What Is History Of Goodings Supermarkets In Florida?

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gmjim
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What Is History Of Goodings Supermarkets In Florida?

Post by gmjim »

I just visited Orlando Florida for the first time and came across Goodings Supermarkets. They are down to only two stores now, but at one time they had up to 18 stores in the Southeast. Does anyone know the history of this chain?
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buckhead
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Post by buckhead »

I lived in the area from 1979 until 1991. When I first arrived, I believe Gooding's still had only their flagship store in Maitland. It was rather small, but offered top quality meats, produce, baked goods, and specialty groceries in addition to the more routine items. They began an expansion program in the early 80's that saw some really attractive stores open on South Orange Blossom Trail, South Semoran Boulevard, Winter Park, and others. These stores were quite large for the times, typically as big as anything Publix or Albertson's had. In particular I remember they had a fondness for presenting Belgian imports. When Florida's Choice (operated by Kroger) threw in the towel, Gooding's picked up at least one of their stores, at Goldenrod Road and University Boulevard. In the very early 80's Gooding's also operated (at least) one warehouse type store north of Altamonte Mall at Semoran Boulevard and Interstate 4 (Interstate Mall?), but I don't recall the name (I think it had the work Pak or Pack in it). Gooding's was the first store other than Publix at this time that I recall using a variation of a customer loyalty/check cashing card. You got the "coupon" prices without clipping the coupons. I think Publix may have started this idea first in the area, but Gooding's definitely went their own route with it, too. When I left, Gooding's was still going strong, still expanding. I don't know exactly what went wrong for them, because their customers were fiercely loyal, although Gooding's was NOT known for being a low-price store. Instead, they promoted variety, quality, great customer service, and clean stores. I remember the colors and treatments featuring orange (logo), browns, natural woods, and rich carpeting and ceramic tiles in many stores. They reminded me of many Ogletree's locations in Atlanta.
DanG
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Goodings

Post by DanG »

From what I remember, the family that ran Goodings also had a catering business, that made more money with less headaches than the stores did, so they sold most of the stores to Winn Dixie. Unfortunatly the WD/Goodings match was not a good one. WD merged some stores and converted other locations into WD or SaveRite. They went from being a clean, service oriented stores, with good service and fresh prepared food to wharehouse type stores with little service or freshly prepared foods.
I worked for a high end ice cream distribution companey at the time and our sales dropped an averge of 75% per store after the take over.
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Post by jimbobga »

As a kid growing up on the "Space Coast" of Florida, I remember Gooding's ads on television out of Orlando. It seems like even in the late sixties the ads mention two locations, with the second location being somewhere like Winter Park. Gooding's opened in Viera - just south of Cocoa/Rockledge in the nineties as that city was beginning. The store was in a village center not on a main artery, but because of no competition, stayed busy. The amazing thing about the store was that it was round. While it wasn't overly noticeable from the outside, the inside was very obviously a circle, and the main color everywhere was a light tangerine color. The store did not last but a couple of years, and I thought that the reason was that it was definitely off-the-beaten-path, and when Publix and Winn-Dixie opened at a main intersection a mile north, this did them in. The sale to Winn-Dixie now makes sense, and the store's closure was due more to a merger than competition. I am not sure if there was ever more than one Gooding's in Brevard County.
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Post by Edric Floyd »

Goodings was founded in the mid 1960's with a store in Maitland. They were more of a service oriented high end grocery chain. All of their stores were around the Orlando area.

I have only been to two of the Gooding's stores, one near Walt Disney World that catered mostly to a tourists visiting Disney. And another on South Orange Blossom Trail. In the mid to late 1980's, this store had a bank branch inside (very rare for supermarkets at the time) and was the only other 24 hour supermarket with pharmacy in the Orlando area(Albertsons being the other)

I remember their prices being very high compared to Winn-Dixie or even Publix, but the service was better than WD and Albertsons and on par with Publix still having older or original stores at the time. Publix began expanding, renovating and replacing older stores.

I don't know what led to the selling of Gooding's stores to Winn Dixie but I wonder if it was one of WD''s nails in the coffin. It wasn't long after the Goodings purchase that we saw the meltdown of Winn Dixie in the South East. It is a shame that Goodings didn't expand to other areas.
DanG
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Post by DanG »

I did some research and found this article on Goodings: http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/stor ... from_rss=1
And the Goodings web site: http://www.goodings.com/
I hope this answers some questions, I will try to get some pics of the Titusville store next time I am up that way.

<<Edited by moderator to correct URL links.>>
chipperk60
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Re: What Is History Of Goodings Supermarkets In Florida?

Post by chipperk60 »

The warehouse type store owned by the Gooding's was called Sack n Save. It opened in 1977. I started my grocery career there. It was pretty unique for the area and did well for a time, but the continual construction on 436 made it hard to get in and out of. I was transferred to the Maitland store after several years and don't recall the year they closed Sack n Save, but I was sad to hear of its closing. Maitland.. Wow, what a store. I'd imagine that it would compete for top volume per sq ft in its day.
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