Wegmans Bails on Cary, N.C., Project: Reports

Wegmans Food Markets has pulled the plug on a proposed store in Cary, N.C., saying that two existing stores in the area—each bolstered by a wider reach from online ordering and delivery—has allowed the chain to “plan our growth differently than we have in the past,” a local news outlet reported this week.

Wegmans had entered into an agreement to build a store as part of the Fenton Development more than four years ago, the News & Observer reported. “Since then, we’ve opened stores in Raleigh, West Cary and Chapel Hill, and will be opening another store in Wake Forest this spring,” the company told the news outlet in a statement. “Online shopping has grown tremendously, fueled in part by COVID-19, enabling us to serve customers in a much greater radius than was originally projected. This has allowed us to plan our growth differently than we have in the past.”

The report indicated that developers still planned to incorporate a grocery store as part of the project, a mixed-use development that was expected to build out over several years.

Rochester, N.Y.-based Wegmans charged into North Carolina for the first time in 2019 when it opened a store in Raleigh. Its arrival came not long after Publix Super Markets made its first arrival in the Tar Heel State.