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Marco Island residents and visitors attending Winn Dixie Store’s Grand Opening Remodeling Celebration that began March 19 found (for starters) that radical changes had been made to the store’s antiquated entrance and exit doors as well as the façade. Then, of course, there was the greatly expanded produce department spiffed up with new cases and a shiny faux wood parquet floor that was (honest) the talk of the island if you cared to eavesdrop among the shoppers packing the aisles inside.

District Manager Frank Steele gave your Eagle reporter a personally guided tour through the store last Friday and pointed out areas of interest.

“We just completed a major remodel —basically what we did was repaint the exterior with nice earth-tone colors. We also made changes to the entrance because it was in front of the check-out area, so we changed it to the exit side with wide, sliding glass doors, and made the entrance equally accessible with wide, sliding glass doors to the right that open into the produce area,” explained Steele, who noted that his district, comprised 21 stores from Marco Island on the south, Englewood to the north and over to central Florida.

“We doubled the size of the produce department and put in all new cases, new wood flooring to enhance the shopping experience and now offer the full selection that’s available to us in organic produce,” Steele said, adding that the adjacent section of shelving contains all the natural and organic products available in the new Nutrition Center. “So you don’t have to go hunting for anything you want — we’re trying to make the store shopper-friendly as possible.”

He pointed out the new fruit bar stocked with cut-up fruit that allows shoppers to make their own selection, and noted the adjacent cases still offer four feet of packaged salads and eight feet of packaged cut-up fruit for convenience.

“There’s a 12-foot specialty produce aisle and we try to buy as much local and Florida produce — but then we’re also concerned about quality. There’s a large section of organic juice and organic dairy that’s separate from produce.

“The dry goods and all cereals are located across from the natural and organic frozen cases, and in the same area are shelves stocked with a full selection of natural and organic health and beauty products.” Steele explained, drawing attention to the expanded Floral Section because it’s been popular with shoppers.

The Deli section, he noted was probably the biggest transformation in the store.

“We’ve added a Hot Wing Bar, a Fresh Salad and Fruit Bar as well as an Olive Bar and a prepared party platter case, and added more higher-end goods in the Cheese case — overall, the Deli has more than doubled as far as selection and products,” he said adding that the Bakery area was moved out further into the store to install new equipment and to include fresh-baked goods and a new four-foot dessert case. There’s a new All-Gourmet Sheet and Large Cake case. Check out the four-foot donut case and almost six feet of frozen specialty cakes and pies and Carvel items.

“Our expanded Wine features selections from international vintners as well as varietals produced in the United States, in addition to a full aisle of fine wines in oak wood box and a forty-foot-long section of bottled beers,” Steele explained.

He also pointed out that the Seafood section now boasted an incredible 16-foot-long glass-fronted case featuring all-fresh not frozen seafood and 12 feet of all-fresh cooked products as well as a nine-foot upright case filled with a selection of package frozen fish fillets such as cod, tilapia and grouper to name but a few and all kinds and sizes of shrimp.

“The Meat Department has all new cases for both fresh and frozen items. We now have an eight-foot full service meat counter as well as four feet of prepared and ready-to-cook items along with four feet of steaks, chops and fillets,” he said.

The adjacent International aisle, which stretched 60 feet from the back of the store to the front check-out area, was stocked with a food items from countries across the globe, and across the aisle and in adjacent aisles held cases of frozen foods equally as long, Steele said. “We also added one whole run — 50 doors — of frozen foods to increase our holding power.

“We’ve also remodeled our Customer and Pharmacy departments — certainly, the store was remodeled to fit community needs and we have certainly met that requirement. In addition, we’ve enhanced the lighting and made it energy efficient along with the Dairy department,” Steele concluded.

“Still, we have our nice wide aisles and sufficient parking and that’s been a big advantage for us over the years.”