Woodman's 27

Woodman's #27 is a Woodman's Markets supermarket located at 7145 120th Avenue in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the I-94/Highway 50 Regional Town Center development. The store opened on August 10, 1997.

History
Woodman's first proposed building a Kenosha store in January 1995, when it operated a chain of six stores in northern and western Wisconsin. At that time, the future site of the store was 40 acres of undeveloped land behind Rogan's Shoes Kenosha, owned by Bank One. The plans were confirmed a year later, in January 1996, and the new store was planned to become Woodman's and Kenosha's largest supermarket. The store was originally expected to open in January 1997. but by December 1996, only the building's steel frame had been erected.

In April 1997, Woodman's was given the city's only available retail liquor license, bringing the total number of such licenses awarded in the city to the legal maximum of eleven. The decision was controversial, because the owners of three other major supermarkets (Gas and Grocery at 4105 52nd Street, Sentry Foods at 8207 22nd Avenue, and SuperSaver at Pershing Plaza) were interested in the license, and because the owners of those supermarkets were notified about the hearing in advance when other businesses were not. Many felt that the city's liquor license quota was too restrictive, and the city planned to raise the maximum to sixteen by 1999.

The store held its soft opening on August 10, 1997. At 250000 sqft, it was described as "the largest grocery store in the history of the community", offering approximately 67,000 products. The company claimed in its advertising that the new store "may well be the largest supermarket in the nation." A grand opening ceremony was held on August 15, and on the same day, United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1444 began canvassing the store's 250 employees to encourage them to unionize, which Woodman's said it would not oppose.

The UFCW's union election was held in September, and the majority of employees voted against joining the UFCW, 49 to 36. A judge found that Woodman's had "failed to provide the board with an accurate list of eligible voters" before the election, and ordered in January 1998 that a second election be held. By August 2000, this second vote had not yet occurred, and Woodman's was the only major supermarket in Kenosha whose employees were not members of the UFCW union.

In April 1999, the store announced that it would pay for a representing a burning tree stump to be built on city property next to the store's entrance along 75th Street. The sculpture, Gateway to the City, was designed to welcome drivers exiting nearby Interstate 94 to Kenosha, and was built in June 2001. It was dedicated in a ceremony on November 6, 2001.