The day nearly everyone’s been waiting for is almost here – the new Wegmans opens in Montgomery Township this Sunday.
The store will feature Wegmans’ usual offerings – a produce section with 700 items each day, of which 100 or so are organic; self-service bars, both hot and cold; and a vast array of fresh meat and seafood options – but will also include some never-before-seen additions. Many Wegmans stores include the Pub, a full-service restaurant and bar, but this Pub will bring something new. The restaurant will open with an all-new menu, with salads, sandwiches and more traditional pub foods, such as a fried haddock basket. ‘What we’ve tried to do is bring back those staple pub foods our customers were looking for,’ store Manager Keith Grierson said. The new menu will soon be brought to other Wegmans locations. Also unique to this location is an open-air cheese case. This is the fourth case of its kind to be introduced in Wegmans stores, but the first in Pennsylvania. The $60,000 case – called an ‘affinage’ case, meaning ‘to finish’ in French – is pumped with humidity, providing the ideal environment for keeping cheese moist and ripe. It will house unwrapped cheeses, allowing customers to sample the cheese and watch it being cut in front of them. The cheese department also offers two washed cheeses that are exclusive to the store. The five-day process of washing cheese involves handpainting the cheese with bourbon or brandy and storing it in a special cage to perfectly ripen. In the past, Wegmans stores have featured a variety of nut and grain products. For the first time, these popular items are being combined in a ‘Nuts, Fruits, Grains and More’ bar. The idea behind this new section is to bring similar products into one place, making it easier for customers to find and compare all their options. The nut bar also includes a trail mix bar, where customers can customize trail mix with all their favorites. While other supermarkets may be all out of pumpkin beers post-Halloween, Wegmans will offer these seasonal brews until they’re sold out. In total, the store features more than 500 different beers. The Montgomeryville store is the first to be placed in a shopping mall, rather than a strip mall or shopping plaza. The goal is to provide ‘one-stop shopping,’ Grierson said. Customers can buy food and grocery items at Wegmans and then head over to Montgomery Mall to take advantage of its products and services. What all Wegmans have in common is incredible customer service, the freshest and finest products and ‘consistent low prices,’ said Jo Natale, Wegmans director of media and consumer relations. Unlike traditional stores that have higher prices and then choose certain items to go on sale each week, Wegmans has lower prices all the time, Natale said. ‘Our customers don’t want to shop for sales,’ she said. ‘They want to buy what they want, when they want it.’ The store also features ‘Family Pack’ items: products throughout the store sold in bulk. ‘It’s the things that we know people buy in bulk – it makes sense for families,’ Natale said. When the Montgomeryville location opens at 7 a.m. this Sunday, Grierson expects 1,000 people to be waiting at its doors. He estimates that by the end of the day, the store will have served 10,000 customers. Follow Victoria Wolk on Twitter at @VictoriaWolk.
