5 Things Publix Sabor Stores Offered in the 2000s That Regular Florida Publix Locations Didn’t

For a few years, some Florida shoppers had a very different Publix to choose from.

The stores had their own name, their own look and a deli menu you wouldn’t find at the Publix down the road.

Here’s what those stores offered that regular Publix locations didn’t.

1. Produce at the Front Door

Produce was the first department you met inside the Kissimmee Publix Sabor, which had opened the month before, Supermarket News reported in May 2005.

At a traditional Publix, the department nearest the entrance was dairy or bakery.

Publix told the magazine it flipped the order because fruits and vegetables are staples for its Hispanic customers.

You’d have found more than 20 feet of offerings on wooden displays, along with a 6-foot cooler of fresh-cut Caribbean mixed fruit and papaya.

2. Frozen Doors for Hispanic Foods

About 17 of the frozen doors at the Kissimmee Publix Sabor, nearly half of all frozen offerings, were traditional Hispanic items, according to Supermarket News.

In the center store, you’d have found many more Hispanic offerings in each section than in Publix’s other stores.

That included three new varieties of canned beans in Publix’s private-label bean offerings.

Some mainstream products had to be cut to make room for the Hispanic items.

If you went looking for ketchup, you’d still have found it, only with less shelf space.

3. More Than 50 New Deli Recipes

The deli at the Kissimmee Publix Sabor had 50 prepared Hispanic dishes developed by Publix’s in-house chefs, Supermarket News reported.

Progressive Grocer described them as more than 50 new recipes created especially for Publix Sabor.

If you stopped by that spring, Supermarket News said, you could buy boiled green bananas for $3.79 a pound and rice with pigeon peas for $3.99 a pound.

4. Juice Bar and Ice Creamery

The Hialeah Publix Sabor was a renovation of a conventional Publix that originally opened in 2003.

Progressive Grocer listed a juice bar and an ice creamery among the additions in that store’s Sabor renovation.

Supermarket News had named both in 2005 among the planned differences between the Hialeah Sabor and the conventional Publix it used to be.

The juice bar was new to the store, Progressive Grocer said, with over a dozen flavors in single-serve and half-gallon servings.

The ice creamery was a new addition to the store’s bakery department.

What could you order there?

You could get ice cream cones, crème cakes, sundaes and shakes in tropical fruit flavors.

If you wanted a classic, vanilla and chocolate were on the menu too.

5. Salon and Boutiques

Publix said it added products and services at the Hialeah Publix Sabor to enhance the shopping experience, Progressive Grocer reported.

You'd have found designer jewelry and handbags among them.

If you shopped the 61,000-square-foot store, a 2007 Florida Trend profile said, you could also visit a hair-and-nail salon and a boutiques department that sold perfume and jewelry.

The Café Caveat

The Kissimmee Publix Sabor had a café at the front exit where you could buy pressed Cuban sandwiches, café con leche and Hispanic desserts, Supermarket News reported.

Some of Publix's South Florida stores already had cafés, so the Sabor café was new only in the Central Florida market.

If you were in a hurry at the Hialeah store, a walk-up window served café con leche and warm pastries, Progressive Grocer reported.

Hialeah's Bakery and Meat Counter

Florida Trend reported in 2007 that the bakery at the Hialeah Publix Sabor offered fresh Colombian bread loaves, hot Cuban bread and more than 100 fresh pastries daily.

Staff at the Hialeah store's 2,700-square-foot bakery were trained to make specialty items such as quinceañera cakes, the tiered, fondant-iced cakes that celebrate a girl's 15th birthday.

If you wanted pig feet, tripe, grouper head or frozen goat and chicken feet, the Hialeah store's full-service meat department had them.

You'd also have found money transfers, coin-sorting machines, bill payment and calling cards for particular countries among the services at Sabor stores.

You don't need a Sabor for some of those now, since Publix offers Western Union money transfers and bill pay at all its stores.

Products That Reached Regular Stores

If you shopped a mainstream Publix by 2010, some Hispanic products from the Sabor stores were on its shelves, Publix's president told Supermarket News, and they were doing well.

The company cited 20-pound bags of rice in some stores and larger bottles of spices and cooking oil as examples.

Publix had also integrated some Latin soda flavors into its traditional set, along with brands such as Goya, Iberia, Libby and Badia.

Florida Trend had reported in 2007 that the Sabor stores sold 20-pound bags of rice.

You wouldn't have found the bags at every regular Publix in 2010, since they were in some stores.

Atlanta and the Learning Labs

Supermarket News reported in February 2009 that Publix said it would reopen a store in Atlanta under a new Hispanic format, not the Publix Sabor banner.

Publix said the store would have bilingual signs and employees, a salsa bar, and fresh conchas and flan in the bakery.

If you shopped a Publix Sabor in October 2010, you were in one of four stores, Supermarket News reported.