Winn-Dixie Closing, Meridian, MS

Today's post highlights Lauderdale County, MS, retail.

If you're reading this in real time, chances are you've come across a great deal of Winn-Dixie coverage of late. The other regionally focused retail blogs in the southeastern US -- Albertsons Florida Blog, Sing Oil Blog, and My Florida Retail -- have been dedicating considerable time and effort into documenting the beleaguered historic grocery chain's most recent pratfall. In March 2024, the stateside division of German discount grocery retailer Aldi announced it had purchased Southeastern Grocers, with intentions to convert "a significant number of Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarkets...to the ALDI format over the next several years." To date, that number has been significant indeed, with 143 conversions confirmed and at least another 76 expected. If all of that comes to fruition, as of today's count (and less a handful of outright closures), that leaves just 170 go-forward Winn-Dixie and Harveys stores, for a company that went into this process with more than double that. This post has been acting as a rolling comprehensive list and is continually updated.

In February 2025, Southeastern Grocers re-emerged and, in partnership with C&S Wholesale Grocers and other private investors, bought back the remaining Winn-Dixie and Harveys stores (and intellectual property) from Aldi US. Three-quarters of the company's store base is (was?) located in Florida, so naturally, the bulk of the blogosphere coverage has been focused on the Sunshine State. For Mississippi's part, Winn-Dixie barely had a presence to begin with; although this post won't go into the chain's history throughout the state, suffice to say that what once was a statewide operation (in at least two parts, having exited at one point, only to later return with an ill-fated purchase of Jackson's own Jitney Jungle) had been reduced to a mere six stores in modern times. Where chain supermarkets are concerned, Winn-Dixie essentially filled the gaps in Mississippi not covered by Kroger (although, granted, there are many parts of the state with nary a grocery store at all), operating primarily on the Gulf Coast, with two outlying stores also located in Hattiesburg and Meridian.

In recent years, Winn-Dixie had actually made a push to remodel many of its stores; it stands to reason, then, that the lone unremodeled Mississippi store, in D'Iberville, was the first to fall, closing for conversion to Aldi in August 2024 (one of the first overall, in fact). The remaining Gulf Coast stores followed in quick succession: Gulfport in November, Long Beach in February, and Ocean Springs in April. On my visit to the Coast last fall, I attempted to visit on Gulfport's last day, only to find the store already closed. At least they have Rouses Market.

Former Gulfport, MS, Winn-Dixie

Courtesy WXXV

After a few months' break, Aldi announced in early July 2025 that the Meridian store, too, would be closing for conversion, with a projected final day in early September. This tracks with what Sing and AFB have described as a 90-day process with two distinct phases. In the first phase, the store gradually begins discounting non-grocery items and receives smaller/fewer shipments; in the second phase -- which began at Meridian on August 13 -- deliveries cease altogether and the entire store enters liquidation. Meridian's last day is projected to be this coming Saturday, September 6, 2025, with a fixture auction to occur shortly thereafter so as to clear out the space and begin the Aldi conversion.

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I decided to make a day trip to Meridian on Saturday, August 23. The Winn-Dixie was my main reason for the trip, but would be my last stop for the day. Upon arriving, I first went to a local restaurant for lunch. The folks sitting next to me were discussing if it'd be possible to bail someone out on two bonds at the same time -- maybe I didn't eat at the right place, haha! Then I went to a nice-looking flea market, followed by a quick stop at the Books-a-Million shopping center, and the mall and its outparcels after that. 

