I am moving from New York to Palm Coast Florida in about 6 weeks. I was wondering, which market is better, Publx or Winn Dixie. I’m looking for good meats produce, maybe some more interesting items as I am used to. Any suggestions, also on good butchers, etc would be appreciated!!!
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Gwenn - you’ve posted this to the Asia Pacific sub-forum.
I grew up in FL before moving to NY so went the other way a long time ago. My mom shopped at both but preferred Publix to Winn Dixie. When I visit now, I am more likely to go to Whole Foods as they have a much greater variety of produce. I feel like the typical grocery stores in FL have a very limited choice of produce. Feels like if you want anything outside of the main stream, you need to go to WF or maybe smaller more ethnic markets.
Since the regional boards are not that active, the miss posting of region isn’t impacting where this shows up in the regional section.
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Thanks, John. I’ll fix it.
I don’t think there is a Whole Food in Palm Coast. I will check. I need my French butter. Thank goodness for internet ordering
Lots of provisioning for yacht deliveries in Florida. Prices, product, and management are generally better at Publix than Winn-Dixie. Both use Instacart for delivery and curbside so you’ll pay more than places like WalMart and Target that do curbside in-house.
Publix has long been my go-to in FL but I’ve shifted to WalMart, Target, and Sam’s due to Publix relationship with Instacart. Pretty good availability of Hispanic and Asian groceries for specialty items.
Hey Dave, get Shipt. They both deliver for Publix and Winn Dixie (as well as CVS, Target, ABC Liquor, and a few more)
I will drive past 5 Winn Dixies to get to a Publix…but recently I shop at a local chain, the new produce co-OP in town, and my beloved meat market.
Gwen, look at this site…a FB group for finding local farms
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Thanks. My experience with third-party delivery services has been consistently worse than in-house. All of them. InstaCart has been horrible, but all the third party have led to pulling hair out by the roots. The store blames delivery, delivery blames the store, prices are higher. Based on performance all up and down the US East Coast and along the Gulf Coast the experience has been consistent.
One interesting thing is that some Food Lion stores do curbside in-house and some outsource to InstaCart. That is weird, but the comparison is stark. In-house works better. Where I have had the chance to talk to people, the in-house stores use stockers as pickers so they know the products and they know where everything is. Faster (good for store) and more accurate (good for customer). Definitely differences between stores on the online shopping experience. Giant Food is better than Safeway. Shoprite is pretty good. Walmart is excellent. Sam’s Club is excellent. Publix/Instacart is grim, in fact anything with Instacart in the mix is grim. I shopped an independent grocery in Deltaville VA with better online shopping than Instacart. Bah!
This is great, thanks. I need to figure out how to search it!
Publix, 100%. Closest Whole Foods (and TJ’s) to Palm Coast is in Jacksonville. For produce, swing down to Port Orange and check out Perrine’s. Figure a half hour drive or so, but it’s a straight shot down 95, and that location is better than the one in Ormond.
Is there any place to get European butter? Perrine’s looks great! Thanks
My condolences. I’d rather be dead than in Florida. But at least you’ll get the freshest citrus fruit. 
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Don’t hold back on how you feel. LOL. When I was in high school, we used to refer to a town close by which was full of retirees as God’s waiting room.
Given the explosive population growth of the state since I left, clearly a lot of people feel otherwise. I think it was only in the past few years that the population of FL passed NY putting it at number 4 now. The growth is crazy. There are places I recall when I was in school that used to be empty stretches of beaches that are now wall to wall condo towers. Not a fan of runaway growth. But there is a very strong probability that when I’ve finished my career and have made my fortune, I’m going back home. I can say y’all and not have anyone look at me funny. Hell, my old accent may come back in full.
Publix is king in Fla. No contest
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@winecountrygirl - good luck on your upcoming move and new home in Florida! Sunny and warm in the winter sounds good to me. And yes, great citrus, and fish too. Lots of excellent food and foodstuffs. Although I’ve never been in one, I too hear Publix is the place. Wish we had one here.
Publix carries Plugra, Kerrygold, and President
Seriously, PM me any time for recs. I’m not super familiar with that area, but I’ll help however I can. I’ve been here for 37 years, so I’ve learned a few things.
