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Stew Leonard's Supermarket
By MASAKO YAMADA
I initially heard about Stew Leonard's from some friends in high school. They spoke of the huge supermarket in glowing terms, and I noticed that some of them even carried shopping bags with the Stew Leonard's logo.The logo is a distinctive one consisting of a cartoon man milking a cartoon cow. This logo is fitting, since the supermarket's image centers around its dairy department. The outside of the building has the words "World's Largest Dairy Store." The supermarket is located along the highway linking New York and Boston, so I decided to stop there on the way back to Boston after visiting my parents in New Jersey. I'd never done this before because I'd always taken the bus, but this time around, my boyfriend brought his car, so we were able to stop along the way. I noticed a small sign outside the door saying "Do not videotape or photograph the inside of the store." This did not surprise me too much, since many stores are extremely protective of information like store layout. I've been rebuked for taking pictures at my local supermarket and Levi's jeans shop. However, I had never encountered such an explicit sign before. What was even more surprising was that there was an even larger warning sign printed in Japanese. I immediately imagined huge Japanese camera crews doing shiny magazine spreads and TV specials. Before we entered the supermarket, we were hit with the smell of freshly baked bread. The bakery was right by the entrance, and we wondered whether the smell was being piped outside to lure customers inside the store and get them in the mood. There were free samples of bread near the entrance to further encourage people to loosen up their wallets. This was only the beginning. We saw rotating pans of baking bread, singing vegetable dolls, a mooing plastic cow, a real scene from a milk bottling factory, electric choo-choo trains running above shoppers' heads, and machines pumping out freshly squeezed juice. There was even a booth where one could have pictures scanned into a machine and then printed onto the surface of a cake. We could see Stew's fun-loving personality splashed across the entire store. We saw everything that the store had to offer since the store layout was very unusual. It didn't have parallel aisles with aisle markers. Instead, we followed the twists and turns of the single aisle that wove throughout the entire store. We couldn't guess what department would pop up next. It was like an adventure ride. It took us well over an hour to meander through the entire store, but when we finally got to the cash registers, we were a bit disappointed. In spite of the World's Largest label, the supermarket didn't have as many products as we'd expected. But we agreed that a Stew Leonard's expedition is worth experiencing. We liked Stew's dairy products, produce, meats, and bells and whistles. However, our local supermarket has almost everything one could ever want — including rows of ethnic food, prepared food, junk food and health food — and it's easier to navigate. We needed a rest after we shopped and decided to buy some store-made ice cream near the exit. There is a similar store called Jordan's Furniture in Boston. When we went there, we followed arrows through the entire store and encountered a live banjo band, moving plastic figurines of the owners, an ice cream stand and an adventure ride. Appropriate music is piped into each of the departments (much like the aroma of fresh bread). Both Stew Leonard's and Jordan's Furniture have a number of successful branches, but they aren't boring national conglomerates. Instead, they seem to be the products of highly eccentric but nevertheless savvy owners who insist on having full control of their stores. I don't know whether playing around with buyers' minds in such a way actually makes them buy more things — I have the feeling that busy, urban shoppers don't want to bother wandering through twisting aisles — but it's an exhilarating experience to wander through such a store even without buying anything.
