Cutting cheese at Cortez Road Winn-Dixie

At Winn-Dixie's Shoppes at Paradise Bay, not only will store officials cut the ribbon for the grand re-opening tonight, but they will also cut the cheese.

The store, 7400 Cortez Road W., has a new cheese gallery at the front of the store staffed by a cheese steward who tends to the more than 100 artisan cheeses.

Joey Medina, regional vice president for Winn-Dixie, said the section was added because of  shopper demand and the area's affluent demographic.

Cheese stewards are sent to a so-called cheese college for training with Alco Fine Cheeses in Miami where they get the goods on everything from brie to Zimbro.

Bubba Chavez with Alco Fine Cheese was on hand this week to show how he scores and cuts a 75-pound wheel of parmigiano-reggiano. Check out the video above.

Here is the schedule for the grand re-opening:


Friday from 5:30–7 p.m.
Grand Opening
Winn-Dixie invites the community to join in the celebration and experience the store’s new amenities and offerings. Customers will enjoy product tastings, live entertainment and giveaways. A donation will be presented to Meals on Wheels PLUS of Manatee at 5:15 p.m. before the grand opening event.

Dec. 11 from 4–6 p.m.
Celebrate Delicious
Winn-Dixie will host an in-store holiday food celebration including sampling, a holiday cooking demo, wine and cheese tastings, face painting, live music and giveaways.

Jan. 8, 2015 from 5:30–7 p.m.
Fresh New Year
Winn-Dixie welcomes the Bradenton community to enjoy samples of healthy options from its newly expanded fresh departments, watch a cooking demo by the Florida Beef Council and enter to win giveaways.

Jan. 22, 2015 from 5:30–7 p.m.
Wine and Cheese Tasting
The first 200 customers will receive a giveaway at this customer appreciation event. Customers and neighbors are welcomed into the newly remodeled store to enjoy samples from the fresh departments, wine and cheese tastings and exciting raffle prizes.

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.

Sweet deals at Sweetbay as grocery store discounts food before Winn-Dixie conversion

Sweetbay, 5802 14th St. W, will close Saturday and reopen
March 29 as Winn-Dixie. File photo by Paul Videla

Shoppers looking for a way to cut down their grocery bill will be in luck this week if they head to Sweetbay.

The first round of stores to convert to Winn-Dixie are set to close Saturday for a remodeling, and discounts on food are continuing to be offered. For stores closing Saturday, private label brands  like Hannaford, My Essentials, Taste of Inspirations are 50 percent off this week with the exception of bread, milk and eggs.

Products in the produce, deli, bakery and meat departments are now 25 percent off. Good luck finding any of the private label food left over.

During a trip to the Sarasota Midtown Plaza Sweetbay on Sunday, the 50-percent products were all but picked over. I couldn't find any of the usual private label items I buy like soup and spaghetti sauce. However, the deals in the meat, produce and deli/bakery departments are worth it. Grab some meat and an ice cream cake for cheap and stick it in the freezer for later. The Sweetbay location I went to was also thin on supply of hamburger and chicken, but there was still enough fresh items to go around. I saved more than $15 just from the discounts, so get it while it's gone.

Bradenton stores at 5802 14th St. W, and 2501 Cortez Road West, are due to close Saturday and reopen March 28 as well as Sarasota stores at 2881 Clark Road, 4230 Bee Ridge Road and 1325 S. Tamiami Trail. Stores at 5805 Manatee Avenue in Bradenton and 515 7 St. W in Palmetto are expected to close March 29.

Employees will be working to transform the store in a week’s time, keeping the layout of the stores similar to Sweetbay, and receive training on doing things the Winn-Dixie way.

“Upon reopening as a Winn-Dixie, we believe customers will be pleasantly surprised to see that we have been working hard to provide the fresh, quality products they want at prices they can afford,” said Joey Medina, Winn-Dixie’s regional vice president, in a news release. “Plus, we will offer a suite of in-store savings programs, like the “fuelperks!” rewards program, which lets customers earn incredible savings at participating Shell stations every time they shop with their Winn-Dixie Customer Reward Card.”

The conversion is part of the acquisition of 30 Sweetbay stores by Bi-Lo, parent company of Winn-Dixie. The Tampa headquarters for Sweetbay will close at the end of the conversion while employees in good standing at stores that remain open will be offered to stay on with Winn-Dixie. To avoid monopoly concerns, the Federal Trade Commission ordered to have another chain acquire locations, resulting in 12 Sweetbay stores in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina to be sold to Rowes IGA Supermarkets,HAC, Inc., W. Lee Flowers & Co., Inc. and Food Giant.