On Sunday afternoon, shoppers kept driving up to the front door of the shuttered Winn-Dixie grocery store at Lake Sumter Landing.
A sign on the door made it clear the store has closed. All of the shopping carts have vanished. There were no signs of life on the other side of the large glass, locked doors. Yet longtime shoppers still appeared to be in disbelief.
On Saturday, as the parking lots were filled to capacity around Lake Sumter Landing for the Christmas tree-lighting ceremony, the very last of the shoppers picked through the bare shelves at Winn-Dixie on the eve of the closure.
So what does the future hold for that bit of prime retailing real estate in Florida’s Friendliest Hometown?
The Winn-Dixie supermarket at Lake Sumter Landing was one of three locations in The Villages acquired by ALDI in 2023.
The building will be split up into three parts.
It has been announced that a 7,000-square foot “enhanced” liquor store will take up a section of the building. An unnamed tenant will take up another section of the site. The ALDI grocery store will be in the center, between the grocery store and the mystery tenant.
The renovation of the former Winn-Dixie store is expected cost more than $1 million. The renovation is expected to take up to six months.
