Employee-owned Publix has said the stores are still just experiments. "We're still trying out new concepts, different sizes, different product mixes to try to figure out what's the best bet for us," Shannon Patten, a spokesperson for Publix, told the news outlet.
Grocery retail expert [image-nocss] Burt Flickinger III said the stores are getting non-Publix customers to shop at Publix supermarkets. That is good news for Publix, but bad news for other grocery chains because the grocery business operates on tiny profit margins. "It's going to be a very daunting challenge to try to stay alive as Publix gets better with their Pix stores," he told Bay 9 News.
Flickinger said that he expects Publix to add 150 Pix stores in the next five years.
As previously reported in CSP Daily News, the Pix stores, typically located on existing Publix supermarket sites, feature four to six fueling stations and a c-store or small cashier station. The stores range from 160-square-foot kiosks to 4,000-square-foot locations, and includes 1,200-square-foot and 2,000-square-foot locations.
One of the largest two Pix sites includes a car wash, while both the 4,000-footers have custom sub stations manned by dedicated sandwich-making employees. The other locations get fresh-made grab-and-go items from their partner grocery stores brought over daily, according to Brous. The two largest Pix serve Publix private-label goods.
The chain has moved deliberately on rolling out Pix. Maria Brous, Publix director of media and community relations, told CSP Daily News in 2006 that Publix was cautious about growing into the c-store channel simply because "that's the company's way." She added, "It takes us time to plan everything. If you talk to any of the industry leaders, they will tell you that we're not a retailer that would rush into any market."
The Lakeland, Fla.-based chain of 1,000 grocery stores operates in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina, with Pix stores mostly in Florida and Georgia, with one in Tennessee.
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