Randy Rambo, regional Vice President of Winn-Dixie grocery stores, is properly named. He is a bit of a bulldog, and when it comes to Winn-Dixie he sells hard. 

"This is the new Winn-Dixie, this is not your average Winn-Dixie," he declared as he almost trots through the aisles of one of Winn-Dixie's prototype stores located in Margate, Florida. "We had a store that was half a mile down the road that was 40 years old. It was tired. We closed that store."
 
Winn-Dixie has closed a lot of stores in recent years.  The legacy grocery store chain with roots that stretch back to Miami in the 1920's has been through a bankruptcy, a reorganization, a couple of downsizings. Winn-Dixie at one time had well over a thousand stores that stretched across the South and into the Midwest. No More. Now 486 stores make up the current portfolio which serves the states of Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
 
It is a grocery store nightmare of competition out there. Publix is very aggressive, not to mention the Super Wal-Mart and Target stores that sell a ton of groceries. The company leadership considers Winn-Dixie lean and mean and ready to make some moves to erase the stodgy image.
 
Winn-Dixie has three of their prototype stores on line. Besides the Margate store, there are newly designed stores in Covington, Louisiana and Mobile, Alabama. The Mobile store sports the exterior that will likely be the Winn-Dixie look of the future. It is ultra modern, a  long way from the current stereotype store. Lots of glass, the design drips of the future.
 
The Margate Store is a 56,000 square foot monster that is part farmers market and part wide-aisled, brightly lit store that reminds many first time shoppers of the Whole Food Markets.  A big selection of wine, a huge fish department, a deli with plenty of hot soups and a carving station, and sushi -- yes, they have sushi at Winn-Dixie.

Remember the Winn-Dixie Beef People? They are still very much part of the new prototype store, it's just that there is so much more going on that beef is just one of many specialties in the store.
 
Rambo talks up customer service and how they are selecting the right neighborhoods for the new stores. He can't say where or when they will be built but guarantees they are on the way. He says the new stores will be a game-changer.

"As we build these stores and open this type of store that will change our image, change our brand," he said.