…about Wegman’s. I’m sitting in a crappy hotel right across the street from a Wegman’s, in Ithaca, New York. Holy crap. Now THIS is a grocery store. I may not sample any of the local restaurants this week. :eek:
Yeah, it ain’t no Piggly Wiggly.
Welcome to the cult. 
Our neighbor had a very fussy mother-in-law from Scotland who was visiting for the first time. There was nothing, NOTHING, they showed her that impressed her at all. The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, one of the finest art collections in the country? “Eh, I’ve seen art before.” The city parks, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, one of the most extensive extant examples of the City Beautiful movement? “Eh, I’ve seen parks before” NIAGARA FALLS, a natural wonder of the world? “Eh, I’ve seen waterfalls before.” (Okay, maybe you’re not into art or parks, but freaking Niagara Falls? Really?)
On her last day, the neighbor needed to run into Wegman’s. “Oooooh,” says the mother-in-law, “now THIS is something!” They practically had to drag her out.
I’m slightly relieved by the fact that their pizza is not that great. The sauce is meh.
Go to the bulk section and see if they have sponge candy. Mmmmmm…
Ah, yes. The sponge candy. I remember that. My college girlfriend lurved some Wegmans sponge candy.
I’m slightly relieved that the OP was not another revolting fan tribute to the New York Yankees.
Some of them ol’ Yankee stores ain’t you mamma’s Winn Dixie.
There are some pretty impressive supermarkets scattered across the country though. Most of them are pretenders compared to Jungle Jim’s outside of Cincinnati however. “With 1 1/2 acres of produce, 50,000 international products and cigars from 70 countries, there is so much to discover.” I met Jungle Jim himself and that guy doesn’t play around. Who else would grow a vegetable stand into a mega-market by constantly expanding it and decide it really needs a train to move people around in it?
So, for those of use who’ve never had the chance to visit a Wegman’s, what it is that makes them special?
Hype.
Lots and lots and lots of food.
Interesting. Why do you say that?
Wegman’s is one of two things I miss about Rochester. (The other is Nick Tahou’s, after a bender.)
The cheese bar. The bakery. They were the reason my mother stopped making turkey and started buying it every Thanksgiving.
I love, LOVE, Weg’s. Plus, when I used to go to some of the stores in NY, I got to shake Danny Wegman’s hand. Twice. Because he made visit’s and said, “Thank you for shopping at our supermarket. Is there anything you’d like to see?”
For me, and other people may have different views, the things I like most about Wegmans are:
Produce - Wegmans routinely stocks vegetables that I had previously only seen in ethnic shops, and often better quality than the ethnic shops could stock. For that matter, the quality of the produce in general is excellent, and was a revelation to me when I first started shopping in Wegmans.
Variety - Wegmans stores tend to be huge compared to supermarkets I’d grown up with. I currently shop at Rochester’s East Ave store, which is one of the smallest stores in the chain, and it has 42,000 square feet. It has recently gotten approval for an expansion, to a new building which will be 105,000 square feet. With that kind of space available there is room to stock a large number of specialty items. It’s the only chain I’ve ever seen that offers, for example, a selection of sushi nori, instead of one single brand.
Convenience - Wegmans is open 24/7. They close for Thanksgiving, and again for Christmas. Now, granted, you can’t go in at three AM and expect to pick up fresh sliced deli meats, or medications. Most of the individual departments within the store do close for the night. But you can pick up fresh produce anytime, fresh meats from the meat case, a variety of cheese, and any of the dry goods.
The stores also have a number of prepared food stations that range from acceptable to very good. A recent innovation has been the development of what they call their $6 meals, consisting of an entree, and two sides, for six bucks.
On top of all this, the stores are pleasantly lit - bright enough that there are no shadows hiding things on the shelves, but not so bright as to make the store feel like it’s trying to evoke a hospital (the impression I have from their major competitor locally, Tops Friendly Markets.). In my experience the stores are also cleaner than most of the supermarkets I grew up with.
Sure, but it’s not so convenient if you can’t actually FIND the thing you’re looking for. I don’t impulse buy, and not having the items logically located and changing them around every two months does not make for a quick in-and-out experience.
Other than that, yeah, Wegman’s rocks.
I went to the Wegman’s in Fairfax, VA a few months after they opened and was a little underwhelmed. It is approximately 24 miles from my house, so unless there was something spectacular, I wouldn’t be going there regularly. The prepared food bar was nice, the produce was good, but overall I didn’t see many things that I would buy that I couldn’t find at a Whole Foods a lot closer to where I live. If there were one within two miles, I would probably be more likely to go, but there is a glut of interesting supermarkets in the DC area.
Wegmans is often close to Tops’ prices on most items, too. Of course if you go to Wegmans you’re probably going to end up buying dozens of items you didn’t really need, so it seems like you’re spending more.
Really Wegmans just does everything a supermarket should do, very well, and more of it than everyone else. They treat their staff well (they’re consistently in Forbes’ list of “Top 10 Companies in America to Work For”), so they treat you well too. I once heard their CEO Danny Wegman give a brief lecture, and his main thrust was “if you do things the right way and treat your employees right, you will succeed.” Perhaps it’s more a bad mark on other grocery stores that they don’t do things the right way and treat their employees as expendable cogs.
Ogre! If you are in Ithaca, you MUST go to Rumble Seat Musicand tell me about all the great old gear they have there!!
My local Wegs is so-so on the standard grocery items. For example, they don’t carry my favorite brand of not-from-concentrate OJ. But for fresh meats and especially for fresh seafood, they are the tops in quality, no contest.