The big news in Sisters, the nearest town to the Antiplanner’s exurban home, is the grand opening of a new 43,500-square-foot Ray’s supermarket. The new store is more than 50 percent larger than the one it replaces and new features include a “wine cellar” with 2,200 different kinds of wine; an olive bar; and a bulk-food section with hundreds of different grains, flours, and spices.
These things may not seem impressive to people living in big cities, but Sisters’ population is only about 1,500 people. As one customer gushed, “you feel like you’re walking into a Safeway,” but then you remember, “This is Sisters.”
The new store probably carries at least 30,000 different products — known in the retail industry as stock-keeping units or SKUs. Yet this is only in the middle of the full range of food store offerings in this country.
