In a bid to make absolutely certain Hispanics don't assimilate into this country grocery chains Winn-Dixie and Publix have made the astute business decision to welcome our new overlords...

Florida’s two dominant supermarket chains, Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc. and Publix Super Markets, are competing harder than ever for Hispanic consumers by rolling out more Hispanic store formats.

Jacksonville-based Winn-Dixie plans to add 55 outlets to its Hispanic Neighborhood Merchandising program this year. The program already includes 30 stores in Miami and 25 in the Orlando area. The company has a total of 522 stores in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi.

Publix plans to open two more Publix Sabor (Publix Flavor) stores in Miami, bringing the total to four statewide. It launched its first two Sabor outlets last year in the Orlando area and in Hialeah, just outside Miami. Publix has 898 stores in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee. All of its stores carry the company’s private label brand of Hispanic foods, introduced last year.

Both Publix and Winn-Dixie stock food and produce that appeal to the nationalities most heavily represented in communities surrounding their Hispanic-oriented stores.

“We understand where Cubans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and other Hispanics live, and we tend to merchandise to them differently,” said Jim Carrado, Winn-Dixie’s Senior Director of Neighborhood Merchandising.

Maria Brous, Publix director of media and community relations, added: “Publix Sabor is our opportunity to show Hispanic customers there is no need to go to bodegas and Hispanic-owned supermarkets to shop.”

Reason for the supermarkets’ strategies: Hispanics account for about 17 percent of Florida’s population and that figure will exceed 23 percent by 2030, according to U.S. Census figures. Hispanics account for more than 55 percent of Miami-Dade County’s population.