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Founded by George W. Jenkins on Dec 27, 1921, in Winter Haven.1
Early history
George Jenkins previously worked as a stock clerk and a manager at Piggly Wiggly from 1926 to 1930. Jenkins's store had been bought out by a corporation. Jenkins went to share some ideas he had for the business but was turned down by corporate because the CEO was busy playing a game of golf. Jenkins left the store and aspired to create a new store, one where all ideas from associates and others were welcome. He also believed that if employees had an ownership stake in the company, everyone would benefit. "Invest in Others" is a core Publix value that inspires pride and teamwork in associates and their leaders.
When Jenkins decided to open his own grocery store, he adopted the name "Publix" from a struggling New York-based movie theater company (with 19 opulently decorated movie houses in Florida) called Publix Theatres Corporation, a Paramount affiliate.
Jenkins stated, "Most of the theaters were closing up, and I liked the sound of the name, so I just took it for my store." Jenkins opened the first Publix Food Store in Winter Haven, Florida, on September 6, 1930, a 3,000-square-foot building located at 58 Northwest 4th Street. Like the theatres, the store was air conditioned and utilized the Art Moderne architectural style.
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, called "Mr. George" by his employees, mortgaged an orange grove to build Florida's first supermarket. On November 8, 1940, his "food palace" opened at 199 West Central Avenue, having piped-in music, air conditioning, cold cases for frozen and refrigerated items, in-store doughnut 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. The warehouse occupied a 70,000-square-foot area. 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.
Expansion in Florida
By 1959, Publix was the dominant supermarket chain in Central Florida, and began expansion to South Florida, opening a store in Miami and acquiring six stores from Grand Union. 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.
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In 1983, Carol Jenkins Barnett joined the Publix Board of Directors and served in that role until 2016. During her time at Publix, the company grew into the largest supermarket chain in Florida, and expanded into five other states.
On October 5, 1995, Publix opened its 500th store in Miami, Florida.
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 (the Pensacola area).
On February 5, 2009, Publix opened its 1,000th store in St. Augustine, Florida, becoming one of only five U.S. grocery retailers to achieve that number of 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.
Expansion to other Southern states
The first Publix outside Florida opened in Savannah, Georgia, in 1991; distribution and manufacturing facilities in Dacula, Georgia (a northeastern suburb of Atlanta), soon followed, as it entered metro Atlanta in 1993. Publix further expanded into South Carolina (1993), Alabama (1996), Tennessee (2002), North Carolina (2014), Virginia (2017), and Kentucky (2024).
In 2011, Publix announced it was expanding into North Carolina, initially by opening stores in the Charlotte metropolitan area, and later announced construction of a new store in Asheville. The first Charlotte-area Publix store (on the South Carolina side of the metropolitan area, opened in 2012); the first North Carolina Publix store opened in Ballantyne in 2014. Concurrently, Publix purchased seven Charlotte-area locations from competitor BI-LO stores. Publix completed the purchase of property in Boone, North Carolina, on November 20, 2015, with plans to open in 2017.
In February 2016, Publix announced their entry into the Virginia market, with the signing of two store leases, the first in Bristol scheduled to open in 2017 and the second in metropolitan Richmond scheduled for 2018. In July 2016, it was announced that Publix had entered into a purchase agreement with Ahold Delhaize for 10 Martin's Food Markets locations in the Richmond market as part of the divestiture of stores to gain clearance from the Federal Trade Commission for the impending Ahold/Delhaize merger.
In April 2016, Ed Crenshaw, grandson of founder George Jenkins, retired from his position as CEO. President Todd Jones, a 36-year Publix employee whose first job was as a front service clerk (bagger), took on Crenshaw's responsibilities as CEO. Jones is the first member outside of the Jenkins family to have assumed the position. Ed Crenshaw will remain with Publix as chairman of the board of directors.
On September 7, 2021, Publix announced its first Kentucky location, initially expected to open in late 2023 in northeast Louisville near the intersection of the Gene Snyder Freeway and Old Henry Road. The first Publix Liquors location outside Florida is adjacent to this supermarket. The opening date was slightly delayed to January 10, 2024. Exactly three months after the Old Henry location was announced, Publix announced plans for a second northeast Louisville location, this one near the intersection of Ballardsville and Brownsboro Roads in the Worthington community. Expected to open in early 2024, this location will also feature an adjacent Publix Liquors store. On June 23, 2022, the same day that ground was broken for the Old Henry Road store, the company announced that it had signed a lease for a future store in Lexington at a development on the corner of Harrodsburg Road and Man o' War Boulevard. The Lexington store, including an adjacent Publix Liquors location, is planned to open in late 2024. A third Louisville location, on Shelbyville Road outside the Snyder Freeway in the far-eastern Eastwood area, was announced in December 2022 and is expected to open in the first half of 2024. It will also include an adjacent Publix Liquors store. New locations have also been announced for Owensboro and Elizabethtown.
Response to the COVID-19 pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Publix started working with the federal and state agencies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) beginning in late January 2020. The chain closed food demonstrations, and increased sanitation and routine cleaning, as well as installing plexiglas partitions at registers and customer service desks. As of July 21, 2020, face masks were required for all customers in all Publix facilities.
During the pandemic, Publix said it would purchase milk and fresh produce from farmers and dairies in Florida who faced reduced demand as a result of school and restaurant closures. Publix said the produce, which would otherwise be discarded, would be donated to food banks of Feeding America.
Publix started to administer COVID-19 vaccines in early January 2021, with a 22-store pilot in the state of Florida with a focus on long-term care residents and staff, seniors, and health-care personnel. As of mid-February, Publix had provided more than 300,000 vaccines for customers in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia. Publix has faced criticism over its extensive involvement in the distribution of vaccines in Florida, including allegations that it had curried favor with the Ron DeSantis administration by making a campaign donation through an affiliated PAC, and that Publix as exclusive distributor disproportionately favored wealthy neighborhoods.
Publix and the DeSantis administration deny that there was a pay-to-play arrangement; in an April 2021 interview with 60 Minutes, DeSantis stated that Publix "were the first one to raise their hand" when Florida sought distribution partners for vaccines in retail (noting that CVS Health and Walgreens were largely focusing on vaccination at long-term care facilities), and that 90% of Florida's senior population lived in close proximity to a Publix location, especially in Palm Beach (which has 65 locations, and was identified by the governor as "one of the most elderly counties"). These remarks were not included in the version of the interview aired by CBS, which has led to allegations that the interview had been edited to create a false narrative. The Democratic mayor of Palm Beach County, Dave Kerner, stated, "The reporting was not just based on bad information — it was intentionally false. I know this because I offered to provide my insight into Palm Beach County's vaccination efforts and 60 Minutes declined."
From Wikipedia’s article on Publix, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.6