Wegmans on the Move in Mid-Atlantic

On Nov. 4, Wegmans will open its newest store in Tysons, Va., its 13th location in the state. According to its website and confirmed by Wegmans are an additional nine stores planned for the Mid-Atlantic region, including Greenville, Del. (near Wilmington); Rockville, Md.; four stores in North Carolina (Cary, Chapel Hill, Holly Springs and Wake Forest); Alexandria and Reston, Va.; and Wisconsin Avenue and Rodman Street in Washington, D.C.

Is this Mid-Atlantic expansion part of a longer-term strategy for the Rochester N.Y.-based grocer?

“There are many factors that come into play when our real estate team researches new sites,” Wegmans’ Laura Camera told WGB in an email. “While we already have stores in the Maryland and Virginia area, we are excited to continue growing those markets. Building a new distribution center in Hanover County, Va., helps support our growth for the next decade and beyond.”

While some residents of Hanover County reportedly opposed the location of the new Wegmans distribution center slated for Ashland, Va., the approximately 1 million-square-foot center was approved by the Hanover County Board of Supervisors in May. The $175 million project is expected to create 700 new jobs in the area about 20 miles north of Richmond.

“This site has the right combination of everything we were looking for in terms of proximity to our stores and workforce and is located in a commonwealth that we have partnered with for many years,” President and CEO Colleen Wegman said at the time the distribution center was proposed in December 2019. “Once it’s up and running, this facility will allow us to deliver products to our southern-most stores with increased speed and freshness and will help support our growth well into the future.”

According to Wegmans’ website, it opens just two or three new stores each year. With the opening of the Tysons, Va., store next month, Wegmans will have opened three stores in 2020. Stores in Harrison, N.Y., and West Cary, N.C., opened earlier this year.

“Today, we have stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts and North Carolina,” says the company’s website. “You’ll see from our list of future projects that our new store growth is concentrated in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, though we will continue to upgrade or replace older stores in our more mature markets, like New York.”