Aldi Takes Over Madeira Beach's Old Winn-Dixie Spot Thursday, With $100 Golden Tickets Up for Grabs

The building on Municipal Drive that fed Madeira Beach families for half a century reopens Thursday, this time under a new name. Aldi debuts at 15200 Municipal Drive in Carter Plaza on Sept. 24, taking over the space long known as the neighborhood Winn-Dixie, which closed last year after more than 50 years in business.

The store will open daily from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. It sits across from Archibald Beach Park and R.O.C. Park, a corner of Madeira Beach that had been without a full grocery store since the Winn-Dixie shut down.

Winn-Dixie Liquors, the standalone shop next door, is not going anywhere and will keep operating as usual.

What Thursday looks like

Aldi is leaning into the milestone with a grand-opening giveaway. The first 200 customers in line Thursday get a bag of branded items plus a "golden ticket," an Aldi gift card worth up to $100. Employees will also hand out free Aldi shopping totes throughout the day, while supplies last.

Inside, the store will stock fresh and organic produce delivered daily, along with cheese, wine, gluten-free items and plant-based options. Aldi's model leans heavily on its own store brands, which the company says make up about 90% of what's on the shelves. Shoppers bag their own groceries and use a quarter deposit to unlock a cart, a system that's a departure from how Winn-Dixie ran the same building for decades.

Half the old footprint

The old Winn-Dixie building ran about 44,000 square feet. Aldi is only taking roughly half of that, about 22,000 square feet. The other 22,000 square feet is still empty, reserved for a future tenant. The brokerage marketing that space said it's talking with several prospective tenants but hasn't signed a lease yet.

Carter Plaza, the 64,000-square-foot shopping center around the grocery store, is also home to Bronze Lady Home Furnishings, Colette's Fashions, Smoke Bros and a CVS Pharmacy outparcel. A Dollar Tree in the plaza closed earlier this year.

The Madeira Beach store is one piece of a much bigger rollout. Aldi acquired Southeastern Grocers, the parent company of Winn-Dixie, in March 2024, and has since converted and opened nearly 90 former Southeastern Grocers stores across Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. The company plans to convert more than 200 locations by the end of 2027. With Madeira Beach open, Aldi now runs 17 stores in Pinellas County, including five in St. Petersburg and two in Pinellas Park.

The building itself has a long history in the community. It first opened as a Winn-Dixie in January 1975 and stayed one for the next five decades, closing for good last year. What happens with the remaining half of the old grocery footprint, still sitting empty next door, is the next thing to watch in Carter Plaza.

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