Nine Winn-Dixie store closings could be blow to consumer confidence

Winn-Dixie’s announcement this week that it is closing 30 of its underperforming stores — nine of which are in Palm Beach County — has local residents wondering what the closures could mean for their community.

While 30 closures represents less than 6 percent of Winn-Dixie’s total store count, the move is significant because it means that more than a third of the current Winn-Dixie stores in Palm Beach County will be gone by Sept. 22.

With about 65 employees per store, that could mean somewhere around 585 positions in Palm Beach County could be eliminated. Winn-Dixie has said it’s working to “reabsorb” as many of its laid-off employees as possible; still, the closings present another blow to Palm Beach County’s 11.8 percent unemployment rate.

“This will be a blow to consumer confidence,” said Chris McCarty, survey director of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Florida. “To my knowledge, there have not been any large-scale private sector layoffs recently. Although unemployment is still high, most economists thought the layoffs had stopped.

“Perceptions of job security play a big role in consumer buying decisions,” McCarty added. “To the extent this signals more instability in the job market, it could lead to a pullback in spending.”

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Nine Winn-Dixie store closings could be blow to consumer confidence - Palm Beach Post - July 30, 2010