Wegmans Super Kids Market Exhibit Opens at the National Museum of Play

The grand reopening of the newly renovated and expanded Wegmans Super Kids Market exhibit takes place Saturday, June 29. The exhibit’s updated brick store façade now sports the signature Wegmans clock tower and new second story windows. Once inside, updated graphics, lighting, and new role-playing stations offer Wegmans Super Kids Market a fresh look and feel, and more fun ways to encourage kids to eat healthy. One of the most dramatic new features is the all-new Market Café replete with prepared meals, a sushi bar, and a coffee bar—just like the real grown-up Wegmans! The Market Café adds approximately 400 square feet of exhibit space. Kids can pretend to pick up a pizza or $6 meal for dinner and relax with a beverage at café tables. Kids can also visit the new Nature’s Marketplace and shop for organic and gluten-free products. An expanded toddler area has been transformed into a miniature organic farm including a scarecrow, vegetable garden, and pretend tractor. Little ones can pick, count, sort, and weigh veggies as they learn how fruits and vegetables go from ground to market. They can also gather eggs at the chicken coop, crawl through a raised hoop house (used for growing vegetables and extending the growing season), and sit under the apple tree. Little shoppers can still cruise the aisles with child-sized shopping carts; work at deli, meat, seafood, and bakery departments; make brick-oven pizzas; and scan bar-coded products at working check-out counters. They can also produce their own commercials and cooking shows in the WKID station. “My boys love visiting The Strong to ‘shop’ at Wegmans Super Kids Market, and I love that they are learning and having fun at the same time,” says Nicole Wegman, senior vice president of perishable merchandising at Wegmans. “It’s so important to help our children understand where food comes from and how to eat healthy. We are thrilled to be part of this wonderful exhibit.” With generous support from Wegmans, the original Super Kids Market opened at the National Museum of Play 15 years ago on May 15, 1997. Since then, it has grown from 2,200 square feet to 3,000 square feet and to six working check-out registers from the original three. The newly renovated Wegmans Super Kids Market is further supported by vendor sponsors that include LiDestri Foods, Inc.; Barilla America, Inc.; Zweigle’s, Inc.; General Mills; and GoGo squeeZ |Materne North America, whose products are on the shelves of the refreshed market.