Florida without Publix? Here are 4 places where you won’t see a Publix for miles and miles

You are never more than an hour or so drive away from a Publix sub in Florida, no matter where you are.

OK, if you were camping at Middle Cape at the farthest southwest point of the state, it would take a little longer. But once you got to the visitor's center in Flamingo, Google Maps says the nearest Publix is just an hour away.

Publix, the grocery store chain that began in Winter Haven in 1930, is everywhere in Florida. While the chain has locations across the Southeast U.S. in Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, data company ScrapeHero lists 876 Publix locations in the Florida alone, roughly one for every 24,500 people. (Publix's site currently lists 859). It's the largest employee-owned company in the U.S. and one of the 10 largest-volume supermarket chains in the nation, employing over 250,000 people.

And it's not only everywhere, people want it everywhere. For the 10th year in a row, Publix was named to Fortune's 2023 Best Workplaces in Retail list. It's No. 1 in supermarkets on Newsweek's 2024 America's Best Customer Service list (6th year in a row). For five years in a row, it's been on Forbes' Best-In-State Employer list. Even their commercials are popular. If you're running out to get groceries in Florida, the odds are good you're heading to Publix.

But are there places without a Publix? There are certainly plenty of cities and towns that don't claim the building with the big green sign on it, but if you're having a Publix fried chicken emergency — and who among us hasn't — there's generally one potentially within an hour, hour and 20 minutes drive from practically anywhere in the state, barring traffic.

Up in Sweet Gum Head by the Georgia line? There's a Publix 47 minutes away in Freeport, or if you're in a real hurry you could duck over the Alabama state line and drive just over a half hour away to Enterprise. Rural residents of Yeehaw Junction, between the Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park and the Blue Cypress Conservation Area, only have a 45-minute jaunt over to the air-conditioned aisles of Sebastian.

With some highly unscientific mapping using Publix's locator map and some extremely optimistic Google Maps travel times, we've found the most remote Publix deserts in Florida. Heavy traffic time and however long it takes to boat back in from the center of the Everglades not included.

Flamingo, Florida

• Time to nearest Publix: Just over an hour

• Closest Publix: 1220 E. Palm Dr, Homestead

At the very end of the Wilderness Waterway through the Everglades, at the very bottom of the peninsula, is a campground that used to be a town. We're counting it because it's about as far southwest as people can conveniently drive. But once you're tired of the natural beauty and the mosquitos, it's just over an hour away to Homestead where cool drinks and rotisserie chickens await.

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Steinhatchee, Florida

• Time to nearest Publix: Just over an hour

• Closest Publix: 2215 Ohio Ave. N, Live Oak

There's a bit of a Publix desert along the upper Big Bend area, and Steinhatchee is right in the middle of it. It's a whole hour-and-1-minute drive to the nearest one in Live Oak, or an hour and 4 minutes if you'd rather take the leisurely drive to Newberry.

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Clewiston, Florida

• Time to nearest Publix: About an hour

• Closest Publix: 1324 Homestead Road N., Lehigh Acres

Clewiston, parked on the southwest side of Lake Okeechobee, is sadly devoid of a Publix itself but residents have their choice: head west to Lehigh Acres (about an hour or less), drive around the lake up to Okeechobee (hour or so) or head east to Loxahatchee Groves (hour).

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Cape San Bias, Florida

• Time to nearest Publix: An hour and 20 minutes

• Closest Publix: 650 W 23r St., Panama City

After this story was published, the first correction came in. Reader Dwayne Piergiovanni pointed out that shoppers in Cape San Bias have a healthy jog to get to a Publix meat counter.

Google Maps lists the drive time to a location in nearby Panama City as an hour, six minutes, but it also warns that includes "restricted usage or private roads." So Piergiovanni's claim of an hour and 20 minutes is probably more accurate for most drivers, which makes this secluded Gulf County community the farthest from a Publix yet.

How far are you from a Publix?

Which city has the most Publix locations?

Then there are the places blessed with bountiful numbers of Publixes, just bubbling out of the ground. Which city has the most?

Miami, by a landslide. With anywhere from 40 to 63 locations, depending on what you're counting as "Miami," Florida's biggest city has you covered for all your Boar's Head and bakery needs. No wonder Lionel Messi shops there.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Publix: Few places in Florida are more than an hour away from a sub