Wegmans grocery has opened its newest store recently in Wake Forest, N.C., employing about 400 people. The store is Wegmans fourth in North Carolina and 106th in the U.S. for the Rochester, N.Y.-based grocery chain.
The Wake Forest store includes a Market Cafe with indoor seating, and includes a coffee bar, pizza, subs and prepackaged meals to go. There is also a fresh seafood market, which will feature seafood from Wanchese, on North Carolina’s Roanoke Island, and a cheese shop with both domestic and imported specialty and artisan cheeses. The store will also offer online shopping with curbside pickup or home delivery.
All four of North Carolina’s Wegmans stores are located in the Triangle, with stores in Raleigh, West Cary/Morrisville and Chapel Hill. Wegmans also plans to open a store in Holly Springs. A store planned for Cary’s Fenton development was called off earlier this year. Wegmans said an increase in online shopping made the second Cary location unnecessary.
Wegmans has a legion of devoted shoppers — sometimes dubbed “Wegmaniacs” — particularly among those hailing from the Northeast. Some shoppers describe the stores as “the Disney of grocery stores." When the Raleigh store opened in September 2019 — the chain’s first North Carolina location — customers lined up around the building and down the street before dawn, and foot traffic inside the store broke opening day records at the time for the company.