7 Newest Publix Stores Floridians Love (and 7 Begging for a Remodel)

There are two kinds of Publix in Florida right now: the brand-new showpieces and the ones still waiting for their glow-up.

The Lakeland-based chain has been on a building spree, opening and rebuilding dozens of stores in 2025 with a fancy new format.

But for every gleaming new location, there’s an older store running on borrowed time, with narrow aisles and decor that hasn’t changed since flip phones were cool. The good news?

Publix is working through them.

Here are the newest Florida Publix stores worth seeking out, and the older ones practically begging for their turn.

The Riverland Town Center Store That Opened With a Bang

When Publix opened its Riverland Town Center store, it brought out the big guns. Literally.

The grand opening in July 2025 featured the famous giant motorized Publix shopping cart, an 11-foot-tall, 14-foot-long beast built on top of a Volkswagen Sand Rail that can hit 45 miles per hour with a driver tucked underneath.

That’s the kind of spectacle Publix saves for its showcase openings, and Riverland delivered.

Inside, it’s the full new-format experience.

This is one of those stores that draws shoppers from neighboring areas who just want to see what all the fuss is about.

It set the tone for what a modern Publix grand opening looks like, and the crowds showed up to match.

The St. Augustine Store at Elevation Pointe

The new St. Augustine location, which opened in January 2026 at Elevation Pointe just off the I-95 interchange, is a textbook example of where Publix is heading.

At 48,387 square feet with a pharmacy and an attached liquor store, it’s part of a mixed-use development with retail, apartments, and townhomes all rolled together.

That live-work-shop setup is exactly the kind of place Publix loves to anchor now.

It was the second new Publix in the St. Augustine area within two months, which tells you how fast the chain is moving in Northeast Florida.

For anyone in the nation’s oldest city, having a brand-new Publix this convenient feels like a small win every grocery trip.

The Rebuilt Clearwater Store With Every New Feature

The Clearwater store at Clearwater Plaza is a great example of Publix tearing down the old to build something better.

The original was a converted Albertson’s from 2009, and Publix demolished it to rebuild in the new shopper-friendly style.

It reopened in March 2026 as a 46,791-square-foot store with a pharmacy and an adjacent liquor store.

What you get inside is the full modern wishlist: wider lanes, canopied outdoor seating, self-checkout, expanded deli options like burrito bowls and fresh-baked pizza, a salad bar, a hot food buffet, an olive bar, a popcorn stand, and a Pours beverage bar.

It’s basically a greatest-hits album of every new Publix amenity, all under one roof.

The Jacksonville Harbour Place Store With the Fresh Look

Jacksonville got a treat when the Harbour Place store opened with the chain’s refreshed design.

It’s part of a bigger Northeast Florida push, where Publix has been opening multiple stores and even bringing a location to downtown Jacksonville for the first time.

The Harbour Place store matches the company’s current models, with all the modern touches shoppers have come to expect.

For a city that’s seen some of its oldest Publix stores age past their prime, a sleek new location is a welcome change of pace.

It’s proof Publix isn’t just expanding into new suburbs. It’s reinvesting in the cities where it’s been for decades.

The Naples Stores Keeping Up With the Crowd

Naples saw new Publix openings in late 2025, and the timing couldn’t be better for a region that swells every winter.

When snowbird season hits and the Gulf Coast population balloons, having modern, spacious stores with the new layout makes a real difference.

Wider lanes and bigger departments mean the seasonal crush feels a little less chaotic.

These newer Naples locations are built for exactly the kind of traffic that descends from November through April.

For year-round residents, they’re a year-round upgrade.

For snowbirds, they’re a reason to feel right at home.

The St. Petersburg Store on 38th Avenue North

The new St. Petersburg Publix at 6605 38th Avenue North opened in March 2026, and it came with a bit of a shuffle.

Publix closed a nearby older location at Eagles Park Retail Center just days before, a sign of the chain’s strategy: replace the tired stores with fresh ones rather than just patch them up.

The new store carries all the amenities shoppers in the Tampa Bay area have been seeing roll out across the region, from beverage bars to expanded prepared foods.

It’s the kind of upgrade that quietly makes a neighborhood’s grocery routine a whole lot nicer.

The Spring Hill Store at Seven Hills

Rounding out the new arrivals, the Spring Hill Publix at Seven Hills opened in April 2026 on Mariner Boulevard.

