Exciting news for fans of the Publix grocery store chain. The company has announced two new stores — and they aren’t very far from the Northern Virginia suburbs of DC.
As regular readers know, the northernmost Publix store currently is in Stafford, Virginia. But now they are moving further north.
Publix will be opening two stores in the Winchester area. One will be in Winchester proper. The other will be in Stephens City, which is about 15 minutes south of Winchester.
The Winchester location will be a roughly 50,000 s.f. store at the Winwood Village development at the southeastern corner of Weems Lane and Valley Avenue. This location was just announced today.
The Stephens City location will also be a 50,000 s.f. store. It will be located at the Sherando Green center at southwest corner of Fairfax Pike and Warrior Drive.
Publix — which is iconic in its home state of Florida — has been growing northward for years through Georgia, the Carolinas and into southern Virginia.
It has a fair number of stores in the Richmond area and the Virginia Beach area and has moved north into Fredericksburg and Stafford.
The Winchester area may not be considered Northern Virginia (with a capital N), but it certainly is northern Virginia (with a lowercase n) — and this is relevant.
We’ve been told by commercial real estate brokers that one factor for a supermarket chain is its distribution network. In other words, it makes good economic sense to have many stores in one area as well as a network of warehouses for their goods.
Publix hasn’t had a network in Northern Virginia thus far, but with the arrival of the two Winchester area stores, this network may be under development. That could be a harbinger of future stores in NoVa proper.
A spokesperson for Publix said no opening timeframe for the two new stores has been determined yet.
(Image at top: Publix)