Hellooo Wegmans!

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Ultramatic

Ultramatic

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New York City
 

 

We finally got a Wegmans in NYC. They opened last Sunday to utter mobs of customers. People were lining up at 4 am, in the rain. They came as far away as New Jersey, Long Island and Westchester county. I drove by on Sunday afternoon and there still was a long line to get in. I've always heard what a great supermarket it was in terms of variety, price and produce. And they treat their employees very well.

 

So I finally went today, it was still crowded, but no line to get in. It was indeed all I have heard of and more. I have never seen such a variety of first rate, quality cheeses, baked goods and prepared meals. While not as large as ShopRite in New Jersey, it was damn close. And far bigger than most supermarkets in my neighborhood. They even have a food court with various in house establishments offering hamburgers, Italian, Asian, Japanese etc. They have a huge, fish monger stall with employees yelling about the seafood and tossing fish around. Very much like a fish market of yore. Prices were quite good too. For example 3 dozen large eggs for $2.69, a gallon of milk $2.29. And the beauty of it all, it's so close to me. Just a 20 minute drive (with traffic) and plenty of parking.

 

So it's so long Aldi, adios ShopRite, auf wiedersehen Lidl. Hellooo Wegmans!

ultramatic-2019102913434609426_1.jpg
 
We're spoiled here...

had a Weggie's for 20 years, and rarely go anywhere else. Even here in smallish Bingo (Johnson City) it's almost always crowded, best time is Sunday AM. The huge flagship store in Syracuse (Fayetteville), similar to the one in Rochester, is also always busy. The eat-in food is as excellent, as is their vast selection of almost anything, and their vegs & fruits are top shelf. My only complaint is some meat isn't quite as primo as Costco's, imo, but then again we eat less of that than we used to.
 
Wegman's

is like the company I worked for when the founding family still owned it. A&P bought us in 1988, kept us going 20 more years. Then bought the 140 Pathmark stores.
Once the recession was in full tilt, those all closed, along with all of A&P.
The son of Erivan and Helga Haub, owners of the Haub/Tangleman group in Germany opened the Shoprite stores, but has already sold them. Tangleman bought A&P in 1974. The young wild Huntington Hartford nearly bankrupted them.
I got my pension plan financial letter today. Yes, am concerned now. 38.80% is in stocks, 17.90% in investment grade debt instruments, 10.10% in real estate, and 33.20% in other assets. On June 30, 2019, the fair market value of assets was $6,045,824,683. At the close of the fiscal year, in July 2016 it was funded at 104.5%. July of 2017 at 102.0%, and July of 2018 at 99.8% for the 2019 current fiscal yar.
Certain news souces tell us the economy is doing splendidly. I am not drawing on it yet. I could have been since age 55, but it is age penalized, so I am waiting until at least age 62. I have 31 years vested. Thankful I'm not on my own as a younger senior. Some lost all of almost all of their retirement from 2006 through 2010. Enron employees in Texas early as 2001.
234,657 are covered by our plan. 81,247 are current employees. 60,967 are retired and recieving benefits. 7.269 are beneficiaries of deceased employees collecting, and me and 85, 173 others are no longer employed and have rights to future benefits. That is due to all the above listed defunct banners, so there are more of us awaiting to draw than still employed.
 
Wegman's is the best grocery store I have ever shopped in. I worked for them for 5 years after retiring from Crayola. I would still be there if we did not move to Florida. There are no stores that come close to them here. Publix is the only store I shop in here. I hate Walmart and our Target does not have a full grocery department. Wegman's is in the Carolinas now and I spoke with one of the VP's that checked into the Disney Resort I work at and he said they will be in Florida at some point once the distribution system gets established in the south.
 
I live in Maryland and love going to wegmans for the things I can’t find in other stores. My husband worked there for a few years too. I hope they bring them to Long Island (where I’m originally from) such a wonderful store!
 
