Take a look inside the new Wegmans location, which will open Wednesday in Cary
The grand opening of the new Wegmans in west Cary this week may look a little different than the hoopla surrounding the opening of the Raleigh store last September.
When the Rochester-based chain’s first North Carolina location opened that Sunday morning last year, eager customers had lined up around the building and down the street since the pre-dawn hours (some even tailgated). Foot traffic inside the store broke opening day records for the company.
If things are a little calmer for Wednesday’s 9 a.m. opening — and that’s still a pretty big “if” — it won’t be due to a lack of enthusiasm for the grocery mecca.
Wegmans fans, especially those in the western part of the Triangle, are pretty stoked, and it’s a sure bet there will be lines.
But this Wegmans, at 3710 Davis Drive in that nebulous Cary-Morrisville region, opens in the middle of a global pandemic, when retail outlets in North Carolina have been ordered to reduce capacity limits, increase cleaning, require face coverings and enforce social distancing both inside and outside stores.
Katie Duchnowski, manager of the west Cary Wegmans, said during a tour with The News & Observer on Monday that plans are being made to keep the crowds safely distanced and to enforce the capacity limits.
The store will have a dedicated entrance and exit, and the doors will be shut when capacity is reached, she said.
Outside, while people wait in line (by the way, the local forecast calls for temperatures once again in the mid-90s, plus a chance of rain) there are stanchions to keep the line orderly. Markings will be on the ground to remind people not to bunch up.
There are signs at the entrance of the store instructing shoppers to use hand sanitizer immediately upon entering, to wear face masks and to maintain physical distance from others.
The store is also requiring face masks in accordance with state rules, but customers won’t be denied entrance if they refuse to wear a mask.
“Short of refusing entrance to our stores, we are doing everything we can to educate our customers and stress the importance of voluntary compliance to keep themselves and everyone around them safe,” said a corporate spokesperson. “In addition, store management has been offering free masks to all customers they see not wearing one. For those who cannot wear a mask, we ask them to please maintain proper social distancing from others.”
Duchnowski said the store is also pushing its digital shopping options, such as Instacart, Wegmans Meals 2Go and curbside pickup, so that customers can avoid the crowds.
For those who simply must set foot inside the store this week but want to avoid the line, the store has a streaming video of the front of the store (set to go live on Wednesday) so that the line can be checked at all times.
There’s also a “scan as you go” app that will let shoppers scan and bag items as they shop. Then at a self check-out stand, they scan one bar code with their Wegmans Scan app and then pay and leave. Soon, Duchnowski said, that last step at the checkout stand will also be eliminated.
What’s different with this Wegmans opening?
All grocery stores have had to make big adjustments since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March, adding additional staff to help with restocking and sanitizing, and also to accommodate an increase in online orders.
Duchnowski said Wegmans has a dedicated “sanitizing team” that will work throughout the day cleaning high-touch points. Staffing hours in general have been staggered to get all of the necessary work done while cutting down on the number of people inside the store at any one time.
There is also a team of workers assigned to assist cashiers in keeping things moving swiftly.
The Cary store employees 460 workers, Duchnowski said, 185 of them full-time.
As with all Wegmans stores (and pretty much every grocery store everywhere right now) there are no self-serve hot bars.
In the West Cary store, some of the more popular self-serve items are still available, but will be served by employees instead: chicken wings, along with Asian and Indian food, will be served “to go.” (Duchnowski says a full service Asian bar is coming soon to Raleigh, where self-serve hot bars were removed months ago.)
Like the Raleigh store, West Cary does have a Burger Bar, but it one-ups Raleigh with a Create Your Own Bowl bar.
The store was designed years ago, Duchnowski said, so there are no special changes to layout because of COVID-19, but seating in the dining areas will be marked off to maintain physical distance between diners.
COVID-19 challenges unified the Wegmans staff
Whenever a Wegmans store opens anywhere in the country, company experts fly in and embed during the store set-up and training.
Because of the coronavirus, that wasn’t possible this time, Duchnowski said, so employees had to pitch in across all departments to get the work done.
“It was kind of this magical thing where we knew we had to count on each other and maybe count on folks who had never done this before,” Duchnowski said.
Employees worked on one project at a time, she said, and over the past six or seven weeks, everyone has helped out with literally everything.
“There’s so much pride,” Duchnowski said. “As we moved on to each project, we could see the camaraderie and morale of the team just blossom because they knew, ‘We did this.’ The whole team did this together,” Duchnowski said.
Fan favorites
Duchnowski said Wegmans relies on customer feedback to decide which products to stock. Wegmans fans have got to have their favorite hot dogs from the Pennsylvania and New York regions, their Bison brand French onion dip and their Wegmans rye bread dip.
And of course, half-moon cookies. For those unfamiliar with this Upstate New York favorite, think black-white-cookie meets Whoopie pie.
“We didn’t open with them in Raleigh and by Day 2, we had so many customers ask for them, we had to add them,” Duchnowski said.
One treat that started in the Raleigh Wegmans — a Hummingbird cake — proved so popular that it’s now featured in Wegmans bakeries across the chain. The cake layers have banana, pineapple and pecans, with cream cheese and pecan icing.
The store will also sell baguettes and pastries from La Farm Bakery, a french cafe and bakery in Cary.
Wegmans in West Cary
Location: 3710 Davis Drive (near Airport Boulevard) in the Twin Lakes Center.
Grand opening: 9 a.m. on Wednesday, July 29.
Hours: 6 a.m. to midnight.
Information: wegmans.com/west-cary
Other Wegmans stores in NC: The first NC Wegmans is on Wake Forest Road in Raleigh. Wegmans plans at a later date to open grocery stores in Chapel Hill (Spring 2021), Wake Forest and Holly Springs, as well as a second store in Cary.
This story was originally published July 27, 2020 at 5:13 PM.
