Wegmans is open
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Jeff Mankie/For the News & Messenger
Lottie Eubank of Lorton browses through some of the packaged sausages in the meat department at the early morning grand opening of the new Wegmans in Woodbridge on Sunday.
It was quite the event.
The line started at 4:50 a.m. for the 7 a.m. opening of the new Wegmans supermarket in Woodbridge on Sunday.
By 7 a.m., 1,000 people stood in a line that wrapped around the 140,000-square-foot building all the way back to the loading dock and the parking lot was full.
By 8 a.m. cars continued to circle the parking lot looking for an open slot while others streamed in from Neabsco Mills Road.
Prince William County residents had long begged and pleaded for high-end retail. The arrival of upscale New York grocer Wegmans signaled the beginning of a change and resident
responded by coming out for the opening.
Jerry Trenkelbach of Woodbridge was standing outside the Wegmans front doors long before sunrise on Sunday. His wife Kate soon joined him.
"He wanted to be first in line," Kate Trenkelbach said. He succeeded.
Friends Evelyn Lester, Kathy Gibson, both of Woodbridge, along with Mary Greenway of Fairfax County, arrived at 5:02 a.m. and queued in behind them.
"We're here just for the fun of it," Lester said. "I used to hate grocery shopping. Wegmans is an experience. It's not just a grocery store."
The women had shopped in the other two Wegmans stores in Sterling and Fairfax County.
"It's a cooks dream to have everything in one place that you need and want," Greenway said.
Former Prince William County Supervisor Hilda Barg of Woodbridge also was on hand for the opening. She had driven back eight hours from vacationing in Myrtle Beach, S.C., to make the event.
"I wanted to show my appreciation to the Wegmans family for coming to our community and being a community partner," Barg said.
Wegmans recently donated a tractor-trailer filled with 16,839 items of non-perishable food, including canned soup, vegetables, cereal, fruit, baking mixes, crackers, condiments and pasta to the Action in Community Through Service food pantry.
"I believe this [store] will help us rehabilitate eastern Prince William County," Barg said. "It's the first step that we are coming back."
Wegmans employees gathered in a semicircle around the front entrance at 7 a.m. A pep rally atmosphere wa
created as they spelled out Wegmans in a cheer with plenty of clapping and shouting before the first customers were let in.
After touring the store, Gibson said she was not disappointed. "It's fabulous and I will be back."
Wegmans is located at the Potomac Town Center off the new stretch of
Neabsco Mills Road between Optiz and Dale boulevards. Wegmans Food Markets Inc. is a 71-store supermarket chain with stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia and Maryland.
Staff writer Aileen Streng can be reached at 703-878-8010.
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Reader Reactions
LRMan: What it means is PW county has a very large number of hispanic residents so Wegman’s wants to make sure their policy is understood. I’m sure if the county had an equal number of, say Chinese, there would be signs in Chinese too.
Edgar and Reyna: Are you suggesting that Wegman’s should have designed the parking lot to accommodate the grand opening??
phdee: Do your homework. Wegman’s prices are lower than Giant’s.
What a bunch of whiners.
Most of the signs outside of the new Wegmans are written in Spanish. Does this indicate Wegman’s target clientele? Does Wegman’s believe that Spanish speakers are uniquely challenged to learn English and thus necessitate signs in Spanish? The signs in question are around the entrance, parking lot, and outside of the building. They are signs about Wegman’s policy against people using their parking lot for anything other than shopping at Wegman’s. Does this mean that Wegman’s believes that Spanish speaking/reading people are uniquely prone to using Wegman’s property for something other than shopping at Wegman’s? Why the emphasis on signs in Spanish?
My first experience with Wegmans was the one located at Market Place Mall in Rochester New York. When I visited by in-laws, I made sure to go to the grocery store, just to marvel at the inside. I’m so glad to have one in PWC. Thanks.
Hello Aileen,
Thanks for the article, but why no mention of what a nightmare it was get into the parking lot? Once in, there was no parking available and the police continued to to allow traffic to come in only to frustrate people even more. I myself came in at 9am and both entrances were closed, I took my family out to breakfast and returned at noon only for face the same situation. We went out the the celebrate Fairfax festival and returned around 4PM. This time we made in into the parkinglot, but there was no parking available anywhere after waiting at least 25 minutes to get into the complex, I certainly do not think this grand opening was a huge success. My wife called the store manager to asked why the police were not allowing anyone to come into the complex and she stated that she had no idea- WOW!!! To say the least, we were terribly dissapointed especially after all many reminder emails from Wegmans about the count down to the store opening. I know we were not the only ones to have been disappointed by the poor planning in Wegman’s part in not realizing exactly how many area residents were looking forward to the opening of this store. It seems like they built this store to accomodate the Woodbridge residents and not the surrounding areas. BTW- It looks like this Wegman’s has a much smaller parking area when compared to the Fairfax and Sterling locations.
Now all Eastern PWC needs is Rt 1 to be expanded to hold all the extra traffic that Wegmans is going to produce…
Rehabiltate Eastern PWC, what is Barg talking about? The problem is northern Woodbridge, the rest of PWC is fine, Excluding Liberty Street of course. Chris Cummings
Just what we need today with rising food prices, gas, foreclosures, etc.—an upscale grocery store. I’ve always wanted to pay more for my groceries…haven’t you?
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