Minimart

Before the pandemic, we would regularly drive half an hour or more to shop at our favorite grocery store, Wegmans. But along with a lot of other folks, our shopping habits have changed over the last two years, and now we generally buy our groceries much closer to home now, usually at a store we can walk to. Even so, there was excitement in our household when a couple of weeks ago a new Wegmans opened only 20 minutes from us. 

Today was the day when we made our first visit to that new store. The route was familiar; 22 years ago a huge movie theater opened in the same area, which was then the end of the yellow line of the metro, and for over a decade it was our go to. Over the years that outpost became more desirable and it no longer made sense to have a three acre parking lot for a theater, an office building, and a few restaurants. So that's where they built a 15 story apartment building with a Wegmans on the ground floor. 

Founded in 1916 in Rochester, the chain expanded slowly throughout Western New York. Their first Buffalo location opened in 1977, and it is through Heidi's family that I first became aware of what can only be described as the amazing grocery shopping experience they offer. For most of their history, their stores were big and sprawling, indicative of the inexpensive commercial real estate in those locations. 

When Wegmans first arrived in our area, the stores were in the far outer suburbs, hence the drives we were willing to make. A couple of years ago, Wegmans opened a smaller, store out at Tysons Corner, also on the metro line. The design of that location was scaled back and curated to accommodate a smaller space, but it is not the same shopping experience. 

And that is the layout we found today at the newest Wegmans. Heidi was very disappointed, despite the fact that we can get most of the items on our list, she missed the wide selection that we have come to expect. On our way home, we passed a few neighbors and rolled down the windows to chat. "We were at the new Wegmans," Heidi reported. "It was stinky!"

They looked surprised, especially the guy from Rochester. "So WegMANs wasn't very manly?" asked another of them.

"Definitely not!" Heidi answered.

"More like Wegboys," I said.