How did Publix supermarket gets its name? It’s a Florida story made for the movies
The popcorn, soda and candy aisles at Publix go right back to the supermarket’s roots.
That’s because the Florida supermarket’s roots stretch back to a movie theater company called Publix Theatres Corporation. Grocer George Jenkins liked the name of the once-popular chain so much, he took it.
And so Publix the grocery store was born.
Jenkins recounted the story about the supermarket name’s origins in a speech he included in his 1979 memoir, “The Publix Story.”
Talk about the ultimate movie theater concessionaire.
HOW PUBLIX GOT ITS NAME
“The name ‘Publix’ was borrowed from a chain of theaters which was operating throughout Florida at the time. Most of them
were closing up, and I liked the sound of the name so I just took it for my store,” Jenkins wrote.
Who knew?
And here we thought Jenkins branded Publix as the public’s supermarket. That’s what Tony Diego believed.
And he was close to Jenkins, too.
“I thought he got it because he wanted it to say ‘Publix’ so it would be for the public,” Diego, a Miami Beach store manager in the 1970s who rose to an executive position before retiring in South Miami-Dade, told the Miami Herald in a text.
The grocer’s adopting a movie theater chain’s name bemused the longtime Publix champion.
“I never heard that and I talked to Mr. Jenkins quite a bit,” Diego said.
Publix spokeswoman Lindsey Willis confirmed the origin of the name by sharing a page of company history.
“The first store Mr. George opened was in downtown Winter Haven, Florida. The idea for the name came from a chain of theaters Mr. George was fond of. He liked the name, so he decided to open his own store with the corporate name Publix Food Stores, Inc. Doors opened on Saturday,