Publix through the years

In 1930, Publix’s late founder George Jenkins found his first store location just two doors down from the Piggly Wiggly in Winter Haven and borrowed the name Publix from a New York City-based movie theater company that was going out of business. Publix’s gross annual profits were about $100,000 for the first few years of business. 

Five years later, he opened a second Publix location, and in 1940, he sold the two original stores and mortgaged an orange grove he had purchased to raise the money to open his first supermarket. 

Now the grocery chain, which reported $57.1 billion in sales in 2023, operates nearly 1,400 stores in eight states across the south and employs more than a quarter of a million people. 

Take a look at how Publix has grown over the years.