For Sharon Singer of New Jersey, October 18 was a double whammy: It was not only her 62nd birthday, but also the opening of Manhattan’s first Wegmans.
The singer and more than a hundred “Wegmaniacs” colleagues stood eagerly on Broadway in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday morning, waiting for the opening of his highly anticipated new store.
The 87,500-square-foot space, staffed by a whopping 600 newly hired employees, is the historic retailer’s first foray into Manhattan and the newest of its more than 100 stores along the East Coast.
There are a variety of concessions spread over two floors selling fresh sushi, salads, hot sandwiches, soups and pizza, as well as a variety of fresh produce and groceries.
“Wegmans is just a wonderful, wonderful supermarket,” said 63-year-old New Yorker Michael Zorek, who got in line at 7:30 a.m., an hour and a half before its scheduled opening.
Michael Zorek, 63, stands in line outside the opening of the new Wegmans on Astor Place Wednesday morning. He said he’s been waiting for a Wegmans to come to his own district for more than a decade
Pictured is a handful of the store’s 600 employees greeting customers as they enter the new store in front of the sushi concession on Wednesday morning
Sharon Singer (left), 62, of New Jersey, said she was in awe the first time she walked into a Wegmans many years ago
He had waited more than a decade for the store to arrive.
‘I have waited. “I waited,” Zorek said. “I knew they had taken over this space and I felt like it was just a match made in heaven.”
Wegmans Food Markets is famous for its fresh baked goods, buffalo wings and extensive cheese selection.
The company has 109 stores along the East Coast – the majority of which are in New York State. Others are in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Virginia and North Carolina.
But today, for the first time ever, we ventured into Manhattan.
Zorek, who lives on the Upper West Side, discovered Wegmans in 2011 while traveling the country with his son. Since then, he has dreamed of the day when people would arrive in his New York neighborhood.
“In Manhattan, the supermarkets are overcrowded and overcrowded, and people are bumping into you with shopping carts, the products are damaged and look torn apart.” “Here in Wegmans, it looks like everything was cleared out five minutes before I came in. The hallways are wide, the staff is incredibly friendly, courteous and helpful.”
“And not only does it have great produce, it has great meat too.” It has great personality. I think once people in Manhattan shop here, they won’t want to go anywhere else.”
According to the company, an on-site dining room with a sushi bar and a champagne oyster bar is also expected to open at the location in the first half of 2024.
The Astor Place store will be the second in New York City, following the opening of a location in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in October 2019. It is located in the building that once housed Wanamaker’s department store.
On the first floor, shoppers can purchase various prepared foods such as sushi, sandwiches, pizza and salad. In the picture, a chef can be seen at work behind his sushi bar
Pictured is a fresh fish stand in the basement of Manhattan’s new 87,500-square-foot Wegmans store. It is staffed by 600 new employees and has a variety of stand-alone concessions selling fresh sushi, salads, sandwiches, hot sandwiches, soups and pizza
Blocks of Parmesan cheese and olive oil lined the shelves of the new Wegmans on Astor Place
In the picture you can see the escalator at the back of the store, which takes customers to the lower level
And 26-year-old Katie Gold wasn’t far from the front row, sitting in a folding camp chair just before 9 a.m.
She grew up in Rochester, New York, where Wegmans was founded back in 1916, and came here long before it opened to make sure she was among the first to make it.
Her passion for Wegmans is so intense and deep-rooted that at age 14, she called her local store and asked for a job. Although she was rejected due to age, her dreams came true within a year.
“I worked there for seven years through high school and college and actually wrote my college Common App essay on Wegmans,” she said.
“It’s like an open-air European market.” You have the selection of giant Publix, the prices of Walmart, the quality of Whole Foods, the customer service and Trader Joe’s. Like everything you could ever want.’
Singer shared a similar anecdote to demonstrate her unique fan base. After a travel update many years ago, she happened upon a Wegmans. In awe, she wrote to management requesting an opening in Bergen County, New Jersey.
“I wrote them a letter and said I had never experienced anything like this in my life,” she said.
She also compared Wegmans and Trader Joe’s in the seconds before staff opened the doors and excited guests streamed in.
“Trader Joe’s is great, but this is like Trader Joe’s times ten,” she said.
“Wegmaniancs”: Katie Gold (center), 26, and her friend (left) grew up in Rochester, New York, where Wegmans was founded in 1916. Sharon Singer (right), 62, wrote a letter to Wegmans many years ago asking her to open in New Jersey
In the lower basement at the back of the new Wegmans store, an assortment of fruits, vegetables, fish and meat were for sale
In addition to the checkouts, there are dozens of self-service checkouts throughout the store. There is also a common entrance and exit
The Manhattan store is part of a broader expansion of the Wegmans brand. In March, the company announced plans to open its first store in Connecticut.
Although Zorek lives on the Upper West Side, he said he will pay frequent visits to the new Wegmans in Lower Manhattan. And he hoped they would even open smaller stores across the city in the future.
“I don’t think they’ll be the Duane Reed of supermarkets, but in an ideal world there would be one in pretty much every neighborhood.”
The Astor Place store is open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.