{"id":47535,"date":"2024-07-10T19:37:50","date_gmt":"2024-07-10T23:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=47535"},"modified":"2024-07-10T19:38:03","modified_gmt":"2024-07-10T23:38:03","slug":"lakeland-business-owners-worry-about-foot-traffic-after-nearby-publix-temporarily-closes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/07\/10\/lakeland-business-owners-worry-about-foot-traffic-after-nearby-publix-temporarily-closes\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland business owners worry about foot traffic after nearby Publix temporarily closes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lake Miriam Square Publix has temporarily closed, which has neighboring business owners concerned about their foot traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt definitely affects small businesses,\u201d said Heather Hoagland, owner of Glam Color Bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoagland said the salon\u2019s proximity to the Lake Miriam Square Publix supermarket was all the marketing she needed to gain new customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe get a lot of walk-in traffic from Publix so with Publix closed, we are not going to have any of the new clients that are walking through that just see us in passing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Saturday night, the Lake Miriam Square Publix closed for demolition and reconstruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publix spokesperson Hannah Herring provided the following statement Tuesday evening:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201dOur Lake Miriam Publix has been a beloved store for many years. When it reopens as our newer, larger format (like our stores on Gandy Blvd in Tampa, Wesley Chapel and in Louisville, KY), customers will enjoy expanded offerings in the Deli like burrito bowls and a pizza oven. There will also be a Pours area where customers can order smoothies and a\u00e7a\u00ed bowls or grab a drink and sip while they shop. The store is targeted to open in late 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely going to be an impact,\u201d Hoaglund said. \u201cEveryone\u2019s trying to figure out if there are things that we can do promotionally to offer discounts or things like that. Kind of band together so that we make sure that the traffic continues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few doors down at So Fresh Lakeland, a restaurant advertised as \u2018healthy fast casual,\u2019 owner Abed Qoran has the same idea for collaboration and working together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He wants to create a collection of coupons from Lake Miriam Square businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve also talked to other businesses in the plaza to try to make one like this to send it out for everybody in the plaza,\u201d he said, holding a book of coupons for his business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qoran said close to half of his customers were Publix shoppers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the supermarket staple is closed, Qoran is focusing on growing his online customer base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a long 16 months. We\u2019re going to try to do as much as we can to keep the customers coming in here,\u201d Qoran said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judy Phouikham, an employee at Oksumi Ramen, said her boss has noticed a slowdown in business since the Saturday closure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the biggest Publix on South Florida [Avenue],\u201d she said. \u201cWhat do we do now?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While all the business owners and employees are nervous about what the next sixteen months will bring, they are excited for what the new store and renovated plaza will bring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo be near a Publix is always good. You get a lot of different customers, a lot of different cultures, a lot of different people so it\u2019s always nice,\u201d Phouikham said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce they remodel it, I think it\u2019s going to be busier than what it was. I can\u2019t wait. It\u2019s going to definitely help the business,\u201d Qoran said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lake Miriam Square Publix has temporarily closed, which has neighboring business owners concerned about their foot traffic. \u201cIt definitely affects small businesses,\u201d said Heather Hoagland, owner of Glam Color Bar.… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"4","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":36093,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/publix.webp","type":"image\/webp"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[9070],"class_list":["post-47535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-lakeland-business-owners-worry-about-foot-traffic-after-nearby-publix-temporarily-closes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47536,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47535\/revisions\/47536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}