Tile murals accompanied Publix stores beginning in the 1960s, but it wasn't until the 1970s & 80s that they started appearing in large numbers, painted by Florida artist Pati Mills. These large murals were attached to new and remodeled stores, numbering over 200 across two decades. Later murals were often themed to the local area (allegedly because the earlier murals showing food made them technically count as taxable "advertising" for groceries), depicting harbors, waterfronts, and orange groves.
Sadly these murals are rarer and rarer by the day. Publix has always had an aggressive remodel program that often involves total demolitions to rebuild new, updated stores on top, and the murals, with each and every tile cemented in place, are incredibly difficult to remove intact. Publix themselves said only 26 survived in a 2019 article, and several mural stores have been demolished and rebuilt since then. This store in Palm Bay, Florida is also due for a tear down rebuild in the coming months.
