  I'm ashamed that this took me so long to do. I am no longer the Queen of Complaints - I need to reclaim my crown. :-) Seriously folks, I cried when I wrote this. The grocery store description is tame to the reality. Please, no corrections - it's already been sent and I can't get it back. ************* I was in your store on Sunday, May 27th, at 11:00 a.m. and, as usual, was disgusted by what I found.
The front door's glass was broken, garbage littered the foyer, and produce and dead bugs were all over the floor of the produce section. Ceiling tiles are spotty brown and warped, some not completely attached looking like they will fall down any minute. The rest of the store was in equally shabby condition. I am dismayed by the fact that your corporation allows this store to remain in such filthy conditions.
You have poured money into the nearby Normandy Blvd. store twice - once to build the new Winn-Dixie Marketplace, the second to remodel that same brand new store. Why couldn't you have left that store as is and used the remodeling money to fix the McDuff store? I have shopped at this particular store since my family and I moved into the neighborhood in 1998.
I have continued to shop there due to its close proximity to our house. When I have friends or relatives visit, I do not take them to the McDuff store, I drive the extra miles and take them to the Normandy store. Yes, I am embarrassed and ashamed by the conditions of the McDuff store - my neighborhood store. By you leaving that store in deplorable conditions, you are telling us, the residents of the neighborhood that we are not worth a clean store.
I constantly hear rumours that the McDuff store will be closing. Please, DO NOT close the store! There are too many residents of that neighborhood that rely on its closeness - they cannot afford to drive all over town to shop. There are many elderly residents who physically cannot drive the distance to another store. Please, explain why our store cannot be clean and modern like the Normandy store.
Please let me know why nothing has been done to repair the store. I have tried to speak to the Manager about the conditions of the store, but I have never seen him and when I ask for him, I am told that he is always somewhere else and cannot be bothered. My husband and I have grown up in Florida and have shopped at Winn-Dixies our whole lives. We have never, ever seen a store this filthy, this in need of repair in our lives.
Follow-up – June 1st - I received an email letter this morning: Thank you for your comments. We apologize for the problem. Your email has been forwarded to our Division Office to check this out and respond to you. We appreciate your patronage and know we must earn the privilege of serving your supermarket shopping needs in the future. Director of Public Relations When I arrived home from picking the boys up from school at noon, there was a message on my answering machine from the Manager of the McDuff Winn-Dixie asking for me to return his call. Of course, when I called back, he was at lunch, so I left a return message. Second Follow-up (June 5th) Well, I called him at lunchtime and am pleased with the results.
Heck, he was thrilled that I sent an email to corporate - it validated HIS complaints to them! Turns out, he was transferred from the nice Normandy store to the dirty McDuff store - as he said, "I don't know if this was a promotion or demotion. " The old manager was fired. In the past two weeks that he's held this job, 8 employees have been hauled out in handcuffs, the front door glass has been replaced twice, he's in the process of repairing the ceiling tiles and trying to convince the employees to get rid of their negative attitude and take some pride in the store and their work.
He thinks it's working - sales has been up $20 grand since he got there. He says he's there 6-7 days a week trying to get the store up to decent standards. He also told me why the Normandy store has been remodeled. Turns out, that is the biggest money making store in the area and Corporate uses it for a test store. They remodel it every so often and try new things out before it is sent on to the rest of the country.
(Winn Dixie HQ is only a few miles down the road from here, near downtown. ) Well, I am satisfied for now. It won't be a brand new store ever but all I want is nice and clean. 