Spring Hill sits in that fast-growing stretch of the Nature Coast where new rooftops keep going up, so a modern Publix with the full feature set fills a real need.

The new format means the store has room to breathe as the area keeps growing.

For a community that’s expanded a lot in recent years, getting a current-generation Publix feels like the area is finally getting its due.

It’s a reminder that Publix follows Florida’s growth wherever it goes, and the Nature Coast is having a moment.

The Last “Wing” Store Frozen in Time on Miami Beach

Now for the stores waiting their turn for a remodel.

Publix #91 on Dade Boulevard in Miami Beach holds a special place in Publix lore.

It’s considered the last surviving “wing” store, with the distinctive winged front design created by famed Florida architect Donovan Dean back in the 1960s, when neon lights in the wings blinked downward like a flowing waterfall at night.

It’s a gorgeous piece of history.

But charming vintage architecture and modern grocery convenience aren’t always the same thing.

There’s even a newer Publix just four blocks away, which makes the old wing store feel even more like a time capsule.

Beloved as it is, it’s the definition of a location due for a careful refresh, ideally one that keeps those famous wings intact.

The Converted-Albertson’s Store That Time Forgot

A whole crop of Florida Publix stores started life as something else entirely, usually an old Albertson’s snapped up and rebranded in the late 2000s.

You can spot them once you know the tells.

The layout feels slightly off, the ceilings and lighting don’t match the newer builds, and the bones of a different chain peek through.

The Clearwater store was one of these before Publix demolished it for a full rebuild.

Plenty of these conversions are still out there, soldiering on with their borrowed floor plans.

They work fine for a quick run. But next to a ground-up new Publix, the difference is night and day, and these are prime candidates for the wrecking ball and a fresh start.

The 50-Year-Old Neighborhood Store Running on Memories

Every longtime Floridian has one: the neighborhood Publix that’s been there since the disco era and looks every bit its age.

These are the stores pushing 50 years old, like the Deerwood Village location in Jacksonville that Publix closed and demolished to rebuild after half a century of service.

Built decades ago, they’ve got narrow aisles, dated decor, and a layout designed for a different era of grocery shopping.

There’s real affection for these places. They’re where families shopped for generations.

But affection doesn’t widen an aisle or add a salad bar.

When Publix announces one of these is getting torn down and rebuilt, the neighborhood usually cheers, even while feeling a little nostalgic.

The Cramped Strip-Mall Store With No Room to Grow

Some older Publix locations are boxed into strip malls that simply can’t accommodate the new, larger format.

These stores were built when 40,000 square feet felt enormous, and shopping carts were smaller.

Now they’re squeezed between other tenants with no room to expand, so shoppers deal with tight aisles, limited selection, and checkout lines that back up into the grocery section.

Publix can’t always rebuild on the same footprint, so sometimes the fix is a whole new store down the road.

Until that happens, these cramped locations keep doing their best in a space that’s outgrown its usefulness.

The Dim, Dated Store With the Old Decor Package

Walk into certain older Publix stores, and you can practically date them by the decor.

The color scheme, the signage fonts, the lighting: it all screams a previous decade.

While Publix has rolled out fresh decor packages and LED lighting to many locations, a handful are still running the old look that feels dim and tired compared to the bright, airy new builds.

The products are the same. The Pub Subs taste just as good.

But ambiance matters more than people admit, and these stores feel like stepping back in time the moment you walk through the doors.

A decor refresh would do wonders.

The Tiny Older Store That Can’t Stock It All

Not every Publix carries the deep selection the chain is known for, and the older, smaller stores are usually the culprits.

When a location is decades old and modest in size, there’s only so much shelf space to go around.

That means fewer specialty items, a thinner international section, and a higher chance you’ll strike out on something the bigger stores carry without a thought.

Loyal shoppers learn to keep a backup location in mind for the harder-to-find stuff.

These little stores have their charm and their regulars.

They just can’t compete with the sprawling selection of a modern Publix, and a bigger rebuild would let them finally stock the full lineup.

The Awkward-Layout Store That Makes No Sense

Finally, there’s the older Publix with the layout that defies all logic.

Maybe the store was expanded piecemeal over the years, or shoehorned into an oddly shaped building, but the result is a floor plan where the milk is somehow next to the greeting cards, and you have to cross the entire store twice to finish your list.

Longtime shoppers know the workarounds by heart.