Your supermarket is rolling out new things this year. What to expect at Miami stores

Howard Cohen
·5 min read
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What’s new at the supermarket?

Sure, there are the traditions that continue: produce section, dairy shelves, bakery.

But there are also more self-checkout lines and in-store cafes

What can you expect at your South Florida grocery store in 2024? Here’s a rundown:

Supermarket mergers

Florida has started to see these blue Kroger delivery trucks as the Cincinnati-based grocery company expands into the state but via online orders rather than traditional brick and mortar stores.
Florida has started to see these blue Kroger delivery trucks as the Cincinnati-based grocery company expands into the state but via online orders rather than traditional brick and mortar stores.

Discount grocer Aldi acquired the traditional Winn-Dixie from its Jacksonville-based parent company Southeastern Grocers in 2023. The deal is expected to close in early 2024.

Kroger announced a $24.6 billion merger proposal with Albertsons in October 2022 with an eye toward early 2024 for the deal to go forward if approved. In December, Kroger told the Federal Trade Commission that it has met all the antitrust law requirements to win approval, the Cincinnati Business Courier reported.

Though an early 2024 time frame may not happen, but if approved, “there would be massive retail media implications,” Supermarket News reports. The combined grocers would have a reach of over 85 million households and rival national market leader Walmart.

Supermarket supersizing

The grand opening of a new Publix at The Crossings in West Kendall on Thursday, June 15.
The grand opening of a new Publix at The Crossings in West Kendall on Thursday, June 15.

READ MORE: Publix is opening four supermarkets in January. What to know about the new stores

Publix stores are getting bigger, either through new stores or demolition and rebuilding. The Florida-based chain just opened a store in Key Largo with more than 64,000 square feet, much bigger than the typical new store with 48,000 square feet.

And the trend can be seen in the Kendall area at the Briar Bay Publix across the street from The Falls, which was torn down in August. Plans indicate that the shuttered 32,000-square-foot Publix will grow into a two-story, 56,070-square-foot grocery store. Publix would not say when a rebuilt store will open.

Some new Publix stores in Florida also are more than 50,000 square feet, leaving more room for BOGOs, grab-and-go items, grocery store cafes and self-checkouts.

Publix is building a waterfront supermarket in Hollywood. The company hasn’t released an opening date for the store, which is on the Intracoastal. When plans were announced for the store in 2018, to be built on a vacant lot at 3100 S. Ocean Dr. north of the Diplomat hotel, Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy excitedly said the coming Publix would have cafe tables on Ocean Drive and “a boat dock for boaters to pull up and buy groceries for their day on the water.”

The Publix at the Briar Bay Shopping Center at 13005 SW 89th Pl. in Miami-Dade, across the street from The Falls, is temporarily closed so that the Lakeland-based chain can build a more contemporary Publix on-site.
The Publix at the Briar Bay Shopping Center at 13005 SW 89th Pl. in Miami-Dade, across the street from The Falls, is temporarily closed so that the Lakeland-based chain can build a more contemporary Publix on-site.

Self-checkout at the supermarket

Customers use newly-installed self-checkout lanes at the Publix supermarket at 13401 S. Dixie Hwy. in Pinecrest on Oct. 2, 2022. The store added the machines about two weeks earlier.
Customers use newly-installed self-checkout lanes at the Publix supermarket at 13401 S. Dixie Hwy. in Pinecrest on Oct. 2, 2022. The store added the machines about two weeks earlier.

According to Delish, the first self checkout machine was installed in a Georgia Kroger way back in 1986. They’ve come a long way since — to about 96% of the nation’s grocery stores in 2023, reports The Food Industry Association. You’ve seen the machines at Target and Walmart and even at some Miami International and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International airports’ shops and dining locations.

Publix started adding self-checkout lanes inside some of its existing stores and made them a part of coming stores’ plans in 2022.

“Where we are able to we will offer self-checkout,” spokeswoman Lindsey Willis told the Miami Herald at the time. “As stores go up for remodel we will offer self-checkout if there is space.”

