Is it just me or are all-in-one, big-box stores, such the ones found on the Randall Road artery between I90 and Algonquin Road, having trouble knowing who they are or what they sell anymore? Theyāre like teenagers suffering perpetual identity crises.
This Happy Trails may be about 10 years behind the times as the āEverything In One Placeā idea seems to be a product of the early 2000s, but I still suffer the shock whenever Iām in the checkout line (at the grocery store or whatever you call it nowadays) and see pork chops, a womanās blouse, and motor oil glide past on the conveyor belt.
Is it just me, I ask again, or is something wrong with this picture?
Iām sure the stores will tell you that offering hunting equipment, living room furniture, and a baked goods aisle is a matter of convenience. Why shop anywhere else when weāve got it all right here?
I admit, having everything in one store is easy. Randall Road is a āone-stop shopā itself. Where I grew up, if you wanted select different items, you needed a full tank of gas, a compass rose, and patience to navigate the daily grind. How many times I wished everything was in one place. But never in my wildest shopping dreams did I expect to buy bait where I buy my gallon of milk (unless I was in Wisconsin, where thatās a normal option).
Fact is, I think nowadays we have too many options, if thatās possible. Faced with a mile-long cereal aisle, I give up and grab anything because anything is better than everything when itās all coming at you all at once all in one place.
Today, walking from one end of a store to the other is culture shock. And we have so many of these stores. Between grocery stores, all-in-ones, and hardware stores, on Randall Road, there are 12 big stores to choose from, all of them offering a little or a lot of what the other offers, all within a few mile stretch of each other.
Call me spoiled, but perhaps I wouldnāt have such an issue with these stores if you really could pick just one.
Almost every time Iām out on the shopping circuit, Iām not the only one. I see the same people moving from one store to the other, all after the best deal, which seems to be the only thing each of these stores offers differently than the other. Deals.
