who reached out to the City of Daytona Beach Shores on her client’s behalf. Contacted Tuesday evening, the permit coordinator for APD Engineering & Architecture in Victor, New York, said. “We’re waiting to select the general contractor before completing the permit application.
The project is out to bid. It should be very soon,” she said, adding that the general contractor should be chosen and the finished permit application submitted by early November.
In the case of the current projects to convert the former Winn-Dixie grocery stores in Ormond Beach and Port Orange into Aldi stores, the discount grocer is only taking half the space of those roughly 50,000 square foot supermarkets, leaving the rest available to be leased to other tenants.
The new built-from-scratch Aldi store that opened in July at 5500 S. Williamson Blvd. in Port Orange is only 19,432 square feet.
The Winn-Dixie in Daytona Beach Shores is only 28,000 square feet. When asked how much space Aldi plans to take for its store there, Wilson said, “I believe it’s the whole thing.”
Cruz said the city is “excited” about Aldi’s plans to open a store in Daytona Beach Shores. “We’re hoping it’ll come to fruition. Obviously, we want to help them open in a timely manner, but they have to follow the proper procedure (in applying for a permit), which includes providing all the necessary documentation.”
Aldi is already looking to fill positions in Daytona Beach Shores
While Aldi has yet to formally announce plans for a store in Daytona Beach Shores, the grocery chain’s website listing career opportunities with the company already had postings for two available positions here: one for a “full-time store manager trainee,” and one for a “full-time assistant store manager.”
Both job postings list the location of the planned store as being at 2200 S. Atlantic Ave., Daytona Beach Shores — the address for the soon-to-be-closed Winn-Dixie.
When will Aldi open in Daytona Beach Shores?
While there is no official timeframe for when Aldi will open its store in Daytona Beach Shores, it is likely that it will be in fall 2026.
Winn-Dixie closed its longtime supermarket at 353 W. Granada Blvd. in Ormond Beach in December 2024 to make way for an Aldi store there.
When asked when that store might open, Brian Rademacher, economic development director for the City of Ormond Beach, told The News-Journal on Tuesday, “I’ve heard before Thanksgiving.”
The Aldi store that will be replacing a portion of the former Winn-Dixie in Port Orange at 4025 S. Nova Road is expected to open in early 2026.
How many work at the Daytona Beach Shores Winn-Dixie and how many will the new Aldi hire?
While The News-Journal was unable to obtain a current headcount of employees at the Winn-Dixie in Daytona Beach Shores, the store had 60 workers when it was renovated in 2014.
The Aldi store that opened in July at the Shoppes at Summer Trees in Port Orange has 15 to 20 employees.
Aldi staffs its stores with fewer workers than traditional supermarkets as part of its efforts to keep its prices to customers low. It is able to do that through a combination of super-efficient floor plans that allow the stores to be easier to operate, clean and maintain, and through its heavy reliance on private-label products — goods sold under Aldi’s own proprietary brands even though those goods are sometimes made by the same manufacturers as the popular name brands.
What is Aldi?
Aldi is an international discount grocery store chain based in Germany. Its name is an abbreviation for Albrecht Discount. Albrecht is the name of the family that owns the Aldi chain. Some members of that family own the competing Trader Joe’s chain, but the two chains are not affiliated because of a split in the family that has now gone on for generations.
Aldi is the nation’s fastest-growing grocery store chain with plans to open more than 200 stores across the United States this year, which will boost its total number nationwide to 2,600, according to the supermarket industry trade publication Grocery Dive.
The company’s growth plans also call for the conversion of 220 Winn-Dixie and Harvey’s Supermarkets into Aldi stores by 2027.
What’s the Aldi and Winn-Dixie connection?
Aldi acquired the Winn-Dixie and Harvey’s Supermarket chains in March 2024 but earlier this year agreed to sell the stores it did not plan to convert back to a consortium of investors that own Jacksonville-based Southeastern Grocers, the original parent company for Winn-Dixie.
A complete list of the stores that Aldi kept and the ones it sold back to Southeastern Grocers has never been officially released, but numerous news organizations and industry-tracking websites have published partial lists, including the USA Today Network.
While those reports included the former Winn-Dixie stores in Ormond Beach and Port Orange to be converted into Aldi’s, the Winn-Dixie in Daytona Beach Shores was not one of the ones mentioned.
Who owns the Winn-Dixie property in Daytona Beach Shores?
The Winn-Dixie property itself in Daytona Beach Shores is not owned by either Aldi or Southeastern Grocers, but rather an Atlanta, Georgia-based company called M&P Holdings LLC.
M&P is identified in Volusia County property records as doing business as “WD Plaza LLC.” It has owned the Winn-Dixie Plaza property, which includes several smaller shops, since 1986.
In related news, on Tuesday, Southeastern Grocers announced it will change its name to The Winn-Dixie Company in early 2026.
What are people saying about Winn-Dixie closing in Daytona Beach Shores?
Employees at the Daytona Beach Shores Winn-Dixie on Tuesday made no secret of the fact that the store’s last day is Nov. 30. While several expressed sadness, all who spoke appeared to accept the decision as a done deal.
A store close-out sale is expected to begin Nov. 1.
At the Salty Pint pub next door, Manager Shawn Bartlett said he is well aware of the Winn-Dixie store’s impending closure and Aldi’s plans to replace it.
“A lot of my regulars go to Winn-Dixie,” he said. “The locals are going to miss the BOGOS (buy-one-get-one-free sales) and the beer specials. But I also have a couple customers who have told me they’re happy it’s going to be an Aldi.”
A Salty Pint customer who said his name was “Wild Bill,” is one of them.
“The Winn-Dixie here is old,” he said. “Aldi is a better store. It’s way newer and cheaper.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Winn-Dixie in Daytona Beach Shores to convert to Aldi, with its last day Nov. 30
Reporting by Clayton Park, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
