I had a cousin who lived with her family in suburban Rochester, NY for a number of years, and living not far away from them was a longtime work colleague of mine. For years I had talked about visiting my cousin, then riding with my colleague up to Montreal when we were going to have a company meeting. Unfortunately, my colleague got a divorce, moved to Vermont and remarried; and my cousin and her husband semi-retired to North Carolina about seven years ago. And on top of all that, I changed jobs and no longer work for the company out of Montreal. One of the other reasons I wanted to go to Rochester was because I wanted to visit the flagship store for Wegmans, an upscale - yet value-added - grocery store chain of dry goods, meat products and produce along with a number of food stations, a large in-house baked goods area, and an impressive wine/beer/liquor section with over 110 locations along the Eastern Seaboard.
I think it was my cousin who first told me about Wegman's which actually started in Rochester over 100 years ago. John "Jack" Wegman and his younger brother Walter worked in the Wegman family's grocery store in Rochester - it was actually attached to the front end of the Wegman house. Jack was in charge of produce while Walter worked in the market.
In 1916, Jack Wegman struck out on his own and started Rochester Fruit and Vegetable Company selling produce that he would buy from farmers in the morning, then sell off a cart in the afternoon into the evening. The following year, Walter joined his brother in the business and the two continued to sell produce from a cart until 1921 when they bought a grocery store in downtown Rochester.
In 1930, the Wegmans opened their first "showcase" store, a 20,000 square foot store with a cafeteria that seated up to 300 people. They were the first to initiate an overhead water vapor system to keep produce moist and fresh. The Wegmans store was also one of the first stores to install glass-enclosed refrigerated meat counters allowing customers to visually pick out the cut of meat they desired rather than the butcher making the choice for them.
Walter's son Robert was born in 1918 and joined his father and uncle in the business in his mid-teens. When Walter passed away in 1936 at the too-young age of 45, Robert joined the company a year later after graduating from high school. Not only did Robert attend college at Niagara University, he continued to work in the store when he could learning the ropes from his uncle and helping out in the accounting department.
After graduating from Niagara, Robert came back to work at the family grocery store for a couple years before joining the Marine Corps during the height of World War II serving a 3-year stint until after the war was over. In 1946, Robert came back to Rochester and worked as a meat cutter at Wegmans, then later became a store manager.
In 1949, Robert Wegman implemented the first "self-serve" grocery store where people were free to pick out their own produce, dairy products, dry goods, and wrapped meats - all under one roof! At the time it was a novel and somewhat revolutionary concept in grocery shopping as up to then people usually had to go to a stand-alone butcher for meat, a stand-alone produce store, and have their dairy products delivered to their house.
When Jack Wegman died in 1950 at the age of 57, Robert Wegman took over the company's reins from his uncle who had no children. One of the first things Robert Wegman did was to raise wages across the board for his employees and later implemented a health-care program and retirement benefits for Wegmans workers. He also got rid of the company "hierarchy" by firing his octogenarian mother Marion who was the company's vice-president. (It was said that Marion never spoke to her son again up to her death three years later.)
Pictured right - Robert B. Wegman. Photo courtesy Wegmans.
From there, Robert Wegman established the concept of a grocery "superstore" with a number of services available under one roof. Wegmans soon put in pharmacies, photo labs, cheese counters, and restaurant-quality prepared foods in their stores. They even started a "kiddies corner" in Wegmans stores to allow parents to shop while the kids were entertained in their own little section of the store.
Known as a philanthropist, Robert Wegman was a charitable person who gave away an estimated 70% of his income to community ventures and causes around Rochester. Wegmans was also one of the first grocery stores to donate unsaleable food products to shelters and non-profit organizations. Robert and his wife Peggy were also benefactors to Catholic schools in and around Rochester, donating millions of dollars over the years to the Diocese of Rochester.
In 1964, Robert's son Danny joined the company, and in 1969 Robert was named the CEO of Wegmans. In 1976, Danny Wegman was named the new president of Wegmans and continued in that position until 2005 when Robert Wegman elevated Danny to CEO with Robert as the company's chairman. Following Robert's passing in 2006, Danny became the chairman of Wegmans installing his daughter Colleen - who had taken over as Wegmans president - as the CEO while keeping her title of president of the company. Danny's other daughter Nicole is president of the Wegmans brands of in-house restaurants and food services.
