The 1930's: A Young Haven Man Defies the Great Depression

Having survived the implosion of the Florida Boom in 1926, Florida was well on its way to recovery when the factors of the Great Depression ushered in the 1930s. While Florida was certainly affected by the economic downturn — tourism had fallen from three million annual visitors to one million (143 million in 2024), other areas of the economy such as citrus, phosphate, and cattle, were more resilient.

Defying those odds, Winter Haven would see its citrus industry continue to grow and celebrate the Florida Orange Festival while moving it to a home on Third Street, NW at Lake Silver. In addition, the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team would Spring Train here for most of the decade in a facility located where the Blue Devil football field is today. What’s more, with the Depression looming, in 1930 the town would welcome the Winter Haven Herald, a new weekly newspaper published by George and Josephine Burr. Mrs. Burr is remembered as the author of “The History of Winter Haven” published in 1974.

However, two Haven ventures from the 1930s would forever change our community, state and beyond. This month we review the first.

This storefront on 4th St. NW is actually a model of the first Publix Food Store that was presented to Jenkins on the occasion of opening the 100th Store at SE Plaza in Winter Haven. There are no known photographs of the first store.

GEORGE WASHINGTON JENKINS: GROCERY GENIUS

More than 94 years ago, September 6, 1930, a young man – just 22 years old — stepped out on the sidewalk along Fourth Street, NW in Winter Haven and swept up a sparkling clean entrance to his brand-new Publix Food Store. The building wasn’t new, but George Jenkins and Publix were.

Just five years before, he had traveled from Atlanta to Florida with just nine dollars in his pocket – planning to seek his fortune during the Florida land boom. Jenkins was convinced that in short order, he would return to Atlanta and pursue his dream of an electrical engineering degree at Georgia Tech. (He was eighteen at the time and traveled with his parents’ permission.) He had planned to meet his sister in Gainesville, but they passed in transit, she was going to Atlanta. He ended up in Tampa near the river, sleeping with the homeless – his nine dollars wrapped in his sock.

The next morning he looked up a friend who invited him to spend the week. Young George had begun to feel like his trip was becoming a “youthful lark,” and he planned to soon hitchhike back to Atlanta.

Jenkins and his friends took a Sunday drive, stopping in to visit a man who owned fourteen Florida Piggly Wiggly grocery stores. (George had worked for the company a brief six months in Atlanta.) He took a job to work until he could return to Atlanta and Georgia Tech in September. That was June of 1925 … in two months he was promoted to manager of a small store. By March of 1926 the store was doing five times the volume as when Jenkins took over. That was remarkable growth, but he was quick to acknowledge that March was high season for winter visitors in St. Petersburg where the store was located.

The Piggly Wiggly owner was so pleased he transferred Jenkins to his largest store – in Winter Haven. He was making $45 a week plus one quarter of one percent of gross sales. He made plans to buy a car and grow what would become his trademark mustache.

Jenkins was still drawn to return to Georgia Tech and the electrical engineering degree. A return visit in late 1926 found things not to be what he expected, and Tech grads were having trouble finding work. He returned to Winter Haven having decided the food business was his business.

He would manage the Winter Haven Piggly Wiggly from 1926 to 1930 when the owner of the Florida stores sold to a man in Atlanta. George felt certain the new owner would come to introduce himself. When that didn’t happen, Jenkins traveled to Atlanta to discuss his ideas for modernizing the store’s operations. Told the owner was in conference and didn’t have time to see him, George overheard him discussing his golf game. Angered to be treated with so little regard, he returned to Florida and “turned in his apron.” Efforts to entice him to stay failed. Jenkins then rented the store immediately adjacent to the Piggly Wiggly, announcing he would open his own grocery market there. It was then that he made two important decisions that became Publix hallmarks. If he became a successful grocer, he would travel to visit all his stores, and he would have an opendoor policy for any employee wanting to see him.

George Jenkins formed Publix Food Stores, Inc. (taking the name from a chain of movie theaters) with 30 shares of stock outstanding. He purchased 13. His meat market man and assistant manager (both following from Piggly Wiggly) each bought four. Four other shares were sold to friends and five were left unpurchased. Valued at $100 each, the stock had raised $2500 with which to open his store. By the time he paid the rent and bought the necessary equipment, his capital was nearly depleted. He still needed to stock the store!

