Northern Florida Retail Blog

                                    Former Publix #489 (1994-2008)                                                                                                                11220 Hutchison Blvd                                            Panama City Beach, FL   While much of Florida is dominated (well I would say SUPER dominated by Publix Supermakets), they don't have quite the large store count or concentration in the neck of the woods where I hail from, the Panhandle. Of course lower store count or concentration would have also applied to all major supermarkets who have operated in Florida such as Winn Dixie and Albertsons. For 23 years Panama City was served by Albertsons #4355 at the corner of Hwy 77 and 23rd in Panama City proper, along with at least a half dozen Winn Dixies and a few Sunshine Supermarkets. There also was a short-lived Albertsons (store #4425) which opened March 1996 in Callaway at the corner of Hwy 22 and T

As many of you may know, a terrible hurricane by the name of Michael slammed into the Eastern Florida Panhandle just 8 miles east of Panama City over Tyndall AFB. The hurricane was rapidly intensifying upon landfall, and hurricane hunters reported top sustained winds of 155 mph with a central pressure of 919 mb at landfall! Unless you're a meteorologist, that probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but Michael was in fact the 3rd most intense hurricane to ever hit the United States, and it hit the area where I grew up in the Panama City, Lynn Haven, and Callaway areas of Florida's Panhandle https://flic.kr/p/QxHHzj https://flic.kr/p/2bykk9b Uh, I digress. As many of you may know I am interested in retail, especially one particular grocery chain that I have been strangely fascinated with for years, Albertsons! I so, so, so wish I had grabbed my camera back in 2005 and had snapped some photos of the Panama City Albertsons back then. Little did a know, but my fav