Goodbye Sweetbay, Hello Winn-Dixie

Sweetbay no more, the Winn-Dixe signs are up at the
5802 14th St. W store in Bradenton. Photo provided

The end of Sweetbay is near my friends, and the signs are here.

Winn-Dixie installed its sign at its 5802 14th St. W location this week to make it official. The store along with the location at 2501 Cortez Road West is due to reopen Friday as Winn-Dixie while the West Bradenton Sweetbay store at 5805 Manatee Ave W and Palmetto location at 515 Seventh St. W are scheduled to close at 1 p.m. Saturday and reopen the following Friday.

The final days of Sweetbay turned out to be a bit of a supermarket sweep. I visited the Palmetto location Tuesday with the hopes of ordering one last sub for old time's sake, but they were out of bread. The deli line was packed as deli, bakery, meat and produce are all offered at 50 percent off. A man in front of me ordered two whole blocks of cheese while others ordered roast beef, salami and other deli meat two pounds at a time.

The meat department is barren and all that was left in the produce department includes some onions and a couple odds and ends. If you're lucky, there might be a stray cake somewhere in the bakery for cheap.

Do you plan to shop at the converted Winn-Dixies? Drop a line in the comments.