My wonderful +1 and I decided we'd skip our usual trip to Super H and go to Wegmans because a co-worker had told her how wonderful it was and what a marvelous shopping experience...etc, etc, ad infinitum..first, it took 20 minutes to find a parking space within a short cab ride to the door. Secondly, we had to dodge a huge number of flying Loudon valley cart drivers who were obviously getting ready for the Monday morning commute and demolition derby and then we went looking for food we like to eat. Ever try to find tofu in Wegmans? It's in the organic food section...why is it in the organic food section? It's the only tofu they have. Now, I don't know about you, but we're used to being able to select from 5 different types of tofu from 10 different tofu makers. We're not vegans but tofu is very important in our (Asian) diet. Next we went looking for tomato sauce...needless to say, things were placed in totally non-related areas, and the layout of the aisles left a tad to be desired. Maybe Wegmans is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it was the first, last and only time we have gone there.

I thought I was the only person in the greater DC metro area who felt that way. Escoffier, I'd like to shake your hand someday... Wegman's is a waste of time and space.

Not that it sounds like you have plans to go back... but it sounds like the trip wasn't recent, since there's now a Wegmans 10 minutes up the street from Super H.

I have to agree that their store organization leaves much to be desired - and it's not as though I've only ever shopped at Giant. I've been to grocery stores up and down the East Coast, and have never had similar problems finding basic items at, say, a Publix or a Genuardi's. Harris Teeter, though, has some of the same product-location problems - not to mention the almost-four-bucks-a-gallon milk.

It also sounds like you probably went there on a weekend which, as I mentioned upthread, is a suicide mission. I almost had to brain a few dozen people when the +1 and I hit the Dulles one on the Sunday of its opening weekend: according to the employees we've asked, the level of weekend nutsitude has never really decreased from that point, which is why we only go there during the week.

P.S. Super H = love. I wish I could get the +1 to head out there more often!

And you shop for your groceries at...? I assume you must have better options near you, then.

Much smaller stores, generally. And specialty shops.

I'm just generally irritated by the whole "bigger is better" thing, so I'm not inclined to like Wegman's. I couldn't buy a quart of milk there. Gallons, yes. But no quarts. I found the cheese counter to be much worse than WF - and yes, I know about how WF treats their cheeses. The store layout is irritating. It's just too damn big. And illogical. I found the bakery items to be utterly boring - reminded me of grocery-store baked goods from my childhood, all shortening and sugar and no taste. I haven't found a prepared food there yet that I like (I do occasionally go for lunch, for reasons that are irrelevant to this discussion). I guess I did pick up some nice steaks once, to be fair.

Overall, most importantly, in several trips I found the quality of their goods no better than any other place, but they were much harder to find and it took me a long time to get out, so there's no reason for me to shop there.

Are their prices significantly better? They'd have to be one hell of a lot better for me to put up with the inconvenience (assuming I lived near one, which I don't).

Wegman's has its demographic, and I don't begrudge anyone that. If I had five kids who brought home their soccer teams once a week, I might very well get a Chevy Suburban Subdivision and load up at Wegman's. But I don't.

Nah, you'd go to Costco for that.

I don't shop at Wegman's mostly because it's a 60-mile round trip from my house to the Sterling location, and I don't even know where the Fairfax one is. I don't have time for that.

Oh Wegmans... a few weeks ago I trekked out to the Fairfax Wegmans. The store is very pleasant to visit but I have to be honest I was not pleased with the produce when I got home... the apples I bought had an undertone of cherries, fine for a wine to have undertones but I want my apples to taste like apples. The cereal I bought also had a faint taste of something else until I let it air overnight but the real kicker just happened.... my Goya black beans were fermented in the can. I have been eating Goya black beans for YEARS and have never had such a problem.

Just because a grocery store looks good doesn't mean it is good. I'll not trek to Wegmans again.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but your logic is a bit difficult to follow. The apples and cereal aside ("undertones of cherries" in my apples sounds fine to me; what sort of cereal was it, Wegman's brand or a regular brand?), but to blame the store for a problem with branded beans seems, at a minimum, a stretch. How is it that a bad can of Goya beans says anything about the store where it was purchased? Are you proposing that markets should open all canned goods and inspect them before placing them on the shelves?

Wegman's Obit

I found his treatment of Wegman's employees to be remarkable. I wish all employers would take a page from his book. At least we now know why they aren't too anxious to expand and I don't expect that we will see one in the City.

I don't know if this is good news, but Wegmans has announced it's going to open a 140,000 sf store in Anne Arundel County in...2009. (For the benefit of the three people who read this who know where Anne Arundel County is, the exact location is in the Village at Waugh Chapel on the west side of the Rt. 3 corridor north of Crofton.)

VERY stoked to have Vegman's within a decent driving distance. Especially since it's not Monkey County and they'll probably sell wine.

Hope you're right, but the Wegmans in Hunt Valley (north of Baltimore) doesn't have a wine department - it might be a Maryland thing...

No wine in Maryland grocery stores - the only exceptions I know of are a couple of grandfathered drug stores in downtown Baltimore (the RiteAid on Baltimore St. near St. Paul comes to mind - great in a pinch for office happy hours, but being only a block from "the Block" you can imagine the general selection.)

Sorry if someone else has already written about this......but has anyone heard a rumor about Wegmans coming to Alexandria? I heard that they are looking at the site on Rt 1 in FX County where the old Micheal's used to be (and where Chucky Cheese still sits).

Looks like whatever computer Don used to generate his definitive list of great restaurants in Crystal City has made its way to the cake-baking department at Wegman's.



Hee hee.

Twenty years ago, when I worked as a typesetter, we called this "following the copy out the window."

The Fairfax Wegman's has really been ramping up their meat selection. In the past month they've consistently had foie, quail, pheasant, duck, beef tongue, veal sweetbreads, veal breast, rabbit... it's a regular meatatarian's paradise.

As I recall, that Wegman's carries pretty much the entire D'Artagnan line of products. Were all of the most unusual items D'Artagnan products, was there another branded line, or were these packaged in-store? Beef tongue and veal breast can be found in an old-fashioned butcher shop or gotten from a meat wholesaler. Maybe sweetbreads, too. But not foie gras, pheasant or quail.