by Sean McManus
Staff Writer
The buzz made it seem like it was open. The lights were on, there were lots of people around, stock boys were stocking the shelves. But that was Tuesday, and the new Publix on Riverside Avenue isn’t opening until Thursday at 7 a.m.
The ATM was wearing a sign that said, “Sorry not in service yet,” and plastic lined the floors. But the picture of George Jenkins, the founder of Publix Supermarkets who was born in 1907, was hanging in its usual spot behind the service counter where customers buy cigarettes and lottery tickets.
“This store is about 27,000 square feet,” said Steve Wilt, the store’s manager who has been with Publix for 21 years, most recently at the Beach Boulevard/Kernan Road location. “Most are 38,000 [square feet].”
Which means the staff of the new Publix — 107 people — is trying to squeeze all the same products into a much smaller space. No problem, though, according to George McKinney, a Publix regional manager who oversees eight stores spanning from Jacksonville to Georgia. Customers will find everything they are used to seeing at the bigger stores, McKinney said, adding just as many cans of tuna fish are on the shelves, they’re just packed in a little tighter.
“And if there’s a product you need, we’ll go to the ends of the earth and back again before we tell you no,” said McKinney, who works at the Publix office park on I-10 at Beaver Street. “The customer is first.”
Whenever a new store is built that falls under McKinney’s jurisdiction, he spends about four weeks at the site prior to opening, making sure everything runs smoothly.
And while the new Riverside Publix incorporates similar design elements from its Spanish-influenced surroundings, customers won’t necessarily find more gourmet foods there than they would at any other Publix — yet.
“The market research that we’ve done indicates that this community is pretty mixed income-wise,” said Wilt. “We usually give it a little while before we start stocking the shelves with Dom Perignon.”