And I am not even mad when someone says they don’t want to move here. There are so many who do, its actually a relief!
As to the FB group, go to the group page, and in the search box enter your county. The mods are very diligent about tagging the county on all posts, so you can hone in on it fairly quickly.
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That’s good. But, I’d love to find Beurre D’Isigny! My current can’t live without. I checked on line and you can get it but crazy prices! If anyone knows where I might find that, please let me know.
Thanks so much for your kind offer @Sunshine842! I will be taking you up on that!!
Yes, leave it for the rest of us!!!
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I have a winter beach house in Flagler Beach which is literally next door to Palm Coast and know the local food store situation very intimately. Years ago I lived in NYC, so I know what you are about to discover.
I’ll give it to you straight. My impression and my description.
You will find that you can simply forget about having the variety of food shopping and dining choices you are apparently accustomed to.
Most people who move to PC are from small and mid-sized cities in the mid-Atlantic and the Midwest, or from areas of larger cities that are cultural enclaves like that, and are not foodies or epicures by any stretch of the imagination. PC itself was basically created (by ITT) to cater to NY-NJ retired municipal employees with good pensions and a middle class outlook (think Staten Island or Nassau County). As such, there isn’t sufficient epicurean demand in the area to support stores with the kind of merchandise you are mentioning and choices like that aren’t available. If you insist on those kinds of items, you will probably need to get used to on-line ordering.
Your choices without serious driving (probably to Orlando or Jacksonville, each an hour+ away) are Publix, Winn-Dixie, Target, Wal Mart, and Aldi. There are a few local mini-chain or single-location stores like Love in Ormond Beach but I have not found them to add much of interest to the ingredient sourcing mix. Someone mentioned Perrines, which is an interesting mini-chain, and cheap, but unkempt and it’s hard to predict what they will have on the shelves (I’ve shopped the locations mentioned).
Everybody except me loves Publix. There are five of them in Flagler County, two on PC Parkway. Publix is a very well run operation and well stocked for a full-range American supermarket, but I find them pricey (note I am a cheapskate). Customer service is very good but you pay for that. The place just has an arrogant vibe that I personally don’t care for. YMMV. Winn-Dixie (the store on PC Parkway is better than the one on Rt 100) is cheaper especially sale prices and if you can get past the downscale look you will find you can get most of what you need at reasonable prices. Wal Mart is Wal Mart (the PC store is pretty dirty). Target is Target. Personally, since Aldi showed up, I find I use it as the first stage of my shopping; while the selection is obviously limited, the stuff is good and very cheap, and you get in and get most of the basics you want and get out easily; fill in the rest at other stores. They always have some oddball interesting and high-end items like cheeses, but you have to hunt and grab.
By the way, the restaurant situation locally is similar. Mostly chains. We’re tried the independents but have never found anything that is more than adequate, certainly to the types of people who post here. There is endless bellyaching about the local restaurant situation on the local “Next-door” website.
If you want to get a feel for the locality there is an on-line “newspaper” called “Flagler Live” that will give you a sense of it, particularly the politics.
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That is what I gathered from when we were there. Thank you so much for the report. We ate in Flagler beach a couple of times, and though one was fun, not much I’d go back for. We had fun at Break Awayz, but there was drinking. weird pizza some place right near there and, holy smoke a prime rib - biggest I’ve seen in a very weird place - alans? Somthing like that. Yuk, So we’ve eaten at a couple of decent places in European Village, but I hear there are some good restaurants in St. Augustine. We will be up in Hammock once we get into our house, so not that far.
Hammock has its own Publix. I imagine you will be in there a lot. I never have been but since it serves an upscale area it many have a better selection. There’s one or two fish markets on A1A around there. Anything else will require a drive. I think Hammock has its own restaurant in the foot of one of those high rises; I have no idea of the food quality; my impression is it is country club level. Our house is literally a 3 minute walk from Breakawayz. There’s actually a new restaurant behind us about to go in; I’ve spoken to the owners and they talk a good game about how nice it will be, but they may be cash strapped (??) so we will see how it turns out.
If you like hole-in-the-wall drive over to Bunnell sometime and try the fish sandwich at Bantam Chef. Huge and very good. One is enough to feed two. The place is about as opposite of fancy as you can get.
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