BAM had "remodeled" since my first visit there in 2022 (I have that in quotes as there really wasn't much work to do; just remove the existing few interior signs and paint the walls a new color). The mall didn't have all that much to offer, but still boasts Belk and a full-line Dillard's as anchors. This is in comparison to the mall in Vicksburg, which features a Dillard's Clearance store. Both of these malls, as well as the mall in McComb, came under the ownership of RockStep Capital several years back, which renamed each of the properties "Uptown [city name]." I happen to have been to all three within the past two months; Uptown McComb (formerly Edgewater Mall) seems like it is doing the best, if only because its mall corridor is essentially nonexistent now, with most of the anchor spots having been subdivided and redeveloped into stores with exterior-only entrances. I didn't walk inside Uptown Vicksburg (formerly Pemberton Square Mall) this time, but did go to its Dillard's Clearance, which seems to be doing well enough. However, that mall appears to have since been sold off to Kohan, so maybe that's not the best sign. flickr user gameking3 recently uploaded some 2024 photos of Uptown Meridian (formerly Bonita Lakes Mall).

All in all, everywhere was pleasant enough to visit, but I did get sufficiently overheated -- the heat index in my car was registering 118 degrees in the afternoon, and it didn't help that the flea market didn't have any air conditioning, and the A/C inside Ollie's and Belk seemed to be barely working! (This has been a thing at three of the four Belk stores I've recently been in -- clearly there's some sort of company-wide initiative to save money on utilities, with weird ceiling duct kits plugged into portable industrial A/C units with air chutes at all of those locations. It's way too hot in Mississippi for those to be functional in any meaningful capacity, though. The Flowood Belk has had to close early because the temperature inside has gotten too unbearable.) At least I made it out of the flea market with the cool Wal-Mart Supercenter Christmas village display shown above. Per the original price on the box compared to what I paid for it, it had doubled in value since its 2006 manufacture date -- darn inflation!

Finally, I arrived at the Winn-Dixie on Hwy 39 shortly before 5PM. Maybe it's just because I'm not familiar with the area, but it felt like this store was rather isolated with no other retail around; perhaps that's precisely how it's managed to survive all these years, though. A Marketplace-era build, the store originally looked like this, before remodeling in 2016.

As we approach the storefront, we see yellow store closing posters placed in all the windows. There's also a banner farther down on the left edge of the facade.

The vestibule setup was rather interesting -- despite there being centrally located sets of doors, you were supposed to enter into the angled set on the right, which then would lead you through another set of angled doors into the produce department. That said, as you can see in the image showing the yellow posters in the windows above, there was also an angled door on the left side of the vestibule, marked "entrance" but functionally unnecessary. I'm guessing perhaps this entire setup was reconfigured at some point along the way.

That "entrance" decal, a portion of which can also be seen in the above image, remains from the serif-logo Winn-Dixie days. It's also worth noting, both in that adjoining "Thank you for your loyalty!" poster and the exterior banner out front, that there is no reference to Aldi coming soon -- a marked change in presentation ever since Winn-Dixie bought themselves back. See an example of earlier co-branded signage here.

As we enter the store, we find produce occupying the front right corner, joined by floral immediately past that. Then, looking out from produce, we find a very nice-looking grand aisle with all the service departments. I'm not going to pretend to be knowledgeable about Winn-Dixie store formats, but I'm told this was built as a "Food Pavilion" Marketplace store. This layout coupled with the modern Down Down decor makes this store actually look quite nice for a Winn-Dixie, in my limited personal experience.

As you can see, produce was mostly wiped out, with just a few stray tomatoes and sweet potatoes left for sale. There were a few additional items located in that first set of refrigerated cases, just out of view from my first vantage point, as well.

That first set of fridges can be seen a bit better in the above image, which is angled to take a look back at the front wall of the produce department from a spot within the Food Pavilion grand aisle. That shot also reveals there was a series of yellow carboard sale bins placed immediately along the walkway path leading inside from the vestibule. You can see how everything was marked with clearance percentages. 

Some of those bins held regular, neatly stocked grocery and HABA merchandise, while others just had stuff dumped into them, ranging from small miscellaneous items (think ChapStick and batteries, for instance) to bakery cake toppers. You see, when supermarkets close down, everything from their service departments typically go up for sale -- while the actual equipment itself usually will only be sold to the public at a later fixture auction, the incidentals may well be included in the liquidation proceedings. In the bakery's case, that meant that all the decorative cake topper items were bagged up, slapped with labels, and dumped in a bin. 

