Publix plans another GreenWise Market store

Publix Super Markets Inc. is adding a fourth location for its relaunched GreenWise Market specialty, natural and organic food format.

The Southeastern supermarket chain said it plans to open a GreenWise store in Boca Raton, Fla. No opening date has been set thus far, but the GreenWiseMarket.com website shows the Boca Raton location due to open next year.

Three of the stores will be in Florida. The first GreenWise store is slated for an October opening in Tallahassee, while locations in Lakeland, Fla., and Mount Pleasant, S.C., are expected to open sometime in 2019.

Lakeland-based Publix introduced the retail concept in 2007 as Publix GreenWise Market, designed to compete against natural and organic food retailers like Whole Foods Market. The format emerged from the natural and organic private brand founded in 2003 and departments at traditional Publix supermarkets also dubbed GreenWise.

The first store, a 39,000-square-foot unit, opened in September 2007 in Palm Beach Gardens. Publix GreenWise Market locations next were opened in Boca Raton (a 36,000-square-foot store) in May 2008 and in Tampa (a 39,000-square-foot store) in November 2008. However, Publix later refocused the concept by opening “hybrid” Publix stores that incorporated elements from the GreenWise format.

Publix then announced in March 2017 that it would “reignite” the GreenWise Market concept, this time dropping “Publix” from the banner and downsizing the stores. For example, the Lakeland and Mount Pleasant stores slated to open in 2019 will be 25,000 square feet, more than 10,000 square feet smaller than the current Publix GreenWise Market units.

“We learned a lot from the Publix GreenWise Market currently in Boca Raton and are excited to launch this new shopping destination,” Kevin Murphy, senior vice president of retail operations at Publix, stated Friday when Publix announced the latest location. “The new GreenWise Market concept features a simplified environment designed to show off our unique and house-made offerings. We believe our customers will appreciate our curated selection.”

Publix added that it continues to seek sites for more potential GreenWise Market stores across its operating area. Overall, the supermarket retailer operates 1,190 stores in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Nearly 800 of the chain’s locations are in Florida.