Winn-Dixie Produce Aisle, early 60's

Winn-Dixie started in Florida in 1925 with the purchase of a single Miami grocery store by William Davis. With Mr. Davis' passing several years later, control of the company passed to his four sons, who over the years would achieve legendary status in the annals of Southern business. By 1965, through a series of acquisitions and an aggressive building program, the chain covered the entire Southeast and had grown to an impressive 668 stores. The "Winn-Dixie" name was adopted in 1955 when Winn and Lovett (as the company was known at the time) purchased the Dixie Home Stores chain.

For many years, the chain operated under two banners - "Winn-Dixie", of course, and "Kwik Chek". The signage in the photo above is typical of most W-D and Kwik Chek stores of the late 50's and early 60's. I particularly like the bathtub slip strips on the floor in front of the produce case. Also, for you juxtaposition fans, if you look to the right, you can see the adjacent toothpaste and mouthwash displays.

Update 8/9/08 - I received an email from Donna, who noticed a great aspect of this this photo that I had missed - "you can see a very 60's grocery store habit, which was to place large toys for sale over the produce. I had some old Deluxe Reading Toys, as did my sister, and they came from an old grocery store much like this one. Our parents pulled them down from up above the produce. You can see the old toy displays if you enlarge the picture and look to the left, way down on the end of the produce". Thanks, Donna!

Deluxe Reading was a toy manufacturer of dolls and some very cool other toys that were primarily marketed in supermarket displays. They also later made and sold toys through traditional toy and department stores under the Topper brand name (among others), and were reponsible for such kid favorites as Johnny Lightning cars and Suzy Homemaker playsets.