My friend is the captain of a recreational soccer team that has won its league's championship at least four times now over the past few years (including the last three in a row). I thought the soccer rings shown above would work perfectly as championship rings, so I bought the bag. After giving away those four to him, I still have 140 left -- I think I've got them covered for a long time!

Here are some more shots amongst the grand aisle, two looking towards the back of the store, and one reversing direction and looking towards the front. With the store having entered phase two of its liquidation, these service departments had officially closed down. It looks like this store actually had quite a bit to offer, too, including pizza and coffee counters in addition to the usual deli, bakery, and "kitchen" departments. Several fresh bakery items were still available for sale amongst the miscellaneous racks in the center of the grand aisle, but I resisted purchasing any. (I did, however, pick up a water bottle from the deli, to help combat all that heat!)

Also available for sale throughout the grand aisle? Various deli packaging implements, including boxes, bags, cups, and tubs, mostly for different types of chicken. I do find it somewhat interesting that they would be selling the things explicitly featuring SE Grocers branding on them, but then again, perhaps it isn't worth it logistically to ship them to other stores -- not that there's any more than just one store left anywhere near enough to this one, regardless. Plus, in all the hubbub between SE Grocers selling itself to Aldi and later re-buying itself, and store-brand products transitioning from SE Grocers to Know & Love, I'm not exactly sure what the future of SE Grocers as a brand name is in the first place.

The coffee bar was located at the back of the Food Pavilion island (and this trio of pics also includes a glance over to the deserted bakery located on the perimeter wall directly across). Yikes -- what happened to the wall directly above the grand aisle-facing portion of the coffee counter?! I'd always assumed this decor consisted of an ungodly amount of red paint, but based on all that peeling, it looks like maybe it was an ungodly amount of red vinyl instead. Thankfully, the secondary signage facing the back wall looked much better. (For what it's worth, I think the entire store looked very presentable. The remodel clearly did a lot for the space.)

Beer -- the only department with signage a different color than red -- occupied the back right corner of the salesfloor, with some additional shelving behind the coffee bar (complete with a local Mississippi endcap sign).

The meat and seafood service counters were directly beyond that, placed right at the back of the grand aisle. Fresh meat coolers continued down the rear actionway; very little remained, and what was stocked was placed closest to the butcher counter (i.e. out of view in my image above). While I was standing back in this area, some girls on a video call swung their phone camera from the miniscule meat selection outward to the rest of the store, saying "there's nothing here!"

As we glance further down the back actionway (and back over to the grand aisle), we see many aisles devoid of product. At least nothing was closed off! I'm glad I got to access the entire salesfloor. For reasons I'll continue to describe below, this was my favorite supermarket liquidation experience I've had.

The soda aisle was one of just a couple, if I remember correctly, that was still stocked all the way to the back of the store. Unfortunately, I have a bad habit in liquidation sales. I get so caught up in enjoying looking at all the deals that, while of course remembering to photograph the perimeter and the decor, I fail to actually photograph any of the actual aisles with all the sales taking place -- you know, the core of the liquidation itself. Alas, I regrettably engaged in the same behavior here, so let me just take a moment to discuss the things you're not going to be able to see.

This place was stocked impeccably for a store undergoing a liquidation. All of the merchandise had been condensed forwards throughout the aisles toward the front of the store. This, yes, is a common liquidation practice. But making sure all the shelf tags match, everything is perfectly faced, and there are no blank spots in-between items? That's certainly not common, nor is it required. Unless there's something I don't know about where SE Grocers mandates a beautiful store throughout the liquidation process, then that, to me, speaks very highly of the environment curated at this location with its management and staff, and from that aspect, makes me hate that this store is closing even more. I sure hope that those who want to are able to come back and work here once it becomes an Aldi.

