From the Publisher: Talk of the town

As more consumers get to partake in the Wegmans Experience, word-of-mouth advertising is helping to spread the word on the chain. How much? Towns are actually fighting for their own Wegmans store. Montville N.J. is just 20 miles, a vowel and consonant away from Montvale, N.J., close enough to cause a lot of problems for the U.S. Postal Service and GPS systems worldwide. Montville, my hometown, is a quiet, bucolic area. Much larger and better-known Montvale is home to several Fortune 500 companies. Montvale always seems to have an edge over Montville. Unfortunately, the people who live in Montvale are soon going to have one more thing to crow about. As part of its patient, but consistent growth program, Wegmans announced last year that they will soon open a spanking new store in Montvale. That has many of my neighbors quite jealous. Since the company’s announcement, I have heard many people in my town complain that they do not have a Wegmans nearby. One guy even suggested that people in the community start a petition, asking the chain’s top officials to consider the area for future growth and stating that he knew of a great location within the town for one of their new stores. Others scan newspapers, hoping that the chain will announce more store openings, including one in our town. As we discuss in this month’s cover story, my neighbors in Montville are not alone. Wegmans is the talk of the town throughout much of the Northeast and the envy of much of its competition. As the chain expands its territory in states such as Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland, the clamor from communities in those areas for their own store also continues to grow. What is Wegmans’ secret? Actually, as our article states, it is really no secret at all. The key to Wegmans’ success is a combination of savvy merchandising, marketing and product assortment. The chain simply does a great job winning consumers over through its various service departments. The variety is superb, the quality great and the presentation spectacular. Yet, there is a lot more to this chain. Interestingly, Wegmans often receives accolades from the media for employee relationships, consistently finishing near the top of surveys on how workers are treated and what benefits they receive. It is a much-utilized theory that works: Treat your employees well and they will treat your customers well. Consumers and suppliers say that Wegmans does have some issues. Some vendors complain that the Rochester, N.Y.-based chain pays too much attention to its high-margin, attention-getting service and produce departments and not enough to its center store operation, where space is tight and assortment is limited. Some consumers say that prices can bounce around, leaving cost-conscious shoppers confused about pricing and sometimes hesitant to keep going back. Some even complain that the product assortment could be more consistent. Yet in the end, Wegmans has emerged as arguably the best-run supermarket operation in the country. The biggest problem may be for the chain’s officials to figure a way to satisfy the growing list of supporters who want to shop there.