Winn-Dixie - Power to the (Beef) People

A billboard flies past as cars streak down the highway at night, sometime in 1970. Instead of the exit number for the nearest Holiday Inn, or a pitch for a tourist attraction such as Weeki Wachee Springs, we see a great big steak, the stock-in-trade of Winn-Dixie and Kwik Chek supermarkets. Uncooked, no less – a practice that thankfully is rarely (no pun intended) the case in supermarket advertising today. Modern weekly grocery ads, for example, typically show attractively cooked and garnished steaks, prominently placed on the front page.

In Winn-Dixie’s case, beef wasn’t just on the front page of their ads, but on the front of their stores, in slogan form at least. “The Beef People” is a phrase that continues to be associated with Winn-Dixie, even though it long ago ceased to be company’s tagline. (I actually prefer James Lileks’ one word slogan – “Mmmmmmeat!”)

For the most part, the 1970’s saw a continuation of Winn-Dixie’s success. The company started the decade with the formation of a new division – in Atlanta (to include the North Georgia and Chattanooga areas), where Winn-Dixie had maintained a presence for just over ten years by that time. Initially, the new region was comprised of thirty-one stores peeled off from the Montgomery division and eight from the Greenville division. Although the Atlanta division would grow impressively, not quite doubling in size over the next ten years, it would remain one of the company’s smaller operations. Competition in the Atlanta area was fierce, prompting a brief return to issuing trading stamps (Top Value this time around) in 1978.

The biggest news of the era for Winn-Dixie came in 1976, when the government imposed 10-year ban on acquisitions finally came to an end. In August of that year, the company bought out Fort Worth, Texas-based Kimbell, Inc., gaining 135 stores in three states new to Winn-Dixie – Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. The stores operated under the Buddies, Foodway and Hagee names. A twenty-unit drugstore chain owned by Kimbell, called “Thrifty”, was not part of the deal. Two years later, Winn-Dixie would sell off its New Mexico stores due to problems with the local unions. The 23 Foodway stores were sold to Smith Management Co., operator of the “Smith’s Food King” supermarkets, which years later would become a division of Kroger.

Most major grocery chains were unaccustomed to the new scrutiny that came along with the “consumers’ movement” of the 1970’s. Suddenly, supermarket chain profits became the stuff of headlines, and often as not, companies were portrayed in an unflattering light. Because of Winn-Dixie’s industry leading profits, they felt more heat than most. In an October 1973 full page article, Forbes magazine came to the company’s defense: “...profits, properly speaking, are created by efficient management, not by greed; Greed has never been known to create anything. Winn-Dixie makes more money than most, yet manages to keep employees, customer and even stockholders happy. What’s so sinful about that?” In any event, through the rest of the decade Winn-Dixie managed to maintain this balance, as described by the New York Times in 1979: “Winn-Dixie, (is) the nation’s fourth largest supermarket chain (behind Safeway, Kroger and A&P) and one of its most successful, with profits above industry average”.

Not much to “beef” about there!

The vintage Winn-Dixie publicity photos seen above are as follows: (1) the above-mentioned 1970 billboard, (2) from 1975, a store that appears to be an older unit retrofitted with a mansard roof, (3) a shopping center store from 1976, (4) another from 1977 – Note the white and green Chevy Vega hatchbacks in the foreground. By the time their owners were finished shopping, the rear quarter-panels on both were rusted clean through!, (5) a very nice exterior from 1979, (6) an even nicer one from 1980, one of my nominees for all-time best exterior design, post-1970 category.

Below are six interior shots, three from 1971 with a very nice earth-toned theme, followed by three more conventional 1977 views.

Wards - Fort Worth, Texas, Early 1930's

Pictured above is Montgomery Ward’s Fort Worth, Texas “Mail Order Catalog House”, opened in 1928, as it appeared in an early 1930’s photo. This was the company’s fourth major mail order plant, preceded by their Chicago, Oakland and Baltimore units. Wards, who claimed a customer base of “500,000 Texas families, or more than half the customers in the state”, according to a December 1927 Wall Street Journal article (which also references Wards’ special edition of their catalog for the Texas market – I’m picturing “Lone Star” curtains, among other things), could now service them out of one facility. Prior to this building’s opening, Wards operated out of four different locations in the Fort Worth area – two warehouses, a three-story former Chevrolet plant and some rented office space in a downtown building.

Half a million square feet and eight stories high, lined with store display windows on the first floor and an entranceway that emphasized its Spanish-style architecture, the building made for an impressive sight. The photo also shows the botanical version of the company’s original “MW” logo, which was in use until Wards’ image overhaul in the late 1950’s when it was replaced with a more contemporary rendering.

Having finally ramped up their store construction program in the late 1950’s, Wards decided to construct a store distribution center adjacent to the mail order plant in 1961. Two years later, the retail portion of the main building was expanded (a large two-story portion was added) and completely reconfigured to match the company’s new look, including blue-glazed brick and modern signage. The resulting look was a bit odd – a Mid-Century Modern ground floor with seven stories of Spanish design “sprouting up” from it. Something for everybody!

The Fort Worth facility continued on as a Wards retail location even after the demise of the legendary Montgomery Ward catalog in 1985. In 2001 it closed, along with the rest of the chain.

After sitting vacant for a couple of years, the building began to attract the interest of developers, who saw the historic old building as an ideal candidate for renovation and conversion into a combination of condominiums and specialty retail, as had been done with Wards massive Chicago catalog facility some years earlier. The project ran into controversy when preservationists objected to plans to remove sections of the front and rear of the building, essentially creating a road through it, a move that was considered necessary by retailers and potential condo buyers who wanted additional window exposure. When the project lost some preservation grants due to the proposed modification, the city of Fort Worth stepped in and saved the day, guaranteeing loans on the construction costs.

Additional plans included the teardown of the 1961 warehouse and construction of a SuperTarget in its place, which opened in 2005. The main building, now called “Montgomery Plaza”, was completed this past fall. I saw it recently, and feel they did a very tasteful job. Amazingly, the general contractor that built the original 1928 building, Fort Worth-based Thos S. Byrne, fulfilled the same role in the renovation project.

Here are a couple of very interesting links – a series of posts on the “Fort Worth Forum” site showing great views of the 2004-5 demolition work on the project (you'll have to click down into the thread to see the many pics, but it's well worth it!), and the main Montgomery Plaza website. Click on the “History” tab for a great progression of 1928 construction photographs and other details.

The photo above appears here courtesy of the Tarrant County College Northeast Heritage Room Collection.

General Cinema Refreshments, 1966

Prior to the 1960’s, concession sales in theatres were not a universal thing, and before the 1950’s, they were rare indeed. It was thought that eating or drinking inside a theatre violated a sense of decorum. General Cinema was no exception to this practice, selling refreshments in its drive-ins but not in its enclosed theatres, or “hardtops”, as they were nicknamed within the industry by that time.

By the time GCC launched its shopping center theatre expansion, the company had undergone a change of heart, and concession counters became a standard component of their theatres, shopping center-located or otherwise. They made such a significant impact on the bottom line that the “sense of decorum” was, shall we say, redefined. Most of their competition followed suit within a very short time.

One thing’s for sure - this great modernist lobby, from 1966’s Richland Plaza Cinema in Fort Worth, Texas doesn’t violate my sense of decorum.