That's just the (objective) presentation aspect. There's also the (subjective) enjoyment aspect. It's no secret that I'm one who loves a good bargain. I buy way too many things I don't need on clearance solely because I'm getting a good deal on them. Groceries are my bread and butter, yet (thankfully, given the implications, but still) I rarely get to go to supermarket liquidation sales. In fact, this is really the only one I can think of off the top of my head where truly the entire store was discounted. And, correspondingly, it was a blast. Yes, some things -- even with the discount -- were more expensive than Walmart, so I didn't buy those. But I had a ton of fun exploring what was available (both in the sense of what was left, and in the sense of what isn't carried at Walmart or Kroger), calculating how good the sale was, and stocking up on things that were legitimately good deals (and/or some of those items unavailable near me). In short -- I'm really glad I waited until phase two was underway to visit the store, as it was the liquidation itself that was primary on my list to experience. The fact that the whole salesfloor was still open for exploration and photography was just the icing on the cake (or the decorative soccer rings, if you will).

Transitioning back to the rear actionway now. Many of the endcap toppers had received these relatively recent "100 Years of Winning Value" signs, alluding to Winn-Dixie's centennial in 2025. It's really rather sad how the chain is having to navigate celebration of that milestone amongst actively being pillaged by Aldi at many of its stores. But, it was looking like things were changing course for them prior to that sale, and of course, here's to hoping it can find that momentum again and rebuild successfully going forward.

Some more empty aisle shots here, this one featuring the built-in soup can dispensers. If you zoom in far enough, you can see the completely stocked front aisle off in the distance, a stark contrast to this back aisle. I also photographed the floor advertisement promoting the switch from the SE Grocers house brand to Know & Love, mentioned earlier.

This shot should help further demonstrate the split in how the aisles were stocked -- when I refer to products being condensed forwards toward the front, I mean quite literally that the front aisles were separate from the back ones, given the presence of this dividing center aisle. Would this have been here originally when the store opened? I do know that the shelving units themselves would have been installed with the remodel; in recent years Winn-Dixie opted to go with fixtures that were lower in height than the standard gondolas, achieving (1) better sightlines, (2) indications of a better-stocked store (i.e. fewer opportunities for empty shelving), and (3) better aesthetics (new shelves look new!).

Dairy occupied the back left corner of the store, with more of those Know & Love ads on the floor -- not sure how I missed those. Bacon (Winn-Dixie is one of the only supermarkets I know to actually fully dedicate a department sign to that!) was adjacent, as can be seen in the companion view looking back the opposite direction across the entirety of the nearly vacant rear wall.

In addition to soda as we saw earlier, the other back aisle that I remember still being very well-stocked was the one home to greeting cards, shown here. These were also the items at the deepest discount across the whole store, marked at 75% off. The Sing Oil Blogger has mentioned in the past that this has been the department he has most commonly purchased from at the various Winn-Dixie liquidations he's visited, and I certainly stocked up on several cards myself (although I still prefer to purchase most of my cards from the active Hallmark store we still have at the Renaissance in Ridgeland).

One more look across the back wall, before rounding the corner into the store's final aisle, home to a continuation of the dairy department, along the left-hand side. The Meridian Winn-Dixie capped out at 12 aisles total -- a number we're very familiar with!

The front half of Aisle 12 transitioned into health and beauty products, with that string of empty shelves you see along the angled wall in the background covering over the former pharmacy, which closed alongside all of Winn-Dixie's pharmacies back in 2023. The prescriptions were transferred to a Walgreens about a mile and a half away (incidentally in the parking lot of another of Meridian's former Winn-Dixies).

On that note -- Winn-Dixie has about a 60-year history in Meridian; at one point I passed a couple of shoppers (visiting the store separately from one another) who were lamenting something along the lines of "it's a shame this is it for all the Winn-Dixies in Meridian." It is, indeed.

