ROCHESTER, NY (WXXI) - Wegmans is reaching a milestone this coming weekend. The Rochester-based company will be opening its 100th supermarket.
And that new store will open in Raleigh, North Carolina. It is the supermarket chain’s first store in North Carolina, and spokeswoman Jo Natale says that plans are moving ahead for five additional stores in the Raleigh-Durham area over the next several years.
Natale notes that Raleigh already is home to a lot of people who have moved from the Western and Central New York area, and who have been clamoring for Wegmans to open up stores there.
“We’re going to a place where for at least some people we are familiar. But at the same time there are others who are not familiar with Wegmans, so our job now is to prove ourselves,” Natale noted.
But Natale says Wegmans is disciplined in terms of its growth strategy, opening just 2 or 3 new stores a year.
Supermarket analyst Burt Flickinger of Strategic Resource Group says that strategy seems to be working, and he says the southeastern U.S. is a good market for Wegmans.
“There are some good competitors in the south, but Wegmans is going up against largely second, third and fourth string competition in the southeast which should accelerate Wegmans growth into markets with higher population growth, higher income growth, higher job growth,” Flickinger explained.
Wegmans next big store opening is in late October, when it opens its first New York City location in Brooklyn .