A Publix supermarket on a college campus? Florida gets its first such store.
The decades-long wait to make “shopping a pleasure” on the same grounds as classes, dorms and the University of South Florida’s student center is already delighting students and faculty, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
“Not beside, not across the street, but on our campus,” USF President Judy Genshaft said of the on-site supermarket chain that, she said, has been on “students’ request lists for years.”
She called it a “change-maker” in the community.
True, many Florida colleges can boast of nearby Publix supermarkets.
In South Florida alone there are Publix grocery stores either across the street from, or within easy walking or biking distance of, major colleges and universities. The Lakeland-based chain has stores near the University of Miami in Coral Gables on Monza Avenue, Florida International University at University Park Center on Southwest 107th Avenue, and Miami Dade College in Kendall Mall, also on Southwest 107th Avenue.
A Publix opened two blocks from the University of Florida campus in 2017, too.
USF is leasing the 28,000-square-foot store to Publix for 25 years and currently 50 of the 140 employees are university students, WFTS ABC Action News reported.
This story was originally published December 6, 2018 at 4:42 PM.
