Will the Wegmans obsession continue in Brooklyn?
Rendering courtesy of S9 Architecture
Wegmans is officially coming to Brooklyn this fall, more than four years after the beloved grocery store announced plans to open its first ever New York City location. The grocery store will open a 74,000-square-foot spot within Admiral’s Row at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a 300-acre site transforming from a waterfront warship building site into an industrial tech-hub. While the store already has a dedicated following outside of NYC, due mostly to its wide range of brand-name and specialty products, will the Wegmans obsession continue in Brooklyn?
Rendering of Admirals Row via S9 Architecture and 399 Sands Street via Dattner Architects
The Navy Yard location will have a mezzanine on its second floor for an in-store cafe, as well as a space for a bar. The bar will serve up food, wine, locally brewed beer, and hand-crafted cocktails. As all Wegmans are designed, the store will have a “European open-air market look and feel,” according to a press release.
The store is also known for its abundance of choices, including tons of organic options, offered at a decent price. Plus, foodies fall head over heels for both the take-home meals offered at Wegmans, which are developed by NYC chef David Bouley, and for the thousands of wines sold.
Adding to the allure of the supermarket, Wegmans in Brooklyn will only be the store’s 101st U.S. location, with plans to open new stores in Virginia and North Carolina this year as well. Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s both have more than 500 locations across the country. But will New Yorkers, who are typically loyal to their local (and most convenient) grocery store, give Wegmans a chance?
Ariel Lauren Wilson, the editor-in-chief of Edible Brooklyn, told Bloomberg: “I’ve been to Wegmans in Rochester. Did I feel like it was anything I couldn’t get in New York City? No.”
Much of the Wegmans fandom stems from its workforce of nearly 50,000 workers. According to Bloomberg, employees typically stay with the company at least a decade. This could be from the perks offered by Wegmans, including college scholarships and trips to Sicily for a ricotta-making class. The company plans to hire roughly 500 people at the Brooklyn store, with 150 of them full-time positions.
Wegmans Chair Danny Wegman, whose grandfather and grand-uncle founded the store in 1916, told Bloomberg: “We have no idea what’s going to happen,” he said. “But if you like people and you like food, that’s what our business is. It’s no more complicated than that.”
New Yorkers took to Twitter to express their excitement over Wegmans’ imminent arrival in Brooklyn:
truly could not be more here for the Wegmans opening in Brooklyn this fall https://t.co/CJfifcsMEv
— Emma Court (@emmarcourt) April 10, 2019
From hipsters to spinsters, iconic @Wegmans will thrive in #Brooklyn. #grocery #retail #takeittothebank https://t.co/PwFaCQI8bj
— Victor Martino (@NSFoodsMemo) April 11, 2019
today at lunch I got really passionate talking about Wegmans coming to Brooklyn and this girl goes “this is the most emotion I’ve ever seen from you”
— the lorax (@xomadalyn) April 10, 2019
[Via Bloomberg]
RELATED:
