WEGMANS OPENS ITS FIRST LIQUOR STORE IN N.J.

BARBARA MURRAY

PRINCETON, N.J. -- Wegmans Food Markets is opening its first wine and liquor store this month in the Nassau Park Pavilion shopping center here, SN has learned.

According to personnel in the West Windsor Township office, a temporary certificate of occupancy was issued Jan. 9, allowing the chain to stock shelves and open for business. The 13,375-square-foot store is located next to a Wegmans supermarket.

"For West Windsor it is a first," said Sharon Young, township clerk. ShopRite has its own wine and liquor store in the shore area, where it is more common for grocery stores to also operate wine and liquor shops.

Wegmans' spokeswoman Jo Natale told SN this location is the "first opportunity" the chain has had to open a wine and liquor store, since its stores in Pennsylvania and New York cannot. New Jersey law prohibits selling wine and liquor in the supermarket, although grocery stores can sell beer.

Wegmans has other units in New Jersey, in Bridgewater and Manalapan, but Natale couldn't say whether wine and liquor stores are planned there.

Wegmans had left room in the front facade of the store here when it was built in 1999, but enclosed the back recently to open the new store.

Besides Wegmans, the shopping center also has a Target and a Kohl's department store.