For a number of years, Wegmans has set the gold standard among grocery stores across the United States. Consistently named among the top 2 or 3 grocery store chains in the country, Wegman's has also been named over 25 straight years to Forbes magazine's 100 Best Companies to Work For listing. (Wegmans was 4th in the 2023 Forbes survey.) J.D. Power has also named Wegmans as having among the highest ratings in annual customer satisfaction surveys over the years.
Wegmans started their first in-house restaurant - Tastings - in 2002 at their Pittsford, NY flagship store in suburban Rochester. A number of other restaurant concepts have been established by Wegmans, both inside and just outside their stores up and down the east coast. In 2014, Wegman's opened their first Burger Bar restaurant, a fast-casual counter-only burger joint that is now in 16 of their stores, including the one I recently visited in Raleigh. Each location has their own unique menu of burgers, sandwiches, and ice cream drinks including the Burger Bar in Raleigh. Some Burger Bar locations also offer beer on their menu.
In September of 2019, Wegmans opened their 100th location in Raleigh just off Wake Forest Road just south of Interstate 440 on the north side of the city. (see map) The 104,000 square foot store started off with 475 full and part-time workers - just a small part of over 50,000 Wegman workers at all their facilities across 8 states and Washington D.C.
On my recent trip to the Carolinas, I had set up an appointment with a potential account in Winston-Salem. I got in the night before and my cousin and her husband - who used to live outside of Rochester, NY - now live just outside of Winston-Salem. I went over to their house for dinner that night and during part of our conversation I casually mentioned something about whether they missed Wegmans. My cousin said, "Yeah, now they're an hour-and-a-half away from us instead of a 10 minute drive."
I was like, "Wait a minute... There are Wegmans in North Carolina?" She told me that there were a couple in the Chapel Hill/Cary area and a couple more over in the Raleigh area. Well, I was staying in Raleigh the next evening and I made sure that I would have a bit of time to kill on my way from Raleigh to appointments in South Carolina. After getting up early and leaving the hotel to start my travels that day, I went to the Wegmans location just off I-440 in the Midtown East Shopping Center. It was about a 10 minute drive from my hotel to the store and I gave myself a 30 minute time limit to look around the place.
From the first few steps inside a Wegmans for the first time in my life, I knew that 30 minutes was probably not going to be enough time. The grocery store was unlike many - if any - I have seen in my travels. The store was designed to resemble a European open-air market with soft spotlights suspended from trusses rather than the soul-zapping fluorescent lighting you find in most grocery stores.
The lighting scheme made it so that colors literally jumped out. It was a warm and soothing atmosphere in which to shop. My wife hates to shop in "super-store" grocery stores, but I think she would have found Wegmans a place that was laid-back and easy to get around.
The sushi counter at Wegman's was a beehive of activity. Workers were preparing sushi-to-go platters for the lunch crowd coming in later that day. Wegman's sushi counter also had fresh poké, sushi rolls and vegetarian rolls to choose from. Looking at the operation, I would have no problem picking up sushi from the counter at Wegmans.
Just across the way from the sushi counter, Wegmans seafood market was nestled in between the bakery and produce sections of the store. The seafood counter put to shame some stand-alone seafood stores that I've been to in my travels. Fresh fish - including cod, haddock, salmon, tuna and swordfish - were lying on beds of crushed ice in the counter. Fresh shrimp, clams, oysters, and scallops were also available. Many seafood items were also available in the freezer area in the store.
Speaking of the bakery, the smell of fresh baked bread and pastries drew me closer to the cases. Artisan breads and rolls - baguettes, Italian loaves, dark pumpernickel bread, and sourdough rolls - filled the racks in the bakery area. Self-serve donuts, bagels, croissants and Danish pastries were there for the grabbing. Further down the way, cakes, brownies, cupcakes, pies and desserts were available. Wegmans bakery also had gluten-free and school-safe baked goods to choose from. It was almost dizzying the amount of baked goods they had to offer.
