Wegmans Opens in Northern Virginia

[wmsmurray]

The parking was a nightmare but the nice thing was they had guys with flags at each row and only let you into rows that had spots and waved you in. Made the situation a little better. I wasn't at the Dulles opening but how crowded it was depended on where you were in the store. The section with meat, seafood, prepared foods, etc. was cheek to cheek. The section with things like table linens, stemware, etc. was empty and other places were in between. Nice to have one of these closer to me though. The only thing that dismayed me was the apparent lack of a wine section. It may just be that I missed it in the crowds but all I saw was a wall about 10 feet long with a few shelves of random wines. Nothing like the Dulles section which I think is pretty good for a grocery store.

[bilrus]

The only thing that dismayed me was the apparent lack of a wine section.  It may just be that I missed it in the crowds but all I saw was a wall about 10 feet long with a few shelves of random wines.  Nothing like the Dulles section which I think is pretty good for a grocery store.

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I read elsewhere that the wine section is more separated than at the Dulles store and even has its own entrance.

[Joe H]

I don't like how the wine section (a separate store, if you will) is laid out on a different floor. Also, some of the prices are HIGH, especially considering that Costco is a couple of blocks away and is 30% lower on some of the same bottles. Although this "department" is larger than Sterling I don't like it as much. In fact, to be honest, I prefer the Sterling Wegman's.

[mehmeh82]

The Fairfax store is just beautiful! Weggies sure has come such a long way. I can't believe how the Corning store was at one time a flagship store - it had the very first market cafe, wokery, and all that - truly outrageous. Now, it pales (obvi).

One thing I liked versus the Dulles store is how they went back to the tile floors in the foodhall side of the Fairfax store. The terrazzo floors in Dulles, however expensive, looked cheap and plain to me. Also, the Fairfax planners apparently spent ridiculous amounts of time with their landscape architects.

I really wish they'd build a full service restaurant near one of these stores down here below mason-dixon (like in Pittsford), but I guess its too crowded and such (and plus, we all know the Pittsford store will always be Danny's baby).

One thing I didn't like about Fairfax versus the Dulles store (having been to Fairfax only once but Dulles countless times) is how all the wine is all by itself on the lower level. I guess I'm just used to the tried-and-true 2 level layout. But the three-storey staircase, exposed-wood cathedral ceilings, and extensive windowing on that cupola thingie are really fine touches.

Does anyone like the Wegmans basting oil in particular?

[bilrus]

I really wish they'd build a full service restaurant near one of these stores down here below mason-dixon (like in Pittsford), but I guess its too crowded and such (and plus, we all know the Pittsford store will always be Danny's baby). 

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I overheard a manager at Dulles a few weeks ago telling a customer that there will be a full service restaurant on the third level of the Fairfax store. No idea on timing.

[Joe H]

Pittsford is no longer the highest grossing store in their chain; Sterling took over for it. Fairfax, with the stone walls, landscaping and three floors is unlike any other grocery store I have seen anywhere. It is the most beautiful of any-not just in Wegmans, but I think of any store I've been in here or overseas. But for me-and perhaps only for me-there is a "cluttered" feeling from entering through a parking garage as opposed to entering from the parking lot similar to their other stores. I have the same criticism of the Home Depot in Merrifield. It's trivial and personal-but that's me.

I genuinely did NOT like their wine shop. I noted at least 15 to 20 wines (Chateau Souverain Cab for $22.95, 2001 Don Melchor for $47.95 ($39 at Costco) that were genuinely expensive; Imagination with, say, Australian reds? Where is the Marquis Phillips? Morambro Creek? Shotfire Ridge? D'arenburg? Washington state wines? L'ecole 41, Andrew Will, Quiceda Creek? Oregon? A good price on Rust en Vrede but fewer South African offerings than local privately owned stores such as Reston's Wine Cabinet which have excellent "eccentric" selection. It is this last which I thought Wegmans lacked in their wine shop: a bit of imagination and the acknowledgment that there is a relative sophistication in the market they've opened this store in. Their inventory for me was "vanilla" and mass market, more for Culpeper and much less for Fairfax. Whether competition for selection (Total, Wine Cabinet and other locally owned shops) or price (Total, Costco) Fairfax, when their opening settles down, this is not a shop that a lot of us who are serious about wine will return to.

For me that is a HUGE disappointment.

