Does this happen in your area?

This past Sunday, a new Wegmans grocery store opened about 4 miles from my house. It is situated off Route 7, a heavily travelled commuter route. For a week a head of time, an electonic road signed warned motorists: "Caution: Event Ahead". The first customers started to line up at 5am, two hours prior to the opening. Eventually, 11,000 people showed up to shop on this first day. There was a traffic jam created, requiring specially assigned police to handle the load. This isn't even the first Wegmans in the area. There's another one about two miles from my house in the other direction. (That one WAS the first one in Virginia, and oh, my, that one's grand opening attracted people from 4 states around!)

The new one is conveniently located along my way home from agility class, so I stopped by to check it out. At 8pm on a Tuesday night, the parking lot was full! It was a huge store, larger I think, than the first one. Wegmans is a very fun place to shop and an amazing grocery store. In the seafood section, they had a sushi bar for customers to sit and take a break. They were even serving beer and wine. (Not free, of course!) There is a section devoted to pre-cooked food of many kinds that you can buy and eat there as the store has a mezzanine level for seating (enough to hold 500 people!) and watching the goings on while you eat.

I don't generally shop at a Wegmans because the other one is very poorly located and getting out of the parking lot is very difficult and time consuming. It is always jammed with people as well. This new one has much easier access and is in a better location for me, so I think I'll be back! All in all, it's a very cool store.