Across from the sushi counter and the Burger Bar in the Raleigh Wegmans was a sandwich counter and next to it a pizza counter. Wegmans is known for their legendary submarine/deli sandwiches which many people have said are much better than the usual suspects like Subway, Capriotti's, Jimmy John's or Jersey Mike's. (And we really like Jersey Mike's at our house.) When Wegmans opened their first location in Brooklyn, NY in 2019, they didn't include a sandwich counter. This brought loads of outrage including a scathing editorial from the prominent Grub Street blog which called upon Wegmans to "rip out whatever part of the store you have to in order to make it happen." Within a year, Wegmans had put in a sandwich counter for patrons to enjoy the mouthwatering sandwiches in the New York City borough.
Fresh baked breads, sliced meat and cheese, and fresh toppings with a choice of hot or cold subway sandwiches have been one of Wegman's hallmarks of their sandwich counter for years. For people who wanted to eat either a burger, sandwich or a pizza slice in the store, there was a dining area off to side by the Burger Bar at the Raleigh store.
The number of prepared foods that Wegman's offers was almost mind-boggling. Pizzas can be baked fresh while you're shopping, or you can get take-and-bake pizzas from a cooler nearby. (One of the pizzas I saw in the cooler was a mushroom, truffle, fresh mozzarella pizza.) Prepared meals such as chicken, beef, turkey and pulled pork with sides were available in a large open-air cooler just past the produce area. One of the more interesting items I found in the prepared food section was a Peruvian-style chicken breast with Tuscan potatoes and broccoli. I'm not certain I've ever seen a prepared meal like that at a Hy-Vee back in Iowa.
Toward the back of the store past the bakery was the meat counter at Wegmans. Compared to other counters in the store, I was a bit underwhelmed by what the Raleigh Wegmans had to offer in terms of meat. That's not to say that what they lacked in selection was made up for in the quality of the meat products in the section. Grass-fed beef, wagyu beef, brisket cuts, prime steaks and bison were available in the meat section. Game such as duck breasts, wild boar sausage, and rabbit fryers were also available. Lamb, venison, veal and kosher meats - something you don't regularly see at most grocery stores - were also available at the Wegmans in Raleigh.
Around the corner from the meat counter was a large cheese and charcuterie island. The array of cheese from boutique dairies from Europe, the Pacific Northwest and New England was beyond impressive. Blue cheese, fresh mozzarella, hard cheddar, and other block cheese was available in different sizes either pre-packaged or cut by a cheesemonger. Italian artisan meats, olives - both green and black - dips, paté, truffles and cheese spreads were part of many items for any party or gathering.
I realized that I had spent nearly 20 minutes just perusing the prepared foods section, sushi counter, the sandwich area, the bakery and meat departments before I even got to the cheese and charcuterie section, and there was really just one other place I wanted to check out. I took a cursory look down a couple of the grocery aisles as I walked toward the beer and liquor department.
Once again, I was more than impressed with the selection of beers - domestic, imports and craft beers - they had at the Wegmans in Raleigh. There was a large section of craft beers just from the state of North Carolina on the shelves and in the coolers. A lot of beers that are only available in the eastern part of the country - such as Genesee, Yuengling, and Utica Club - were in the beer section, as well. If I hadn't flown to North Carolina I would have stocked up on some of the varieties they had available to take home with me.
In addition to the great beer selection, I took a quick look at the liquor - mainly the tequila selections - and some of the wines that I recognized. Knowing the pricing of some of the liquor and wines available back home, I thought the pricing Wegmans had on those items was well in line with what I can find at some of the bigger wine, liquor and beer superstores I shop at when I go to Chicago, St. Louis and Minneapolis.
It was a whirlwind trip through the first Wegmans I've been able to visit. Although it wasn't the flagship Wegmans in Rochester like I had hoped to visit, I was still impressed with what I saw in the Raleigh location. In fact, they had Buffalo Bills shirts, hoodies and jerseys available at the Raleigh store - just like I'm sure they would have back in Rochester. I got a bit of a chuckle out of that when I was leaving, being that I was in the heart of Carolina Panthers country. While Wegmans continues to expand, I don't see them venturing further west than where they already have stores. I guess I'm going to have to drive east in my own car with a cooler and lot of room in the trunk if I want to bring anything home from a Wegmans anytime in the future.