On another board I have for several years been a huge fan of Wegmans. I've been in a lot of their stores and a lot of other grocery stores on several continents. I believe that someone has seriously misjudged the market for wine in Fairfax. Although they have three inch thick cuts of prime beef for $24/lb in their meat case they have a really limited selection of wine to drink with it. And, excepting a few shelves thirty yards away, it's not on the same floor. I sincerely hope that their managers check out a few wine shops and Costco in addition to Super H for produce; in fact bringing some elements, selection and marketing tactics of Calvert Woodley or MacArthur to Fairfax wouldn't be such a bad idea. I'd even approach a few of the salesman who have followings in these stores. If Wegmans is going to do wine in a market as competitive as this they should be doing it right-not just one upping Giant or Safeway which to me seems their goal. And, last, one aisle on the main floor with four shelves of bottles is not a great idea. They're going to pay a serious price for not integrating the wine shop and selection better with the rest of their store. I'd have displays in the butcher shop, fishmonger, even the Hermes shop.

Because it's Wegmans, and one of their largest stores in arguably the wealthiest county in America, I expected better.

[mikec5426]

Being a Rochester native I have grown up with many of the Wegmans stores in Rochester, NY along with the 'flagship' Pittsford store.

When we entered the store shortly after 7am I was very disappointed! This store reminded me for Pittsford!! The wall of paper products on the far right of the store was my first hint of what was in store and a deja vu experience continued throughout the store. I was wondering am I in Pittsford or Fairfax?

I understand that Wegmans was working with a much smaller piece of land then in Loudoun county. However, while the outside was beautiful the inside did not blow me away like the Dulles store.

I don't know if anyone else noticed but the Fairfax store looked 'unfinished' to me. I am surprised that Wegmans let this store open as it was. The upstairs Men's bathroom was awful- the floor tile was about an inch away from the wall with a gap, the wood molding was not flush and looked unfinished and honestly looked like they had another couple weeks of work to complete. Then overlooking the register area wires are exposed EVERYWHERE!!

The wine shop was very BLAH to me and didn't give me that feeling of an upscale wine shop like Dulles. It reminded me of a Total wine shop.

Overall, it is a wonderful store and if I lived closer I would shop there. No matter what they still slam all of the local competition. However, I will continue shopping at my Dulles store until the Leesburg store opens!!!

And yes I have overheard and confirmed that the Fairfax store will be converting the upstairs to a restaurant (i.e. all of the doors which will close into private dining rooms).

Please check the store out though. It is always an experience at Wegmans. However, I think mgmt. needs to have the contractors come back and finish the store to 'perfection' and hopefully find a way to better display the monstrosity of paper products!

Mike

Leesburg, VA

[hwilson41]

I was in the Fairfax Wegman's yesterday for the first time, and was generally very impressed. It seemed a little cozier than the Dulles store, but that doubtless was due to the lack of real estate. Didn't even visit the downstairs wine shop, so can't say anything about that.

What I did like very much was the restaurant grade beef available. It ain't cheap, but it looked beautiful and based on others' comments, I gather it tastes that way also. I would have wished for shrimp with heads still on (I was making a gumbo last night), and also NC shrimp in addition to the Chinese stuff, but maybe that will come. The deli, cold cuts and cheeses frankly blew me away, but maybe that's because I'm so used to Giant, Safeway, Whole Paycheck, et al . All in all a lovely store, with some details lacking that I imagine will be handled in short order. Wegman's seems to be a very sharp and conscientious operation, and that to me is a hell of an improvement over the other competitors in the area .

[gear02]

I went twice this weekend. The first day was for dinner Friday and I was very impressed. It's amazing compared to the crappy safeway around the corner that I've been going to the last few years. I wonder if it's deserted now :)

Anyways, the prepared foods looked good and hope to go there more often. The wine selection was interesting, but pales in comparison to total wine's selection. Produce was quite impressive, from the many mushrooms (and the truffles in a locked container) to the apples. Meat was amazing. I can't wait to splurge and buy a bone-in rib roast...mmm....meat.

I went this afternoon (sunday) with my cousins, one of whom is an excellent chef and food conisseur. All of us come from Houston which has HEBs and the flagship Central Market. I've never been, but my cousins say it's quite stunning with a selection better than Whole Foods. They critiqued the place, comparing to Central Market, and I think I have a better perspective.

