People must eat, grocers doing better

Department stores maybe be closing stores and pulling back, but another large retail anchor sector, grocery stores, looks to be holding its ground on real estate and still growing.

Lakeland-based Publix Super Markets Inc. has 22 stores currently under construction and another six store leases signed in its central, western and southwest Florida regions. Shannon Patten, spokesperson for Publix, describes the company as extremely stable and says it is able to expand without taking on much new debit. Of the 22 stores, eight are replacement stores.

Comparatively, Tampa Sweetbay Supermarket is planning few new stores, just three additional locations this year. However, the three new stores isn't the full story, as Sweetbay is in a digesting period after converting 108 Kash n' Karry stores since 2005, according to Nicole LeBeau, a Sweetbay spokesperson.