Publix opens new Fort Myers store

Publix Super Markets opened a new store in Fort Myers on Thursday.

The 46,791-square-foot store is at 16950 San Carlos Blvd. in the San Carlos shopping center.

In a news release announcing the opening, the chain says to mark the occasion it is donating $1,000 in nonperishable food items to the Gladiolus Food Pantry. The items it is shipping over include canned foods, cereal and other dry goods.

The store has a full-service bakery, deli and pharmacy. A Publix Liquors is directly next to the store.

The new Publix is not entirely new, though. It replaced an existing location.

That isn't unusual. A spokesperson says the company is "always evaluating our locations to provide our customers a pleasurable experience by having a store that meets their shopping needs for today and into the future."

Lakeland-based Publix, with $54.5 billion in revenue in 2023, currently has 860 stores in Florida and 1,362 nationwide. That’s along with seven distribution centers and three manufacturing plants here.

It is, by far, the state's largest grocery store chain.

In its Florida Grocery Report 2023, commercial real estate firm JLL found that Publix controlled half the market share in Central and South Florida. In Central Florida — which includes the Orlando, Tampa and Fort Myers markets — Publix stores brought in about $12.9 billion in sales, more than twice Walmart’s sales of $5.8 billion. The numbers are similar in South Florida, where Publix stores brought in $9.4 billion in sales and where it has a nearly 60% market share.

And it keeps growing.

Just last month the chain opened its first store in Kentucky. The 55,701-square-foot store is at 2500 Terra Crossing Blvd. in the Terra Crossing Shopping Center in Louisville.