At the end of the last century, Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. stood as arguably Jacksonville’s most important company, the city’s only Fortune 500 firm and one of the largest grocers in the country with 1,188 stores in 12 states and $14 billion in annual sales.

Winn-Dixie was the biggest supermarket operator based in Florida, as Lakeland-based Publix Super Markets Inc. had 614 stores and $13 billion in sales in 1999.

However, a sales decline began in 2000 as Walmart Inc. and other new competitors took away Winn-Dixie customers, leading to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in 2005.

While it survived bankruptcy, it became inevitable that Jacksonville would eventually lose Winn-Dixie as a major headquarters company.

Read the rest of this story at the Jacksonville Daily Record, a Jacksonville Today news partner.

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