Publix was opened by George Jenkins. His first store was opened in Winter Haven on Sept. 6, 1930, he opened his 2nd store in 1935 across town. He closed his first 2 stores to open his dream store Publix Super Market on Nov. 8, 1940. The name came from a chain of theaters which were operating throughout Florida at the time, Jenkins liked the name. Publix is an employee-owned, American supermarket chain headquartered in Lakeland, Florida. Publix is a private corporation that is wholly owned by present and past employees and members of the Jenkins family. When Jenkins opened his first super market the store featured several features that were rare at that time to customers. Air conditioning, automatic doors, fluorescent lighting, terrazzo floors, and a scale at the front.
The scale has been a large part of the Publix history. At the time they opened very few people owned scales at home. Several stores offered to weigh you for a price. However Jenkins insisted his scales be free to guests. The company still has the original scale in the offices in Lakeland and it still works! You will not find scales in Publix locations outside of Florida, except a few just over the Georgia border. The scales were manufactured by Mettler Toledo and they stopped producing them in 2015. Publix bought up as many as it could and houses them in a warehouse in Lakeland. Technicians maintain a couple dozen backup scales in the warehouse. Whenever a scale breaks or needs repair at a Florida store, they replace it. The technicians use a Publix People Weigher Repair handbook when they need help repairing one. The scales will stay in the stores as long as the technicians can keep them operational.
The chicken is another thing Publix is famous for. It dates back to the 1950’s when it was cooked on a Rotiss-O-Mat. Fried chicken followed in the 70’s, with the final recipe being introduced in 1992. Chicken tenders are so loved they even have a twitter account for customers to see if the chicken tender sub is on sale.
Pub subs were introduced in 1992 as well. Custom-made sandwiches remain rare among grocery chains in the south. Both the subs and chicken were introduced first in the Atlanta market.
Kids love they get a free cookie in the bakery just for walking up and asking. Nobody seems to know for sure when this tradition started but it could date back to 1957 when the chain opened. By the way, those first bakeries were not located inside Publix stores but were in separate buildings.
Tipping associates is forbidden.
Publix has 1,147 (with over 30 in the Panhandle) stores and operates in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. They employee approximately 188.00 employees