The Woodmans Experience

May 9, 2008

We recently shifted our weekly grocery store trip from Copps to Woodmans. Neither of those two names meant anything to us until we moved to Appleton, Wisconsin. Our weekly Woodmans experience, however, never fails to make me think about the changes in American shopping patterns. The unfailing pattern is to choose stores that privilege price and to a lesser extent choice over the experience of shopping.

There is nothing fancy about the layout of Woodmans. Often a product is presented still in the box:

The point would appear to be: look, we got this big shipment that we are offering to you at the lowest price possible. We are not going to waste our time or your money stacking this up into some fancy pyramid!

Bulk is the name of the game. Keeping overhead cheap is the best way to deliver all this bulk food. The Wikipedia article on Woodmans gives a sense of the size of these stores:

Woodman's works on a warehouse model, operating stores in the 200-250,000 square foot range, as opposed to the 50-75,000 square foot size of typical grocery stores. Stores are built with a minimum level of amenities, usually with the cheapest materials available at the time.

Nobody comes looking for an aesthetically pleasing experience. This is about getting the food and getting out.

Big box stores have steadily eaten into other forms of retail. Even with respect to air travel, we choose overwhelmingly the cheapest option and as a result the comfort of traveling on an airplane is plummeting (meals anyone?).

Why is this our direction? My guess is that as the earnings of most Americans steadily erodes our tendency is to maintain lifestyle and habits.. which means steadily sacrificing comfort and pleasure for bulk and price. Stores like Woodmans cater to this economic pinch. We want to keep telling ourselves: "things are still the same. I can afford the same things." Now imagine the situation if Americans broadly were feeling like they had more money and spending ability. My guess is that the trend would be toward improving the experience and quality of stores. Instead of seeing air travel become harder and harder to stand, we would see corporations work to improve it. American economic expectations are clearly falling.. slowly and slowly, but steadily.

The other side to this trend is Whole Foods and flying first class. This past decade has seen the rise of specialty stores and luxury options on a grand scale. Those signs at the airport for "elite boarding" always burn me up. This trend points to the existence of a class of people in America who are living quite well and upping their quality demands while the majority of Americans are preserving their lifestyle by bargain shopping.