The front left corner of this store felt rather different from a more common Marketplace-era Winn-Dixie: then again, this is coming strictly from my experience glancing at pictures and blog posts online, and not actual personal visits to such stores. In any case, I'd be willing to bet the Food Pavilion prototype has something to do with that. "Beauty" got to be specifically signed on the same angled wall with the former pharmacy, with its merchandise placed beneath the angle into a small alcove. Customer service occupied space next to beauty along the front wall, with the common Marketplace wedding cake tiered ceiling still present above the checkouts.

Here's one last interior shot looking at the front end before we conclude our tour and head back outside. Two large American flags were hung to either side of the "Thank you for shopping at your Meridian Winn-Dixie" message.

Here are a couple more looks at the storefront as we recede further into the parking lot. You'd think that diamond cutout, which used to be a focal point of the facade during the Marketplace days, would look a little strange now with the Winn-Dixie logo centered and that area no longer serving any purpose, but somehow, it doesn't look weird at all... is it just me on that?

Speaking of "Marketplace," I didn't have any pictures directly referencing this inside the store, but the all-too-common Marketplace-era frozen foods floor tiles were nowhere to be found in this store. I'm guessing most, if not all, of the flooring was replaced in that 2016 remodel. There are some other areas within the aisles that look like they could be original, but frozen most certainly was replaced, at least. For that matter, there were no coffin coolers here, either; all of those were replaced with the more modern upright units with doors on them.

This store had cute little "shopper-in-training" carts for children with flags attached, one of which was seen in this cart corral in the parking lot. All of the store's carts were replaced with the remodel, and the one I rolled around was nice and smooth.

Last but not least, from the edge of the parking lot facing Hwy 39, here's a shot of the road sign (original to the store, but with a new sign face installed), followed by a drawn-out view of the entire building. As I said, there is no other retail surrounding the store; clearly the Winn-Dixie did good enough business with the nearby residential crowd, so it's possible Aldi will do well here with the same folks, but I certainly do wonder how soon the portion of the building Aldi casts off will sit around before finding a new tenant to lease it out. 

For those interested, here's my receipt -- similar to signage along the registers, it was marked "all sales final," although it also takes time to point out that I "didn't earn points toward FREE groceries!" there at the bottom. Not sure how much those rewards points would matter with this store undergoing a liquidation sale and closing soon, lol...

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On the Coast, the first Winn-Dixie to close -- in D'Iberville -- was the first to reopen as Aldi, in early April 2025. The rest are on their way. If you were following my narrative from earlier, all of this, of course, leaves only Hattiesburg as the sole surviving Winn-Dixie in Mississippi. There's a relatively recent new-build Aldi (opened December 2023) a mile and a half down the street -- not that proximity stopped Aldi from taking the Ocean Springs store, either (which was three and a half miles away from a 2022-opened Aldi on the same street), but so far, it seems Hattiesburg hasn't been targeted for conversion. Whether or not that keeps it from closing outright or being sold to another retailer, though, remains to be seen... surely it can't make much business sense to have a singular Winn-Dixie in the entire state. That said, it sounds like the new (old) ownership intends to keep the Louisiana distribution center as its primary one going forward, so who knows -- maybe we'll even see some infill from Winn-Dixie in Mississippi in the future. Wouldn't that be something! 

Anyway, I hope y'all enjoyed this tour of the closing Meridian Winn-Dixie, the last one in town after a storied history in the Queen City. I know I definitely enjoyed my visit to it! And for once I'm actually getting a blog post out in a timely fashion -- not that I necessarily wanted to tack on even more Winn-Dixie coverage to anyone who's been reading about them on numerous platforms lately, but just to make sure Mississippi gets a small word in as well. Until next time, then, and as always, thanks for reading, and have fun exploring the retail world wherever you are!

Retail Retell