This is the first Publix Store that Jenkins built from his own design. Featuring automatic opening doors, frozen food cases, wide aisles and more, he viewed his “grocery palace” as the future of the industry. He changed the name to Publix Supermarket with its opening.

He contacted J. A. Powell who owned the Lakeland Grocery Company and small chain of All American grocery stores. Powell agreed to sell him groceries from his wholesale warehouse. The total came to $1300 – far more than Jenkins had remaining. Powell had agreed to give him a little time to come up with the money, but on the Thursday before the store was to open Friday, Powell asked Jenkins to put a check for $1000 in the mail. George offered that “he didn’t have quite that much money” but Powell told him not to worry. By the time he could deposit the check and it cleared Jenkins’ bank, the store would have its first weekend sales to deposit. Jenkins, speaking with Pat Watters in the book “Fifty Years of Shopping Pleasure,” recalls that he lost his voice. (Among the first weekend sales promotions was an offer for “$2.50 in gold to the first 10 customers who spent $10.”)

Ultimately, sales for that first weekend were $1600. And within one year the Piggly Wiggly store had closed its doors.

For the next fifteen years, Winter Haven was home to the only Publix Food Store.

The gleaming Publix you know today – wide aisles, automatic-opening doors, air conditioning, refrigerated food cases – are more or less what you have come to expect from Publix. But in 1940, in Winter Haven, Florida and nearly all of the rest of the U.S., they were unheard of.

As the 1930s drew to a close George Jenkins had been gathering data from his little food store on Central Park and around the country as well. The term “supermarket” was coming into use, though in Jenkins’ estimation early attempts at large stores with low overhead were garish and uninviting.

George had bought a small orange grove during the depression, and he decided to mortgage that to build his dream store. In speaking with his bankers they made fun of “George’s marble, glass and stucco food palace.” He persisted and prevailed. He mortgaged the grove for $15,000. The building would cost $25,000; it sat on a $10,000 lot and would require an additional $35,000 in equipment and inventory.

He designed much of the equipment himself, as up until that time it had not existed in small neighborhood groceries. The store would ultimately feature air conditioning, fluorescent lights, open dairy cases and wide aisles, among other features. Jenkins even designed a drinking fountain with the copper supply tube running through one of the grocery coolers so his customers would enjoy “cold” water.

But he would discover the ultimate amenity on a trip to New York where a chance encounter with electric-eye doors at Pennsylvania Station led him to inquire of the manufacturer, “Could these be made for a grocery store?” Assured they could, he was quoted a price of $1,300 which he thought was a bit high. He wrestled with the decision but ultimately decided that whether the customer was carrying groceries or personal items – not having to “push through the door” would be a big plus.

And a plus it was as Jenkins would relate, “People came from miles around just to see and experience the electric-eye doors in the new store."

Collage of the Publix evolution from the cover of their 1996 annual report.

The story is told that the night before his “palace” opened, he sat on the steps of the neighboring Baptist Church and thought, “There will never be a finer grocery store.” There wasn’t – until Publix outgrew that location, and the company built new, bigger and better stores, leading the way in shopping centers.

By 1945 Jenkins would purchase a small chain of All American Stores from none other than J. A. Powell, the man who fronted him the groceries for opening day at his first little store. That $175,000 plunge brought Publix 19 stores Jenkins would describe as having “all the architectural charm of a shoe box.” But they came with a warehouse in Lakeland and George knew he would need a warehouse to grow.

Publix was off and running to become “Where Shopping is a Pleasure.” Publix Super Markets presently operates 1,399 stores and employs more than 255,000 associates in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky. The company posted sales of $59 billion during 2024.

Not bad for a young man of eighteen who arrived here with $9 dollars in his pocket. When Jenkins died in 1996, his wealth was estimated at $1 Billion.

Congratulations to all Publix associates for 94 years of shopping pleasure. We are proud that it all started here in Winter Haven.

Next Month: Richard “Dick” Pope Makes His Mark