Attention Shoppers!

Groceries, a floor lamp, batteries, a CD, maybe a quick birthday gift. Considering that most Americans rely on retail giants Wal-Mart and Target for basically the same everyday supplies, their opinions of the stores sure are different.

Wal-Mart shoppers — even those who shop there almost exclusively — don’t really like it. Target, on the other hand, inspires a cultlike adoration that shoppers find hard to explain or resist.

At least, those are the unscientific findings of Brian Anderson, a Colorado College senior who followed shoppers at the blue and red megamarts and analyzed their perceptions for his thesis.

“It’s all about showing the love. Target shoppers felt they had a real emotional relationship with the store. At Wal-Mart, it was strictly about value, there was less of an emotional connection,” said Anderson, 26, on a recent afternoon when he agreed to take a reporter on a tour of a local a Wal-Mart and a Target.

For his study, Anderson randomly selected three Wal-Mart shoppers and three Target shoppers from a willing pool of online volunteers and accompanied them on shopping trips. They did not know the nature of his research.

As he followed behind their carts, the economics major peppered them with questions about why they shop where they do, their likes and their dislikes.

What he heard again and again would probably ring true to most Americans: Most people shop at Wal-Mart, but few really enjoy it.

“It’s like a dirty little secret,” he said. One that 100 million shoppers — one in every three Americans — share every week.

“We really do think of Wal-Mart as evil, but we go there anyway,” a young stay-at-home mother told Anderson.

The perception of low prices kept her coming back, but she found the messy, warehouselike atmosphere stressful and negative.

Other shoppers had similar responses. They liked the value, but not necessarily the store.

Few lingered to browse. One woman Anderson followed was so determined to keep her time in Wal-Mart to a minimum that she regularly drew up maps marking items she needed to maximize efficiency.

He asked one regular shopper: If Wal-Mart was a person you knew, what kind of person would it be?

“An acquaintance,” she said.

Target shoppers had a totally different take. When Anderson asked the same question of regular Target shoppers, they were universally positive. One said, “a very good friend.”

One said, “We’d be in love.”

Anderson followed up the question by asking if a scandal, or negative press would change the relationship.

“Don’t even talk like that,” a shopper said.

“That makes me not like you very much.”

Larger studies reinforce Anderson’s. Customers rated Target and Wal-Mart in a 2003 Lehman Brothers study. Wal-Mart scored higher in good prices and variety, while Target scored higher in quality, trendiness, fun, ease and atmosphere.

“Wal-Mart has the feel of a bazaar or market place — a place you go to get deals.

“You may not like the place, but you like the deals,” Anderson said as he walked down a Wal-Mart aisle choked with pallets of merchandise with carts darting everywhere and the squawk of the intercom echoing off the high ceiling.

“Target is different. It has a personality. It’s cool. It’s helpful. It shows the love.”

In return, Target shoppers tend to show loyalty. When Anderson asked one Target shopper where she would shop if she was a millionaire, she said, “I think I’d try (local gourmet shop) Par Avion. Looks like a cool place. Then I would probably come back here. I definitely would.”

A short drive after leaving Wal-Mart, Anderson walked into a Super Target. The aisles had a neat, sleek order. The lighting was brighter. Even though the store was busy, the aisles seemed calm and quiet.

“Target seems more civilized . . . maybe it’s the lights, the color of the store, I don’t know, it just feels different,” said one regular Wal-Mart shopper who said he liked Target better, but hated shopping in general, so he just went to Wal-Mart.

While Anderson found that Wal-Mart shoppers hurry to get out, Target shoppers linger. They browse — especially in clothing and home decor where profit margins are high.

“Sometimes I’ll come here just to waste time,” said a mother of two who likes to look at Pottery Barn catalogues for decorating ideas, then buy similar items for less at Target.

Wal-Mart has tried to market similar “cheap chic” items, but sales have sagged behind expectations.

“People just don’t think of Wal-Mart as a place to buy things like that. We define ourselves often by what we buy, and sometimes you don’t want value to define you,” Anderson said.

One woman said she doesn’t buy clothes at Wal-Mart because she thinks they are poor quality. Anderson asked if she would reconsider if the store offered a cool, premium brand. She said, “Only if no one could tell it was from Wal-Mart.”

Even with the misgivings, Wal-Mart is still No. 1. Given a choice among Wal-Mart, Target and K-mart, 48 percent of Americans would shop at Wal-Mart according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports.

Only 30 percent picked Target.

Wal-Mart hopes to show the love by tailoring stores to fit specific local communities — Hispanics, African Americans, empty-nesters/boomers, the affluent, and suburban and rural shoppers, according to news reports.

In 2006, Wal-Mart opened an upscale store in a ritzy suburb of Dallas.

It sells microbrews and hundreds of types of wine (up to $500 a bottle), and has a coffee shop with Wi-Fi and a sushi bar.

Will it quell shoppers’ grumbling about the world’s largest retailer?

As he walked through the refrigerated aisle of Target, Anderson said it’s hard to know.

“Wal-Mart is so big, it’s like trying to have 50 best friends. No matter what you do, you can’t be as close as if you only have five.”

Suddenly he spotted a favorite brand of organic red pepper and corn chowder.

“Nice,” he said. “I think I’ll get this. My girlfriend always gets this at Whole Foods. But there, it’s, like, three bucks more.”

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0223 or dave.philipps@gazette.com

COMPARE

TARGET

Founded: 1962 in Roseville, Minn.

Stores: 1,684, making it the sixth-largest retailer in the U.S.

Median Target shopper: Age 41; household income of $58,000; about 80 percent are women.

Fact: Target does not play ambient music in its stores or sell tobacco. Unlike Wal-Mart, it sells “explicit” CDs and “racy” magazines such as Maxim and FHM.

WAL-MART

Founded: 1962 in Bentonville, Ark.

Stores: 3,348

Median Wal-Mart shopper: Age 43; household income of less than $40,000; 55 percent are women.

Fact: Along with being the largest discount retailer in the U.S., Wal-Mart is the No. 1 seller of groceries and toys.

SOURCE: the companies