Expect more opportunities to do it yourself in 2024 — but you don’t have to. You can still go to a staffed cashier lane at South Florida Publix, Whole Foods, Winn-Dixie, Target, Walmart and other retailers. Though they are in almost every grocery store, self-checkout lanes account for 29% of all transactions, according to statistics from the Food Industry Association.

Online shopping

Walmart’s new delivery service gives customers the option of having a delivery person come into their homes or garages and stock their refrigerators when they order groceries or goods. The new delivery service arrived in South Florida’s Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, as well as cities in other states, in July 2022.
Walmart’s new delivery service gives customers the option of having a delivery person come into their homes or garages and stock their refrigerators when they order groceries or goods. The new delivery service arrived in South Florida’s Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, as well as cities in other states, in July 2022.

Another trend we’ll see more of in 2024 is online grocery shopping.

According to the Food Industry Association, 81% of retailers sell groceries online using providers like Instacart or the store’s own service, like Kroger did when it bypassed brick and mortar in Florida to begin selling its groceries in the state, including in South Florida from an Opa-locka warehouse hub in 2022.

Walmart followed with its InHome delivery service that entered the South Florida market in 2022.

In December, Insider Intelligence reported that Amazon, which has struggled to dominate online grocery sales despite owning Whole Foods, started testing a grocery subscription add-on for Prime members. The deal is the same price as an Instacart+ subscription ($9.99 monthly) and Prime members can access unlimited free grocery delivery on orders of $35 or more from Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh.

The test is not yet in Florida and limited to Prime users in Sacramento, Denver, and Columbus, Ohio.

Restaurants in the grocery store

Whole Foods’ El Bocadillo bars inside the seated cafe area at Whole Foods supermarkets give customers like the Garcia family, seen here on Nov. 7, 2023, at the 7930 SW 104th St. location in Pinecrest Plaza near Kendall a place to eat during grocery shopping.
Whole Foods’ El Bocadillo bars inside the seated cafe area at Whole Foods supermarkets give customers like the Garcia family, seen here on Nov. 7, 2023, at the 7930 SW 104th St. location in Pinecrest Plaza near Kendall a place to eat during grocery shopping.

Dining inside a grocery store like Publix or Whole Foods isn’t new. We’ve done so for more than a decade. About 30% of grocery stores nationally contained cafes said Phil Lempert, a national grocery industry analyst known as the Supermarket Guru.

Then came COVID. And the figure was more than halved. But the trend is growing again with stores opening cafes or newly built Publix stores, for instance.

Twenty of Sedano’s 35 markets in Miami-Dade and Broward counties and Orlando have indoor cafes and seating where shoppers can order sandwiches, empanadas, milkshakes, pastries and croquetas. And more are coming. New or remodeled Sedano’s will have cafes or hot food service, according to the Miami-based grocer.

“One of the drivers of grocerants is the fact that grocers want to capture more of the ‘food dollar’ away from restaurants and in many cases, especially against quick-serve restaurants like Chili’s and others, can compete very effectively food- and service- wise with the added convenience of combining the shopping with dining,” Lempert said.

And Publix just opened burrito bars in several new stores in a set-up that looks like Chipotle.

READ MORE: This grocery trend ended with COVID. Now Publix, Whole Foods, Sedano’s bet you’re hungry

Apartment and grocery combos

The Winn-Dixie at 5850 SW 73rd St. in South Miami was being torn down on July 21, 2023, to make way for a proposed apartment complex. The grocery store was in the neighborhood since 1962.
The Winn-Dixie at 5850 SW 73rd St. in South Miami was being torn down on July 21, 2023, to make way for a proposed apartment complex. The grocery store was in the neighborhood since 1962.

A Winn-Dixie grocery store, built in the 1960s at 5850 SW 73rd St. in South Miami across the street from the Deli Lane Cafe and Sunset Tavern, was torn down in July. What’s coming? A nine-story mixed-use project on the 1.9-acre site that would include 36,395 square feet of commercial space for a yet unnamed grocery store, 283 apartments and a 400-space parking garage.