Other than the food stalls, it's essentially a normal grocery store. The rest of the store wasn't much to care for. The bakery was pretty good as well as the fish and meat. The cheese area, however, was a bit disappointing since although they have tons of cheeses, they were fairly ordinary. There were few foreign cheeses like Mexican (she loves real mexican food). I think whole foods beat them there. Overall, they liked it but it was nothing compared to Central Market. I have to trust them since I've never been, but for now I'm extremely happy to have something else other than Safeway.

However, i hope the crowds die down. I can't see myself doing my regular shopping due to the crowds and stuff. I think I'm just going to go there for prepared food, seafood if I want (though the Korean stores sometimes have better prices), cheese (they surely beat safeway), and great meat. All other stuff I might as well go to Safeway.

Btw can someone explain to me how a grocery store chain gets #1 on the Fortune 100's best place to work list? That's incredible!

[Joe H]

I've been to Central markets in Plano and their flagship in Austin (not Houston). They are very similar to Wegman's. However, I prefer Wegmans Dulles (Wegmans biggest) to the two Central Markets I've been in.

For national comparison the largest of all grocery store chains is Woodmans in Wisconsin and the Chicago suburbs. I've been in their Racine, Madison and Rockford stores. For 250,000 square feet they are horribly disappointing (Wegmans Dulles is 130,000) with low roofs and a wholesale club ambience. The largest individual market in North America is Jungle Jim's in Fairfield, Ohio which is currently undergoing another expansion that will top it out at 285,000 square feet. They have a monorail running their parking lot. This is a fascinating website with a lot of photos and info about it:

http://www.junglejims.com/index.cfm

Prior to this expansion I still prefer Wegmans Dulles store. Stew Leonard's in New York (Bronx) and CT. have large stores also but not on the level of these.

I believe the largest supermaket in the world (strictly food) is the Carrefour outside of Paris on the way to EuroDisney. Carrefour is a hypermarket, similar to say, Super Walmart. But the food portion of this particular store features employees on roller skates. It's hard to judge it's actual size since part is non food related but it's at least as big as Woodman's.

Still, overall, I prefer Wegmans Dulles to all of these with Central Market and Auchan's store at Val d'Europa adjacent to EuroDisney coming closest.

I should add that I've travelled heavily for 24 years on business around North America and Europe and have a great interest of exploring supermarkets and wine shops when I have the time. Despite having seen so much it still comes down to opinion and someone from Texas is probably going to disagree with me just as someone from France or Connecticut will also.

Of course there's a market off of the Ramblas in Barcelona that.....

Edited February 21, 2005 by Joe H (log)

[gear02]

I've been to Central markets in Plano and their flagship in Austin (not Houston).  They are very similar to Wegman's.  However, I prefer Wegmans Dulles (Wegmans biggest) to the two Central Markets I've been in. 

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So, is the Fairfax one not a good representation of what Wegmans is?

I think I should try to hit the Dulles one as well...

[Joe H]

Fairfax is an excellent representation of Wegmans. For whatever my own idiosyncrasies are I just prefer the "Dulles" store which seems to have more of an open feeling.

[redglass]

Let the flogging begin...I went to Dulles Wegman's for the first time last weekend, and...what's the big deal? Ok, I'll start off with complements: I appreciated that the fish counter that specified how each fish was caught and its origin(wild, alaskan, etc). The meat department also had organic Virginia beef. Allright, so that whole area on the right when you first come in is pretty cool, I'll give you that. Would have been even better if the lines at the counters weren't 3 deep.

But everything else just underwhelmed me. There was nothing there in the rest of the store worth travelling for. Produce was nice, but nothing that I can't get at Harris Teeter or the other markets close by. Ditto for ethnic foods- but I live very close to Latino/Asian neighborhoods so my stores carry a large selection of these items. The dinnerware/table linens section was novel, but if I want those things, Wegman's wouldn't be my place to buy them- seems like a section completely devoted to impulse buying.

And it was just way too crowded. You'd think they were giving it away. Seemed that although this location has been open for a while, there were many "gawkers" that just kind of kept getting in the way (although I should probably put myself in that category too, to be fair).

It's a nice store. But even if there was one close to me, I still would probably shop at Teeter and "El Gigante" over Wegman's unless I was looking for the organic beef or a nice piece of fish that I couldn't find elsewhere.