<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">As someone who has never been to New York City I automatically think everything looks like Madison Avenue or whatever street the Empire State Building is on. That's a very nice photo. What is that building behind the market? It looks like a big factory. There's a Wegman's about 4 miles south of me, an Aldi a little closer. Never been to either. I should plan a trip I guess. I've heard good things.</span>
 
 

 

Wegmans is located at the old Brooklyn Navy Yard. It's a sprawling site along the East River. The building you mentioned is actually new commercial construction. Quite honestly, unless I happen to be passing by, I won't be returning to Aldi's. While their low prices are consistent, their food isn't that great (the produce can be awful) and I really grew tired of their limited offerings. I do like their German, or "German Inspired" foods though. Lidl is far superior to Aldi's. Just as cheap, better selection, produce and an in house bakery. ShopRite is huge, and they do have good sales, but they can't touch Wegmans in terms of quality. I forgot to mention, Wegmans has excellent staff. Fast and polite, they really want to be of service. I haven't tried Wegmans meat department yet. So I can't say if they are superior to BJ's, Costco or Sams. Wegmans prepared foods are very good. I just had their black peppered steak with udon noodles. Damn tasty.

 

While I would never go to the lengths some Wegmans fans would go to (standing in line while it poured to get in) I am certainly smitten with them. They keep this up and they'll have me as a customer for life.

[this post was last edited: 10/30/2019-04:29]
 
Re; Wegmans expanding into Fla., etc.

I hope they are cautious in doing this. It will be tough to compete with Publix. They do a top notch job in the industry as well. The Borman's tried it by purchasing a few stores in Utah, and 2 others before the A&P aquisition. It used up a lot of capital. Perhaps it was part of the plan, so as not to be a monopoly locally and have the FTC block the merger/purchase which gave us a total of 140 stores in Metro Detroit, Pontiac, Flint, Ann Arbor, and Toledo Oh. in 1989.
Also in retrospect to my above post on the pension plan, secured through the UFCW, not the companies, as Kroger, etc. bought smaller chains up, they allowed former employees of theose to reaply for almost half their former wage and benefit compensation. This has also contributed to the employer part of pension contribution compared to old contract employees. Also Sundays have not been included in pension contributions since about 1988, when the double time pay scale had also been reduced to time and one half.
So, having been reared in a union family, (dad was a Teamster), but never a truck driver for decades, I'm glad my brother is back to work. While he is not employed directly by GM, he is a journeyman electrician in a GM plant. I admire him refusing to cross their picket line. They have some bills from a serious traffic accident
back in the summer.
 
Expansion...

Wegman's policy has long been to expand slowly and carefully. Even in large cities they generally have only a couple of stores and they also tend to put them in upscale-ish areas. This policy is smart imo. The NYC store is only their 100th I believe. When they started out they were more prolific, 14 locations in Rochester and 7 or 8 in Syracuse. You will get very good service, they're consistently voted one of the best employers in the USA, and offer very generous benefits to their employees, and you can tell they really appreciate working there, pretty unique these days! We don't mind paying a bit more for that reason, though for some staples like milk and OJ they are actually cheaper than the Weis and P-Chop here.
 
Oh for sure Roger!

Every store has a loss leader item or a few. Wegmans have been voted best to work for for at least 2 or 3 decades now. My company was the same. We were like family, and treated that way by the Bormans. Even auto show tickets each year. Hourly employees gave concessions to help out the companies finances in 1987, after a one week strike, which was mainly voted on to stop the two tier split in the labor force which failed. It made new hires under the new contract never reach top pay scale, or benefits. We had 4,000 full time employees, and 1,500 had to take a buy out or there woiuld have been lay off's. I think more actually took the buy out. The second was in 2005, or '06, which I wanted to take, so I could start a business of my own, as I had been demoted to hourly management because of some store closings. However, one of us was still in grad school, and I still needed the good insurance I had. So I stayed until we closed July 7, 2007. Hourly people got a 6 week severance, and slaried 30 weeks. Not too shabby, but that was deducted from our unemployment compensation, of course. I applied to every chain around immediatley. No offers for a job, as jobs were already very scarce.
So, rather than apply for my 12 week unemployment extension after the initial 20 weeks, I tried rebooting my career by taking a job with a small store. I couldn't get anything out of them after 2 years, and my folks were aging and ill, so I left to help them.
 
