No Ordinary Trip To The Market

When you have a holiday built almost entirely around food, a big part of the tradition has always been the trip to the supermarket to buy the Thanksgiving turkey.

It's a tradition that began back in the early 1900s with the opening of the nation's first self-service grocery, a Piggly Wiggly in Memphis, Tenn, CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers reports.

In 1930, Michael Cullen took things a step further when he introduced the concept of one-stop shopping, opening the nation's first supermarket in Queens, New York.

By the end of the decade, a competitor, the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea company had spread the idea across the country and went on to become fifth-largest corporation in America.

Generations of Americans could no more envision life without supermarkets than they could Thanksgiving dinner without all the trimmings.

But today that's all changing.

A recent CBS News poll showed six in 10 Americans bought groceries at a low price mega-store, such as Target, Costco or Wal-Mart in the last month.

Consider that $.15 on every grocery dollar is now being spent at Wal-Mart.

It's a growing trend that is threatening the shelf life of the traditional grocery store. Over the last two decades, an estimated 10,000 have shut their doors: Winn-Dixie is in bankruptcy, Albertson's is on the auction block.

Northwestern University business professor Robert Blattberg says today's customers aren't satisfied with just the convenience of one-stop shopping. They demand super savings or super service, which puts the supermarkets in a squeeze.

"I am either going to save money or I'm going to enjoy the shopping trip," Blattberg says. "If I'm not saving money and I'm not enjoying it, it is at risk."

Referring to the traditional grocery store, Blattberg adds that "they are trying to reinvent themselves and make them exciting."

But they have a lot of catching up to do. The excitement he's talking about is being generated by upscale upstarts, such as Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods, which at the rate its growing, could be coming soon to a neighborhood near you. For beginners, places like Whole Foods can feel a bit like an alien planet; half the experience is trying to figure out what some of this stuff is.

"Whole Foods would like to reeducate people that, uh, there's a whole art and culture around preparing food, enjoying food," Whole Foods founder John Mackey explains.

Mackey expands his thought, saying that "taking some time to enjoy what arguably is the greatest pleasure in life: eating."

A quick, guided tour through Mackey's landmark store is a testament to the old bromide, "You get what you pay for."

The selection is astonishing. Then again, so are some of the prices.

Whole Foods shopper Jan Coburn says she only buys specialty items at the pricey store, yet adds that the higher costs are worth it.

In an effort to win back customers like Coburn, the surviving grocery store chains are taking cues from their high and low end competitors.

For the cost-conscious crowd, Kroger has 142 stores called Food for Less. The no frills chain is stocked specifically to go head-to-head with so-called big-box discounters, but Kroger executive Bruce Lucia says the cost cutting doesn't stop there.

"Four years ago our customers told us our prices were too high and I'll tell you this, it was a little bit of a gut check because you don't want to believe that, but they were too high," admits Lucia.

So Kroger cut costs on staples such as milk, bread and paper products at all of its 3,600 stores.

"You take away price as the equation then we seem to look a whole lot better because of the other things we offer the shopping experience, the friendly employees, the clean store the ability to get in and out," Lucia says.

And to woo the quality-minded crowd, Kroger is rolling out high end store designs, big on organic produce, fine wine and cheese, even in-store chefs.

In the end, there are a couple things these die-hard competitors all seem to agree on. In a country where so many people are looking for such different things, the mass in mass marketing is probably a thing of the past. And who wins from all that competition? The consumer of course.

"They are getting better prices because of Wal-Mart, they are getting better offerings because of people like Whole Foods," says Blattberg. "So, the market place is working in that sense. The world of retailing is always evolving it.

"It's good for the consumer."