Wegmans

Wegmans Food Markets is a family-owned grocery chain based in Rochester, New York, United States. The company was founded in 1916 by John and Walter Wegman and currently has 101 locations. Wegmans stores have often been renowned for their esteemed employment system and large stores with wide assortments of product.

Early History

The exterior of a typical Wegmans pictured in May 2018 in Hunt Valley, Maryland. The signage was updated to the current logo shortly after the photo was taken.

Wegmans was founded in 1916 as the Rochester Fruit and Vegetable Company, out of the Wegman family's house in Rochester. The two brothers became known as innovators in the grocery business, and in the early 1930s, they opened a self-service grocery, a new concept that would revolutionize food shopping. The new store was incorporated in 1931 as Wegmans Food Markets, Inc.

In 1932, Wegmans introduced refrigerated display windows and vaporized water sprays to keep produce fresh, two things unique to Rochester supermarkets at the time. Frozen (then known as frosted) foods were introduced to their stores in 1940. All stores were converted to self-service in 1949.

In 1953, the company announced a series of broad programs of employee benefits for their more than 350 full-time employees, including an employee profit-sharing plan the following year.

An older Wegmans store in East Rochester, New York, pictued in June 2019. Opened in 1958, this store is currently the longest-running store in the chain.

In 1957, the company opened a store in Newark Plaza, Wayne County, the first shopping plaza and supermarket developed outside of Monroe County by Wegmans Enterprises. It was the eleventh and largest supermarket in Wegmans’ chain, and the largest supermarket in Newark at the time. Features of the 25,000 square foot store included a Kiddie Corner, “electric eye” checkout desks and “magic carpet” self-opening doors.

Expansion

In 1965, the chain expanded beyond the Rochester area, with a store in Hornell in the Southern Tier of New York State, then 1968 in Syracuse, and again in 1977 with its first Buffalo store. The first store outside New York opened in 1993 in Pennsylvania and the expansion continued into New Jersey in 1999, Virginia in 2004, and Maryland in 2005. As a part of the company's continued expansion efforts, Wegmans opened its fifth Maryland location in Columbia on June 17, 2012. Its sixth Maryland location opened in Crofton on October 28, 2012, followed by a Germantown location on September 15, 2013. Wegmans opened a store at the Montgomery Mall in North Wales, Pennsylvania, on November 3, 2013, the first store to be part of a shopping mall since the closing of the Midtown Plaza store in Rochester.

Wegmans, having long planned to expand into New England, opened their first store in that region in Northborough, Massachusetts, on October 16, 2011. 2014 saw Wegmans opening two more Massachusetts stores, in Newton, Chestnut Hill on April 27, and in Burlington on October 26. Its fourth Massachusetts store opened in Westwood on October 11, 2015. The eighth Maryland store opened in Owings Mills, Maryland in September 2016. In late 2016, Wegmans opened Virginia stores in Short Pump (August), Midlothian, and Charlottesville (November). The Hanover Township, New Jersey location opened in July 2017. The Montvale, New Jersey location opened in September 2017. The Medford, Massachusetts location opened on November 5, 2017. The Natick, Massachusetts location opened on April 29, 2018. The Chantilly, Virginia location opened on June 3, 2018. The Lancaster, Pennsylvania location opened on September 23, 2018. The Virginia Beach, Virginia location opened on April 28, 2019. The chain's first store in North Carolina, located in Raleigh, opened on September 29, 2019. It was also the chain's 100th store. The chain's first location in New York City, at Admiral's Row in Brooklyn's Navy Yard, opened on October 27, 2019.

The Harrison, New York location, in Westchester County, was originally scheduled to open on June 7, 2020, however, it was postponed to a date to be announced due to the coronavirus pandemic. The West Cary, North Carolina location is scheduled to open on August 2, 2020 and the Tysons Corner, Virginia location is scheduled to open in Fall 2020. Eleven other locations are currently in the works, including Middletown, New Jersey; four other locations in North Carolina, which are in Cary, Chapel Hill, Wake Forest and Holly Springs; Arcola, Virginia; a second Alexandria location in Carlyle; Washington, DC, in the Fannie Mae section; Rockville, Maryland; Reston, Virginia; Annapolis, Maryland; and Greenville, Delaware, the chain's first location in that state.

In March 2020, Wegmans announced partnership of its new Brooklyn store with Instacart to extend its reach to include all Manhattan ZIP codes.

Operations

A Wegmans store in Liverpool, New York.

Most of Wegmans' newer stores are of the superstore or megamarket type, with a large area, a variety of foods aimed at an upscale clientele, and, in many stores, Market Café in-store dining areas. From 2002–2009, Wegmans owned and operated Tastings, a full-service restaurant at its Pittsford, New York store. Tastings was replaced with The Food Bar, a "seafood shack"-styled restaurant in the same space; and later with The Burger Bar, serving hamburgers. Next Door by Wegmans, a stand-alone restaurant operated by Wegmans, opened across the street from the Pittsford store in 2009.

In January 2007, Wegmans announced two business ventures: (1) opening a 19,000 sq ft (1,800 m²) liquor store in Pittsford (adding to its two existing wine centers, in Virginia and New Jersey); and (2) the creation of a $28 million Culinary Innovation Center in Chili, New York, a corporate research and development facility, including a new central kitchen, replacing some of the operations at its meat center. The liquor store opened in April 2008 as Century Pittsford Wines. The store is 45,000 sq ft (4,200 m²). This business model has been replicated at three other New York Wegmans locations, in Buffalo, DeWitt and Johnson City. Ownership of each liquor store is held by a different member of the Wegman family due to New York State regulations prohibiting individuals or corporations from owning multiple liquor stores.

Wegmans offers a pick-up service called "Personal Shopping" at select locations. In June 2017, Wegmans partnered with Instacart to provide home delivery service.

On January 30, 2016, Wegmans celebrated its 100th anniversary.

In February 2020, Wegmans announced its Brooklyn store would offer grocery delivery to Manhattan residents, an expansion on their Instacart partnership. Delivery fees start at $3.99, and Manhattan customers are given a two to five hour delivery window.

In April 2020, in response to the Covid-19 outbreak, Wegmans began limiting the number people in their stores, provided their employees with masks and installed plexiglass shields at all checkout areas.

Chase-Pitkin Home and Garden Centers

Main article: Chase-Pitkin

Wegmans was the parent company of Chase-Pitkin, a regional home improvement retailer. On October 4, 2005, Wegmans announced that it would close all Chase-Pitkin stores by early 2006 and focus on its supermarket operations. The decision to exit the home improvement business was reportedly due to the increasing dominance of national chains such as Lowe's and The Home Depot.

Discontinuation of tobacco products

In January 2008, Wegmans announced that it would no longer sell tobacco products because of their negative effects on human health and the environment and would offer smoking cessation programs to all employees. The decision drew praise from the American Lung Association of New York State, which presented Wegmans with the "Lung Champion Award".

Wegmans brand

A bottle of ketchup with both the Organic and Food You Feel Good About banners.

Wegmans began branding some products in 1979, offering basic commodities at a lower price than national brands. The Wegmans brand has gradually expanded. In 1992, it began a line of healthy products, Food You Feel Good About. Wegmans brand products marked with the Food You Feel Good About banner indicate that the product does not contain artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives. The next sub-brand to be launched was Italian Classics, in 1995; it introduced pastas, canned tomatoes, and olive oils imported from Italy. In 2002, Wegmans launched a line of organic products. Organic Wegmans brand products are labeled with a green leaf.

References

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Wegmans, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors).