Woodman's Markets is an

employee-owned Employee stock ownership, or employee share ownership, is where a company's employees own shares in that company (or in the parent company of a group of companies). US employees typically acquire shares through a share option plan. In the UK, Emp ...

American regional supermarket chain based in

Janesville, Wisconsin Janesville is a city in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. It is the county seat and largest city in the county. It is a principal municipality of the Janesville, Wisconsin, Metropolitan Statistical Area and is included in the Madison–Jan ...

. Founded in 1919 as a produce stand, Woodman's has grown to operate nineteen stores in

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

and northern

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

. Woodman's appeared on '' Supermarket News Top 50 Small Chains & Independents'' list since 2010. All Woodman's locations are open 24 hours a day, although some of them have enacted temporary changes due to COVID, and have a gas station and convenience store close to the store.

History

Woodman's Markets was started in 1919 by John Woodman as a produce stand on the corner of Milton and Sherman Avenues in Janesville. John's son, Willard, later joined his father and in 1921 they built an indoor location on the original produce stand corner. The company continued to grow throughout the middle of the 20th century and in 1956 opened a second Janesville location. The original two stores eventually closed and were replaced by one larger store in 1973. Willard's son, Phil, joined him in managing the company in the 1960s, and remains president today. In 1971 Woodman's opened its first location outside Janesville, in neighboring Beloit. In 1975 Woodman's became the first Wisconsin-based grocery store to begin using UPC scanners. Since the late 1970s, Woodman's has opened 15 stores throughout Wisconsin and Illinois. The

Kenosha Kenosha () is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the seat of Kenosha County. Per the 2020 census, the population was 99,986 which made it the fourth-largest city in Wisconsin. Situated on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, Kenosh ...

location, which opened in 1997, was the largest grocery store in the United States at the time. The 2001 opening of the

Rockford, Illinois Rockford is a city in Winnebago County, Illinois, located in the far northern part of the state. Situated on the banks of the Rock River, Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County (a small portion of the city is located in Ogle County). ...

, store marked the first Woodman's store outside Wisconsin. Woodman's was privately owned by the Woodman family until 1998, when it became a 100 percent employee owned company. In March 2008, Woodman's hit $1 billion in annual sales. The company previously owned a stake in Roundy's, now a key regional competitor.

Store layout and sales model

Woodman's stores are based on a modified warehouse model, with stores in the 200-250,000+ square foot range. Most new locations are built as an anchor store with several smaller outlets surrounding the store. The company prefers not to take on debt so it opens new stores only every 2–3 years, and remodels existing stores in between opening new stores. Prices at Woodman's are lower than at many large grocery store chains because of their bulk purchasing model. Most items are stocked on the shelves by employees, but special bulk purchases and other items are sometimes shelved in their shipping cases or stacked in the aisles. The store brand is Shurfine, which is one of the many brands of

Elk Grove Village, Illinois Elk Grove Village is a village in Cook and DuPage counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Per the 2020 census, the population was 32,812. Located northwest of Chicago along the Golden Corridor, the Village of Elk Grove Village was incorpo ...

-based

private label A private label, also called a private brand or private-label brand, is a brand owned by a company, offered by that company alongside and competing with brands from other businesses. A private-label brand is almost always offered exclusively by th ...

co-op Topco Associates. Woodman's allows payment by

cash In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins. In bookkeeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-im ...

check Check or cheque, may refer to: Places * Check, Virginia Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Check'' (film), a 2021 Indian Telugu-language film * ''The Checks'' (episode), a 1996 TV episode of ''Seinfeld'' Games and sports * Check (chess), a thr ...

Discover card Discover is a credit card brand issued primarily in the United States. It was introduced by Sears in 1985. When launched, Discover did not charge an annual fee and offered a higher-than-normal credit limit, features that were disruptive to the ...

, PIN-based

debit cards A debit card, also known as a check card or bank card is a payment card that can be used in place of cash to make purchases. The term '' plastic card'' includes the above and as an identity document. These are similar to a credit card, but u ...

and EBT.

is the exclusive credit of Woodman’s. All Woodman's locations are open 24 hours and have 24 hour gas stations in close proximity to the main store. Each station has a convenience store with the gas station, however the small store is only open 6 am to 7 pm. Fast multi-bay Oil change operations attached to that store share the same hours. The gas pumps operate unattended during off hours. Shopping carts are varied, offering electric carts, oversized carts, carts that allow children to be strapped in, and carts for adults with special needs. Woodman's partners with GrocerKey to offer online shopping with pick up or delivery.

Employee benefits

Despite the company being employee owned, Phil Woodman created controversy in December 2009 by eliminating the company's mental health coverage, complaining that patients could rack up uncontrolled costs for the company.

Locations

Woodman's has nineteen locations:

Illinois

* Carpentersville * North Aurora * Rockford * Buffalo Grove * Lakemoor * Bloomingdale

Wisconsin

* Altoona * Appleton * Beloit * Green Bay * Janesville *

* Madison West * Madison East *

Menomonee Falls Menomonee Falls is a village in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States, and is part of the Greater Milwaukee area. The population was 35,626 at the 2010 census, making it the most populous village in Wisconsin. It is the fourth largest commu ...

* Oak Creek * Onalaska * Sun Prairie * Waukesha

References

External links

Woodman's Markets website
{{Supermarkets of the United States American companies established in 1919 Retail companies established in 1919 Retail companies based in Wisconsin Janesville, Wisconsin Supermarkets of the United States Employee-owned companies of the United States 1919 establishments in Wisconsin