Publix - History

History

George Jenkins opened the first Publix market in Winter Haven, Florida, on April 19, 1930. In 1934, that store made $120,000 in sales. In 1935, he opened a second market, the Economy Food Store, also in Winter Haven. Despite the Great Depression, his stores were financially successful.

In 1940, Jenkins, affectionately called Mr. George by his employees, mortgaged an orange grove to build Florida's first supermarket. His "food palace" had piped-in music, air conditioning, cold cases for frozen and refrigerated items, in-store donut and flower shops, and electric-eye automatic doors. During World War II, material shortages prevented him from building additional stores. In 1945, Jenkins purchased the 19-store All American chain of food stores and converted them into Publix Super Markets.

In 1951, Publix moved its headquarters from Winter Haven to Lakeland, Florida, and built its first distribution warehouse there. At the same time, they began to close the All American stores, replacing them with Publix markets. In 1956, Publix achieved $50 million in sales, and $1 million in profit. In 1957, the donut shop in each store was expanded into a full-service bakery.

By 1959, Publix was the dominant supermarket chain in Central Florida, and began expansion to southeast Florida. In 1963, the company built a distribution center in Miami, and began providing deli services. In 1970, sales surpassed $500 million; they reached $1 billion in 1974, when the chain expanded to include Jacksonville, Florida.

In 1982, the company launched the Presto! ATM network; it soon installed ATMs in every Publix. Sales exceeded $5 billion in 1989. The first Publix outside Florida opened in Savannah, Georgia, in 1991; distribution and manufacturing facilities in Lawrenceville, Georgia, soon followed. Publix further expanded into South Carolina (1993), Alabama (1996), and Tennessee (2002).

With the launch of PublixDirect on September 24, 2001, Publix attempted to enter the online grocery business, in hopes of serving the southeastern US. The slogan used was "Online Shopping, Home Delivery." This occurred during the dot-com crash, alongside competitor Webvan's well-publicized failure. Publix found that demand for online grocery shopping in the Miami testing area was not as great as the company expected, and shut down PublixDirect on August 23, 2003.

Publix celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2005. During that time, it used the slogan "It's Been Our Pleasure."

In early 2005, Publix renamed its checkout section from "Common Area" to "Customer Service". This change coincided with a new color-and-design scheme of the store's interior signage, which replaced the aging coral, navy blue, and sea green design with emerald green, tan, and gray. The former employee uniforms also began to be phased-out; each district has a selected store where employees wear the old uniforms, until none remain in the warehouses.

Publix completed the implementation of its new point of sale terminals (PRICE — Publix Retail Improved Checkout Experience) in 2006, replacing the previous generation of IBM 4690 terminals. The newer system combines a Hewlett-Packard RP5000 terminal with a touchscreen system, and an Epson thermal printer. A separate LCD screen for customers lists the last several items scanned, the running total of the bill, customer savings, recipe ideas, and Publix advertising. By September 2010, checkouts in all stores were expected to have card readers replaced with units featuring signature capture.

Publix Super Markets bought 49 Florida stores from Albertsons. The deal was announced on June 9, 2008, and was completed on September 9, 2008. It included 15 locations in North Florida, 30 in Central Florida and four in South Florida. The sale allowed Publix to operate four stores in a new market area for the company, Escambia County, Florida.

On February 5, 2009, Publix opened its 1,000th store in St. Augustine, Florida, allowing the company to become one of only five US grocery retailers to operate as many stores. The St. Augustine store is among Publix's first stores designed to be energy efficient. The store includes motion sensor lights throughout the store, including on the freezer doors, and an overhead light system that can be controlled by each department.

In 2011, Publix completed a rollout of Oasis, a new timekeeping and labor forecasting system, company-wide. Oasis replaced the outdated People Planner labor management system that Publix used for almost two decades. Oasis provides a more accurate labor forecast for stores to generate schedules that fit their business needs. Selected stores throughout the company piloted Oasis beginning in 2009. With Oasis, associates will be able to view their schedules from their home computers and enter requests for time-off into a self-service workstation.