AUGUST 20, 2008

Hyped On Hypermarts

Those that have read my other online ramblings know that I enjoy sushi, and specifically supermarket sushi.

It all hails back to my days at Ithaca where I would make late night sushi runs to the local Wegmans (there’s no where else to go up there). So this weekend I decided to live like it was the summer of 2006 and take a road trip to the Wegmans all the way out in Fairfax (not too far but still a hike).

I entered the store through the “Market Café” entrance and little did I know I was about to enter the wild world of grocery cuisine. Asian wokeries, Indian cuisine, salad bars, bakeries, sub shops, pizzerias and delis. These were all the unexpected food stations I saw before I reached the sushi bar. The wide selection of take-out items created a small United Nations of food that would have left me with too many choices had I not shown up with an agenda. Nevertheless, I was excited.

But it wasn’t just the wide selection that caught my attention- it was the environment. After picking out some sushi plates I went upstairs, where there was a dining room with hardwood floors and nice wooden furniture that looked more a restaurant than supermarket.

As I looked around I noticed all the patrons were doing things I’d expect at a Starbucks. People were drinking coffee, reading newspapers, and typing on their laptops. That led me to pull out my trusty Smartphone and lo and behold- they had free Wi-Fi. I was sold.

This “super” supermarket isn’t a new phenomenon.  SuperTargets have been around since the 1990s and Wal-Mart Supercenters have been around since 1988. These one-stop shops have led to the term “hypermarket.” Wegmans doesn’t exactly qualify as a hypermarket but it does a better job than Target and Wal-Mart when it comes to in-store dining.

What was provoking to me was how the force of integration has changed the supermarket from a single purpose stop to an all-in-one destination. My plan that day was to have lunch and then find a coffeehouse to sit and review some papers, a typical coffeehouse activity. I gave it a second thought when I saw how nice it was to sit at the Wegmans in Fairfax. Who would have thought that coffeehouses might have to worry about competition from the local supermarket?