LAKELAND, Florida — The lore around Publix goes as follows: George Jenkins was working as a store manager at a Piggly Wiggly in Winter Haven, Florida, when he tried to meet with the grocery chain’s new owner to talk business and introduce himself. The guy blew him off — his secretary said he was in important meetings, but Jenkins overheard him talking golf. So he quit and opened his own store, which he called Publix, right next to the Pig in 1930. He built the business gradually, its growth mirroring Florida’s, and finally took the company outside of the state in 1991, starting with Savannah, Georgia.
Today, Publix employs some 250,000 people across 1,350 stores concentrated across the Southeast. It is the largest employee-owned company in the United States. Its workers — it prefers the term “associates” — get shares of stock in the company after working 1,000 hours in a year. The line among locals is that Publix is a place where truck drivers retire millionaires, though it’s not clear how many of those are mythical creatures. Whatever the case, many employees are doing well, the Jenkins family is sitting on piles of cash, and the company continues to succeed. Its retail sales neared $55 billion in 2022.
The grocery chain, with its bright green aesthetic, is arguably Florida’s most famous truly local major company. Disney’s a transplant, it doesn’t really count. Publix is deeply ingrained in the state’s economy and culture. Before Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi made his debut at Inter Miami CF, he made his debut browsing the aisles of Publix with his family. “Lionel Messi is already a Florida man shopping at Publix,” one headline declared. Publix’s acolytes talk eagerly about the store’s customer service and cleanliness, and rave about the famous deli sandwiches, known as “Pub subs.” Did you know they’ll take your groceries to your car for you? Have you heard about that one cashier everyone waits in line for? Have…
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