For nearly a month, Immokalee residents have been without a full-fledged grocery store in town after the Winn-Dixie closed. The store will eventually become an Aldi, but it’s unclear when that will happen.

A plan put in place to help residents in the interim has not been well received — in fact it's all but unused.

Over the past three weekends, county buses have been sitting idle waiting for an expected rush of grocery shoppers. But that never happened.

And in that time, only one person has accepted the free ride to one of three Publix supermarkets that are well outside of Immokalee's confines.

Unless there’s a sudden surge throughout this weekend, the new service will be discontinued, said Collier County Commissioner Bill McDaniel.

McDaniel and the Collier Community Foundation came up with the plan to have a dedicated bus make two trips a day -- on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays -- from the old Winn-Dixie to the Publix stores. The reason? Most Winn-Dixie shoppers walked or rode bikes to the store.

The initial roll-out on Oct. 31 fell flat after a communication mix-up put the bus stop miles from the old Winn-Dixie.

Even with that corrected, the service hasn’t been well-received. McDaniel thinks the recent series of ICE immigration raids are keeping many people away.

“I heard last weekend there was one rider. And then ICE came into town, and that's messed everything up," McDaniel said.

He said if ridership doesn't pick up this weekend, the service will be discontinued.

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