I contacted

my pesnion fund office this morning. If I draw soon, my benefit will not decrease unless the entire fund is bankrupt. If I wait until age 62, I'll get about a hundred extra per month. At 65, about $200 more. Adding my spouse will reduce it by about $200. They gave me the figures, and I had estimated it to almost within $50.
Will have to track the markets and spouses 401k before we decide.
I sold my dads IRA, and annuity I inherited in early March 2018 because they devalued a few grand since only the previous December. I just have one word to say.
"IDIOT" I can blame who I want to, incorrect or not.....................
Well, 2 words-----"Shtoinka".
 
Here in Connecticut, we are surrounded by Wegmans - they are in Massachusetts and will be opening in Harrison, NY (Westchester County) sometime in the next year according to their website. There are several in New Jersey already and the one closest to me is about an hour away in Montvale, NJ. However there don't seem to be any plans to come to Connecticut. Very sad since Stop & Shop could use some competition from someone other than Shop Rite (Big Y does a decent job - but again the nearest one is 15 miles away from me and Wegman's, it ain't).

The Brooklyn Wegmans is in my old neighborhood so I would love to take a trip there to see it. That whole Navy Yard area is enjoying a resurgence that is long overdue. It has sat silent for too many years having been decommissioned and closed down in 1965 - my father was a steamfitter there and once they closed, he ended up going to Stamford for work -kind of how we ended up in Connecticut. Glad to see the area is finally coming around.
 
Grocery business cycle Louis

It's the end of the month. Folks are awaiting their paychecks, SS, etc. Is that location in more of a commercial, or residential area? Slower evening businsess could be the case if it is in the first, rather residential as people are home for the night. Also February is traditonally a slower month as many take winter vacations, and some scale back on buying from post Holidays lull. Some strapped for cash as well. You'll also notice August will be slower, but these trends are slightly different by locations of course.
 
Every store chain keeps at least one

store open that is a so callled white elephant. They never really take off as very busy stores all the time. The operating overhead may be a tax deductable loss.
You learn a lot being in a business for 34 years.
 
Sadly no Wegman’s here in Pittsburgh.
Giant Eagle is the most common chain here, while it’s locally based, it’s mediocre.
There are also a few Shop n Save stores and even fewer Foodland stores.

Overall there are no good supermarkets in this region
 
Giant Eagle's spun off of some Kroger/Foodland

entities. Not sure if Wegman hourly employees are U.F.C.W members, but Kroger busted the Pittsburgh area in the late 80's after the steel industry collapse. It happened here in the D sooner when Kroger strores became Foodland's. Clevelenad Ohio to the best of my knowledge waa the last "closed shop" hold out in the east. and California out west. Arizona is a so called "right to work state", so employees ther can join the union, or not join. Mi. legislature made us one too a decade ago, but Koroger employees are required to join. Open shop it's called. I think Giant Eagle there is or was union. Not Pittsburgh. Once A&P pulled out of Pittsburgh, anyway. Most of those became IGA's. Walmart unleveled the competition playing field as well in the industry. Korger has allowed for the union once again, as the pay and benefits are much lower than the old contract employees had. Most have since retired. The younger workers are paying union dues for little benefit, gain, or compensation. If they still have a pension plan, that too is much less, as the contributions are based on hours worked, and pay scale by both the companies and employees. Most are part time. Wegman's must be the "best chain to work for because the employees are happy, and gainfully compensated. It was a great industry to work in for college students from the 70's through the 90's, at least. Many full time old contract employees were almost "middle class" at least, and at what level middle class meant back in those days.
 

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