Wegmans Food Markets & UX
Grocery stores can benefit from design thinking!
If you live in western NY, Jersey, parts of PA/VA/MD: you know it. If you are a New Englander, North Carolinian; you are just getting to know it.
I’m talking about Wegmans of course!
I’m an “O.G” Wegmans shopper. Not just some newbie who found one of the expansive locations of the Bay State to be my new Mecca for food.
I can say, confidently that Wegmans has the greatest UX in the grocery industry.
So, what is UX and what does it have to do with Wegmans?
Good Question. UX has a ton of definitions, but I’ll (try) to put it in plain English:
“User experience encompasses all aspects of the end user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products”
BOOM. That is simply what Wegmans seems to do better than the competition. My experience leaving western New York for Boston in 2008 had me walking into “other stores” (no desire to bash anyone by name here) and I was not impressed, not one bit. There was virtually no “harmony” in my grocery shopping experience at the local and national chains that had an eastern, MA presence. The staff, management, prices, placement, music, cleanliness, floor plan, lighting- did not “sync” like Wegmans did at home. What did this mean, and how could I explain it? Enter my early understanding of user experience and design thinking, and it all started to make sense.
What does Wegmans do to deliberately shape the shopper’s experience?
#1. Wegmans creates a frictionless experience
#2. Wegmans creates a consistent (harmonious) experience
#3. Wegmans is designed from the inside-out.
Wegmans is Frictionless:
One thing I can’t help but notice about Wegmans, is their innate ability to merchandise and market. Wegmans always maintains a clean, well-organized store. Heck, they would make Toyota proud with how meticulously their design process is executed. All of these seemingly small details combine to create a holistically organized and carefree shopping experience. Details such as the width of aisles, color of price tags, style of freezer doors, layout and location of products. These all contribute.
What does this really boil down to? Wegmans is highly useable. A great product, service, and experience need to be functional and usable before they become pretty and trendy.
Now if they could only give us 8 hotdogs and 8 hotdog buns…
Wegmans is Consistent:
One thing I always notice about Wegmans is that it is remarkably consistent in quality and design-aesthetic. I grew up near one of their older locations/ There are always positive changes coming to that location, keeping up as their brand evolves. People appreciate consistency in design. Why? Because we as humans have expectations. The element of surprise is not a very useful attribute in product design, at least for utilitarian experiences like grocery shopping. Could you imagine if your favorite store just changed prices randomly? If you look through the visual content of this post, you’ll notice that Wegmans maintains tight consistency between their locations. Lighting, floor color/material, shelving color/material, signage.
Bottom line? Walking into Wegmans when it opened in Northborough felt like home.
Wegmans is designed from the inside-out:
A newer Wegmans looks like someone took a wholesale buying club, and hired designers from Saks to reinvent the interior. The sheer amount of quality and purposeful design that is spread across such a large retail footprint is a feat in its own right. What’s more, this is unequaled in the industry. I’ve been to the boutique, the expensive, and the trendy grocery stores; it’s just not as user-centric as the Wegmans experience.
How does Wegmans accomplish this so well? It has to do with a crucial aspect of designing a sustainable business model.
Wegmans has identified all of its stakeholders, and has a winning process in place that leverages their input.
While many companies see only stockholders and customers as people that need to be pleased, “Weggies” is way ahead of that. It is frequently one of the best places in the country to work, and it’s never a surprise to see it on top of the list. You would never see what happened to this local grocery store happen at Wegmans. People are just too valuable there.
Wrapping it up…
It’s evident that other grocery stores use UX, design-thinking, and user-centric principles. If they didn’t then you wouldn’t always see the chips next to the salsa, the ice cream next to the chocolate sauce, peanut butter and jelly. What sets this company apart, is that UX seems to be at the center of their thinking. By starting and embedding UX into your business, you end up with a much more well-oiled machine, as opposed to a polished turd.
-Matt