[mehmeh82]

Yeah, that's Wegmans' most obvious drawback - too crowded! I don't really think anything in their chef's case (the regular, everyday stuff - not the special items) is really spectacular. The Waldorf salad is sort of tasty, I guess. Also, even though the store's atmosphere impresses upon you that the choices are seemingly endless, the Fairax weggies doesn't have the large-size (not the medium size!) extra crunchy peter pan peanut butter. My friend was leaving the next day to return to Strasbourg and she needed to stock up! I'm sure though that if we took the time to fill out a comment card, our freakin peanut butter would appear in the store eventually - having been basically indoctrinated by wegmans growing up in rural ny, i would bet my mortgage they would at least make an effort to stock the peter pan. On that note, I wonder if Wegmans will become the institution in VA it has become in many places for many people in upstate (and pa).

[FunJohnny]

Went yesterday (Sunday) at around noon. The wine section on the lower level was virtually empty and I was able to give it a quick once over. It seems to have a good, if fairly standard representation of regions -- organized rather strangely. Some good prices on a few wines I'm familiar with.

Upstairs in the food market once you get past the heavy congestion at the entrance and get back into the produce area it wasn't that bad, crowded but not impossible to shop. Plenty of friendly staff available to assist. Prices are excellent in comparison with Whole Foods on the fruits and veggies, not so favorable as far as the seafood goes. Cheese/appetizer section offers a large selection and includes a good range of D'Artagnan products. Liked the meats and poultry as well -- they have dry-aged U.S. prime NY strips and ribeyes.

The rest of the grocery store is large and the prices seemed like it would be worth making an occasional foray (for us it's a 10 mile journey each way). Saved exploring the ready-to-eat foods on the third floor for our next visit.

Edited March 7, 2005 by FunJohnny (log)

[jeffc666]

Put me in the Wegman's is wonderful camp. I went to the Sterling store on opening day last year, that was insane. I have been to that store probably a dozen times. I live in Fairfax City so the fact that the new store in Fairfax is open is really quite wonderful. I have already been to it probably 4 or 5 times. Other than the crowds my only real complaint is the produce section.

Here are the issues with the produce seciton:

* Just an OK selection given how large it is

* Frequently out of things

* Blatant hiding of the fact that they are out of things

I overheard a produce manager telling one of the workers that he does not want to see any blank spots in the coolers. This has bitten me twice. Both times I was trying to buy fresh cilantro. For you see, when they run out of cilantro they fill up the space with parsley, but leave up the sign for cilantro! Once I bought parsley accidently instead of cilantro! This in my opinion is terribly idiotic. However this is my only real complaint and compared to the competition it is vastly better.

Edited March 8, 2005 by jeffc666 (log)

[phaelon56]

The negative comments regardng their wine shop offerings, pricing etc. are most likely well taken (I'm not a wine drinker and also have not been to the VA stores and am guessing) but keep in mind that Wegman's is very new to the retail wine arena.

By law, wine cannot be sold in grocery stores in NY state - only in liquor stores. Until recently, nearly all of Wegman's stores have been in NY. I think it's reasonable to assume that they don't yet have the requisite experience to have a fully developed wine department. I can't see them attempting to be price competitive with Costco because they don't need to be but they also don't yet have the same buyign power for wine. People buy all kinds of products in Wegman's that are available a bit cheaper elsewhere - if you get pulled in by the prepared foods department, the produce offerings, the pastries, the beef selection etc..... sometimes it's far easier to just pick up those few extra items while you're there instead of shuttling around to different stores.

Can't speak for anyone else but I know that with my schedule as busy as it is, I don't mind paying a slight upcharge to be able to get most of my grocery items in one stop provided that the key items are good quality and the peripheral stuff is not grossly overpriced.

[mehmeh82]

What are your thoughts now that 2 Wegmans are open in VA? I drive past at least half a dozen grocery stores from Alexandria to get to the Fairfax Wegs. I don't buy groceries anywhere else! Just wondering I suppose . . .

[mehmeh82]

(gas is $3+/gallon what do they think we are europeans?!?!)

[Malawry]

I shop at the Sterling Wegman's many Sundays, since it's so superior to the markets out here in Jefferson County, WV where I moved this summer. I think it's a superior store. I still have not visited the Fairfax location since I'm never out that way.

BTW, Wegman's is carrying D'artagnan andouille, but I still haven't seen tasso ham there.