When perusing a list of Woodman’s Market wins since it first made the list in 1987, two words stand out the most: liquor and grocery. Out of the 65 wins, most are in one of those two categories. For its spirits and wine, Woodman’s has garnered 33 awards, and for grocery, 24 awards.
The Janesville-based grocer started as a corner produce stand in 1919 and opened a full grocery store two years later. Woodman’s continued to grow, eventually opening a store in Madison in 1979 — two years before Madison Magazine launched Best of Madison. It first earned recognition in 1987 and since then it has won at least one award every year except in 1998 — when grocery wasn’t a category and three other businesses claimed the top prize for wine store.
It’s understandable that Woodman’s has dominated the grocery and spirits categories over the years, but arguably more intriguing are the four awards in 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1991 for video store. Woodman’s added video rental in the 1980s to its list of services available to shoppers and the effort did not go unnoticed by local readers.
In 2019, Woodman’s celebrated 100 years in business and it remains headquartered in Janesville with multiple shops in the Madison area. It has continued to evolve over that time, but it clearly still remains a favorite for local readers.
