Wegmans opens in Gainesville

By Bill Walsh

By Bill Walsh

Times-Democrat Staff Writer

Fauquier commuters have grown used to signs directing them through event-related traffic tie-ups in and around the Nissan Pavilion near Gainesville. On Sunday, the mobile signs were up again, but the U.S. 29 delays could be traced to a new rock-solid business, not rock stars this time.

Wegmans Food Markets, Inc., headquartered in Rochester, N.Y., opened its new megastore at The Shops at Stonewall at 7 a.m. Sunday morning. When Wegmans employees — all 600 of them — opened the doors, about 1,200 people were lined up to see the new grocery and shop its aisles.

"We didn't quite know what to expect," said Jo Natale, director of media and consumer relations for the family-owned business, before noting that 18,000 people showing up for a Wegmans opening is not unheard of.

"I think the time switch helped bring some of these people out so early," she said. "We're thrilled, and everyone seems to be very happy and pleased to finally have this store open."

Wegmans' niche, Natale said, is low prices, "lower than other supermarkets and very comparable to club stores and as low as mass merchants," she said.

"We compete with anyone who sells the same products we sell," Natale added, "including traditional supermarkets and club stores. Although we have traditional-sized products, we have club packs, as well — meat, seafood, frozen, dairy, paper products. So we compete with the mass merchants like Wal-Mart."

Given its location, the new supermarket is likely to prove popular with Fauquier commuters, though the company didn't necessarily factor them in to its market research, Natale said.

"Obviously, we picked this site as a store because we think it's going to be a great site," she said. "Number one, we need a site large enough to accommodate a store our size, to give us adequate parking. It needs to have good, regional access, because we tend to draw from a much wider radius than a typical supermarket.

"On a weekly bases, folks who live within three to seven miles of the store will shop every week, but folks who live as far as 25 or 30 miles away will shop with us every other week or once a month, so regional access is very important to us. And then density of population. Those are the key things that we look for."

The new Wegmans also features the 500-seat Market Cafe.

It is not a full-service restaurant, but has everything "from coffee to sushi to wings to subs to hot entrees, Thai food, Indian food, and a great fresh-food bar with all kinds of fixings for salad," Natale enthused. "And all of it can be enjoyed dining in or taking out."

This is the fourth Wegmans location in Virginia, including stores in Fairfax, Woodbridge and Sterling. The company plans to open in Fredericksburg and Leesburg next year.

Wegmans at The Shops at Stonewall is open from 6 a.m. to midnight seven days a week.