5 Publix Finds Tennessee Shoppers Drive Out of Their Way For
Kroger and Food City sit closer to home for many Tennesseans, and many still drive past both.
Publix earns the detour.
These are the Publix finds worth the longer drive for Tennessee shoppers.
1. Hand-Rolled Sushi
Tennessee’s newest Publix stores keep a sushi chef stationed behind the seafood counter, hand-rolling fresh selections every day the store is open.
It’s not a lamp-warmed tray.
The Farragut store near Knoxville and the Nolensville store outside Nashville both built full sushi programs into their seafood departments when they opened, a feature neither Kroger nor Food City runs at most Middle or East Tennessee locations.
Shoppers who want fresh sushi on a random Tuesday afternoon don’t have many other grocery options nearby.
So they drive to the Publix that has it.
The seafood case underneath gets deliveries throughout the week, so the rolls change with whatever came in that morning, not a set menu.
2. Olive, Antipasti and Hummus Bar
Those same Publix delis added a self-serve bar loaded with imported olives, antipasti and hummus, the sort of spread many Tennessee grocery delis don’t bother setting out.
Shoppers scoop their own container.
It’s a build-your-own lineup that turns a five-minute deli stop into a full appetizer spread for a Titans watch party or a porch dinner.
That’s worth the extra ten minutes.
The bar rotates, so a Saturday visit doesn’t always match what’s out on a Wednesday.
3. 200 Cheeses at the Deli Counter
Those same full-service Publix delis stock more than 200 artisan cheeses from the United States and abroad, stacked case after case next to the meats.
Two hundred.
A shopper chasing one particular French brie or a Spanish Manchego often has to skip the closer store and find the Publix with the bigger case.
Not every Tennessee Publix carries the full lineup, so the search sometimes means a longer drive than planned.
4. GreenWise Chicken
Publix’s own GreenWise brand fills part of the meat case with chicken raised without antibiotics, on an all-vegetarian diet, in flock houses with room to move.
That’s not always true of the tray beside it.
GreenWise also carries an organic tier certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), so shoppers who want to go further than antibiotic-free can step up to fully organic without leaving the meat case.
One case, two tiers.
The same GreenWise label covers beef and pork too, so the aisle isn’t limited to poultry.
It’s one more reason some shoppers skip their regular store for Publix’s meat case.
Psst! How much do you know about Publix? Take our quiz on Publix history and see if you can ace it.
Quiz
Publix Pop Quiz
Answer these questions on Publix history and how it grew into a Southern grocery giant. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
The first product ever scanned with a barcode, in 1974, was a pack of what?
5. Wine Now Sits on the Shelf
Tennessee didn't always let a grocery store sell wine, and Publix's wine aisle is still a fairly recent fixture because of it.
State lawmakers passed a law in 2014 opening the door to wine sales at qualifying grocery stores, then widened the rules again in 2023 to cover flavored wines and wine coolers too.
Just a dozen years.
Cities and counties still vote on whether to allow it, so a handful of small Tennessee towns keep the grocery aisle dry even now.
Where it's legal, grocery stores can sell wine on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., the same hours Publix follows at its Tennessee stores.
Publix also has to keep at least one employee on staff with a state-issued manager's permit, good for five years at a time, before that wine aisle can legally ring up a sale.
How Long Publix Has Called Tennessee Home
Publix opened its first two Tennessee stores on the same day, Oct. 2, 2002, in Franklin and Hermitage, both just outside Nashville.
Chattanooga waited five more years for its first Publix, opening in December 2007.
Five years apart.
Tennessee now counts dozens of Publix locations across the state, and the newest ones keep landing in fast-growing suburbs, including Nolensville in November 2025 and Farragut in March 2026.
The One Perk Tennessee Doesn't Have Yet
Publix rolled out a bar concept called Publix Pours back in 2018, and it's still expanding one state at a time.
Shoppers can order a glass of wine or a pint of draft beer and carry it through the aisles while they finish shopping.
As of late 2025, the taps only flow in Florida, Georgia and Kentucky, and Tennessee isn't one of them yet.
Tennessee isn't yet, anyway.
Many Tennessee Publix stores already run a Café counter, though, pouring coffee and espresso alongside smoothies and açaí bowls.
Pours just adds beer and wine taps to that same counter.
Shoppers elsewhere have driven miles out of their way just to sip a flight of draft beer between the produce and the checkout line.
Tennessee's Publix stores keep the wine and beer on the shelf instead, so shoppers bring their own glass at home for now.
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