I initially heard about Stew Leonard's from some friends in high school. They spoke of the huge supermarket in glowing terms, and I noticed that some of them even carried shopping bags with the Stew Leonard's logo. The logo is a distinctive one consisting of a cartoon man milking a cartoon cow. This logo is fitting, since the supermarket's image centers around its dairy department. The outside of the building has the words "World's Largest Dairy Store." The supermarket is located along the highway linking New York and Boston, so I decided to stop there on the way back to Boston after visiting my parents in New Jersey. I'd never done this before because I'd always taken the bus, but this time around, my boyfriend brought his car, so we were able to stop along the way. I noticed a small sign outside the door saying "Do not videotape or photograph the inside of the store." This did not surprise me too much, since many stores are extremely protective of information like store layout. I've been rebuked for taking pictures at my local supermarket and Levi's jeans shop. However, I had never encountered such an explicit sign before. What was even more surprising was that there was an even larger warning sign printed in Japanese. I immediately imagined huge Japanese camera crews doing shiny magazine spreads and TV specials. Before we entered the supermarket, we were hit with the smell of freshly baked bread. The bakery was right by the entrance, and we wondered whether the smell was being piped outside to lure customers inside the store and get them in the mood. There were free samples of bread near the entrance to further encourage people to loosen up their wallets. This was only the beginning. We saw rotating pans of baking bread, singing vegetable dolls, a mooing plastic cow, a real scene from a milk bottling factory, electric choo-choo trains running above shoppers' heads, and machines pumping out freshly squeezed juice. There was even a booth where one could have pictures scanned into a machine and then printed onto the surface of a cake. We could see Stew's fun-loving personality splashed across the entire store. We saw everything that the store had to offer since the store layout was very unusual. It didn't have parallel aisles with aisle markers. Instead, we followed the twists and turns of the single aisle that wove throughout the entire store. We couldn't guess what department would pop up next. It was like an adventure ride. It took us well over an hour to meander through the entire store, but when we finally got to the cash registers, we were a bit disappointed. In spite of the World's Largest label, the supermarket didn't have as many products as we'd expected. But we agreed that a Stew Leonard's expedition is worth experiencing. We liked Stew's dairy products, produce, meats, and bells and whistles. However, our local supermarket has almost everything one could ever want — including rows of ethnic food, prepared food, junk food and health food — and it's easier to navigate. We needed a rest after we shopped and decided to buy some store-made ice cream near the exit. There is a similar store called Jordan's Furniture in Boston. When we went there, we followed arrows through the entire store and encountered a live banjo band, moving plastic figurines of the owners, an ice cream stand and an adventure ride. Appropriate music is piped into each of the departments (much like the aroma of fresh bread). Both Stew Leonard's and Jordan's Furniture have a number of successful branches, but they aren't boring national conglomerates. Instead, they seem to be the products of highly eccentric but nevertheless savvy owners who insist on having full control of their stores. I don't know whether playing around with buyers' minds in such a way actually makes them buy more things — I have the feeling that busy, urban shoppers don't want to bother wandering through twisting aisles — but it's an exhilarating experience to wander through such a store even without buying anything.
Shukan ST: Jan. 15, 1999
(C) All rights reserved
- initially
- 最初に
- in glowing terms
- ほめちぎって
- distinctive
- 目立つ
- consisting of 〜
- 〜 から成る
- cartoon
- マンガの
- milking
- 乳をしぼる
- is fitting
- ピッタリだ
- dairy department
- 乳製品売り場
- stop along the way
- 途中で立ち寄る
- extremely
- 極端に
- layout
- 陳列
- (have)been rebuked for 〜
- 〜 をとがめられたことがある
- local
- 地元の
- had never encoutered 〜
- 〜 に出合ったことがなかった
- explicit
- あからさまな
- warning sign
- 警告の掲示
- immediately
- すぐに
- camera crews
- 撮影班
- shiny magazine spreads
- 雑誌の派手な見開きページ
- was being piped outside
- パイプを通して外に運ばれている
- lure
- 引きつける
- customers
- お客
- loosen up their wallets
- 財布のヒモをゆるめる
- rotating pans
- 回転しているオーブン皿
- mooing
- モーと鳴いている
- milk bottling factory
- 牛乳の瓶詰め工場
- electric choo-choo trains
- 電動機関車
- pumping out 〜
- 〜 をくみ出す
- freshly squeezed juice
- 絞りたてのジュース
- have 〜 scanned into 〜
- 〜 を 〜 に読み込む
- surface
- 表面
- fun-loving
- 面白いこと好きの
- splashed across 〜
- 〜 中に広がっている
- parallel aisles
- 平行に並んだ通路
- twists and turns
- 曲がりくねった道
- wove
- 曲がりくねって進む
- pop up
- 飛び出す
- adventure ride
- 遊園地の屋内の冒険乗り物
- meander through 〜
- 〜 をさまよう
- (were)disappointed
- がっかりした
- expedition
- 探検
- produce
- 農作物
- rows
- 列
- ethnic
- 異国の
- prepared food
- 惣菜
- junk food
- ジャンクフード(カロリーは高いが栄養にならないスナック類)
- navigate
- 進む
- arrows
- 矢印
- live banjo band
- バンジョー(弦楽器)の生演奏
- figurines
- 人形
- is piped into 〜
- 〜 に流れている
- aroma
- いいにおい
- branches
- 支店
- boring
- ありきたりの
- national conglomerates
- 全国展開の大手スーパー
- eccentric
- 変わった
- savvy
- 実際の経験がたっぷりある
- urban
- 都会の
- wandering through 〜
- 〜 をうろうろすること
- exhilarating
- 爽快な
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