The ultimate grocery shopping experience...
I know that this will only be truly appreciated by my fellow Corning-nites and a handful of East Coasters, and I also know that my significant other will dispute this. But yesterday, there was the need to restock my fridge so I went to my favorite grocery store and then I realized that I never mentioned this store as one of the bonuses of moving back to the East Coast.I love Wegmans. I can't help it. It is, by far, the best grocery shopping experience out there. I've shopped my share - Tops, Weis, Great American, P&C, A&P, Meijer, Schnucks, Dominick's, Jewel, King Soopers, Safeway, Kroger, Giant, Whole Foods, Wild Oats, Trader Joe's... you name one between Denver and New Jersey, and I've probably been at least once. I will admit that perhaps I got spoiled because I grew up with Wegmans for 10 years in Corning... and after that, no other supermarket could compare (yes, even Meijer - as much as I loved going at midnight in Champaign). But there are things about Wegmans that you just don't get anywhere else. It's still a private grocery chain and family-owned. They're huge stores, but they don't feel huge. It's always clean, the produce is fresher than any other store in the area and even the lighting isn't too harsh. There are these great specialty shops - like the Market Cafe (a great in-store cafe), a huge cheese selection, prepared foods, and ohmigod, the dessert case. The cookies, the cakes, the pastries... yum! (Not great if you're watching your weight, but they are beautiful to look at and even more delish if you are able to eat it!) On top of it all, their prices are consistently low and they pride themselves on it. Yes, they have a club card to tracking your shopping experience, but because their prices are lower, you don't need it to swipe it to try and save 10-15% on your grocery bill, because it already is 10-15% lower if you had shopped somewhere else. I've done it - I shopped at several local grocery stores, bought the same stuff, and my bill at Wegmans was consistently the lowest. So really, what more could you want from a grocery store and shopping experience?
Steve has two claims about Wegmans - one, I go into "Wegmans speed" as soon as I step into the store, and two, Wegmans isn't as good as Stew Leonard's. Okay, so maybe my shopping walking speed does pick up when I go to Wegmans, but hey, I'm getting a good workout while I pick up my groceries. (I have other friends who also go into Wegmans speed.) And for the record, Steve still hasn't taken me to Stew Leonard's yet. I think he knows that Wegmans just can't compete and I would be disappointed in Stew Leonard's. :o) (Steve - also to note, while Stew Leonard's has been on the Fortune's 100 Best Companies to work for 4 years, Wegmans has been on there 8 consecutive years and the most recent on top at #1. And Danny Wegmans has never had any accounting issues with the IRS either. So there.)
If you've never been to a Wegmans, then I highly suggest that you come visit me and I will be happy to take you to experience Wegmans. Of course, then you may never go home to your grocery store again. If you have a local Wegmans in your area, consider yourself lucky. Because you know you will never go anywhere else. If you don't have a local Wegmans in your area, I urge you to move, quickly. :o)
posted by Eves @ 2:13 PM
4 Comments:
How can you even begin to suppose that Wegman's is superior to Stew Leonard's when you have never even been? I have been to both and let me tell you, Wegman's had no animatronic milk cartons, dancing eggs, singing bears, or push button moo'ing cows. How can you even pretend to call that a proper food shopping experience?
After hearing about how cool Wegman's was (and I have to say, as a business model it might be considered better than Stew Leonard's if you're one of those people who still consider tax evasion a serious crime) but it really wasn't different from most supermarkets. Stew Leonards really is a completely different shopping experience. Instead of narrow boring aisles, Stew's has just one aisle that winds through the different departments and offers you a glimpse of some of the products being made (like in the bakery or packaging the milk). Spend $100 at Stew's and you get a sticker that entitles you to a free ice cream or coffee. Plus all the singing, dancing animatronic animals and products, and a petting zoo, all in one impossibly awesome place! Quite possibly it's greatest achivement is that even I enjoyed going there as a kid. Maybe it's just so ahead of it's time, you haven't caught up yet!
And for those of us who who have been, we all know where orange juice really comes from...orange cows!!!!!
See what makes it such a fun place...http://www.stewleonards.com/press/greatplace.cfm
For the number of times that I have been to Westchester County in the past five years, you have never once taken me to Stew Leonard's. Why? Because you know I would be disappointed.
If you want to talk about Stew Leonard's business model besides the tax evasion, I got more news from you. Because of this whole one aisle theory, it makes shoppers spend more money by winding through the different departments. Who wants to go to a place that makes you spend more money? In this economy, there are more people who'd rather save money. Do you know why grocery stores put the milk and eggs in the back of the store? It's because they are kitchen staples, so by putting them in the back of the store, you pass more things and might add a couple of things to your cart that you didn't intend on coming in to buy. With Stew Leonard's one path, you're being forced to be distracted (where as in Wegmans you can walk directly to the back without passing too much) and then you spend the $100 in the store and all you get is free ice cream or coffee (and a bunch of groceries that you didn't really intend to buy)? And what happens when you forget one item? You have to walk through the store all over again, and then get distracted and spend even more!
And so much for you taking your Stew Leonard experience into your adult life... you think orange juice comes from orange cows and you also dread going grocery shopping now.
So take me to Stew Leonard's already and we'll see which is really better.
I hate food shopping because your traditional grocery stores are so dreadfully boring (though it probably does explain my random browsing curcuit when I shop and why I have zero way-finding abilty among the aisles).
When you skip something you don't go all the way back to the begining to start over. You just have to go back a department, there's always a little shortcut back. And while you're doing that you can enjoy the musical stylings of the "farm fresh five."
Not that I was doing the buying back then, but I recall Stew's being comparable pricewise. My tri-state friend's can back me up here.
As for spending more money, well as a business model, it's highly sucessful then.
On a final note, the Peanut Butter Cookies from Stew's bakery are good enough to break into a friend's house to steal!
Do you have a better reason why the cow is orange?
heh heh, there's something similar to that here called the "woodfield walk" : )
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