Bankruptcies teach valuable lesson: Publix is king

Don’t mess with Publix.

That’s the biggest of several takeaways in the early 2020 shakeout in the grocery sector, with two chains — Lucky’s Market and Earth Fare — declaring bankruptcy within nine days of each other. Niwot, Colo.-based Lucky’s had six locations in the region, dotting the coast from Tampa to Naples, while Asheville, N.C.-based Earth Fare had four stores. That’s about 300,000 to 350,000 square feet of mostly prime, anchor-based commercial retail real estate, with stores, in total, that had some 1,000 employees.