The Winn-Dixie supermarket in Franklinton will close by the end of the year.
The Winn-Dixie chain is leaving Louisiana altogether and concentrating its efforts on Florida and south Georgia.
Some of the Louisiana Winn-Dixie stores will be taken over by other supermarket chains. That is what employees at the Franklinton store were hoping for. It hasn’t happened, but even when the store closes it could still later be re-opened by another chain.
The Franklinton store has generally been considered a strong one. Winn-Dixie’s departure from Louisiana simply represents a business decision by the chain to concentrate solely on the Florida and south Georgia market region, and does not reflect in any way on the Franklinton store’s financial performance. Because the Franklinton Winn-Dixie store was considered to be successful, it is believed by some local officials that at some point another supermarket chain will locate here. The Era-Leader will report any developments regarding a possible new supermarket coming to the Winn-Dixie location.
Winn-Dixie’s corporate headquarters in Florida has confirmed that the Franklinton store will definitely close on or before December 31.
In a statement, the Washington Parish Government noted that the closing of Winn-Dixie would be felt in terms of the loss of sales tax revenue generated for local government entities. More importantly, the statement said, the closing of the store would have a difficult effect on the employees and their families.
(Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared in this week’s printed edition of The Era-Leader. That article stated that Winn-Dixie corporate headquarters did not comment. The comment from Winn-Dixie corporate headquarters shown above arrived after the printed edition had already gone to press.)
