(Apologies to the late Robert Ludlum if I’ve just hijacked the title of his next bestseller)
The new Northborough shopping plaza on Route 20 near the Route 9 interchange just endured another “Grand Opening”. Hot on the heels of the new BJs Wholesale Club’s relocation from Westborough, WooEast/MetroWest shoppers now have another choice for their food shopping. Wegmans, a grocery store with an almost cult-like following, just opened this past weekend. Local media regaled us with accounts of people travelling from all up & down the eastern seaboard to experience this new store. The traffic near the Route 20/9 interchange this past Sunday was crazy.
My family just paid a quick visit to Wegman’s this week after the initial frenzy was over.
We won’t be going back.
It’s not because the new Wegmans is located in an awful hilltop shopping plaza reminiscent of Mount Mall in Millbury. And it’s not because we wouldn’t have other business in that plaza anyway — the new BJs gas station has great prices, and we buy a few of our staples at BJs.
When we visit a grocery store for the first time, my family checks the prices on all of our household “staples” — the things we use regularly. Every family has their own list of must-haves, and yours may be very different from mine. But we found that none of our staples was cheaper at Wegmans. A few were roughly the same price we have been getting elsewhere, but most were a bit higher.
But for the people of WooEast/Metrowest who have been fleeced for years by the Big Four (Shaw’s, Price Chopper, Stop & Shop, Big Y), Wegmans will offer much better prices & a much better selection. The new Wegmans is in a great location to compete against those high-priced grocery chains. And its offerings will appeal to the well-heeled denizens of that region as much as to its price-conscious underbelly. If you like an enormous selection of yogurts, pre-cooked meals, gluten-free/carb-free/fad-of-the-moment foods, it’s all there, and at prices that beat most nearby grocery chains.
My family finds that its staples are cheaper at Market Basket & Price Rite, with occasional forays to BJs and Hannaford. Sorry, Wegmans, but you’re not going to make it onto our list of places to shop. We’re just not Wegmans’ demographic, I think.
But for the WooEast/Metrowest shopper, Wegmans is going to be a refreshing alternative — one even worthy of enduring another ugly hilltop plaza.
Good luck, Wegmans. I think you picked a good location, and it’s refreshing to see one more chain giving the Big Four price-gougers a black eye.
Nicole, Worcester 
I will say there is MORE parking and TWO entrances and exits, the one reason I never go to Millbury- Blackstone, they at least did that right,plus I feel in love with the TJ Maxx and the HUGE EMS up there now too. For me Wegmans is also a nice quick detour on the way home from work, and I usually do Whole Foods, 1-2 times a week and the Natural Food Section of Wegmans is indeed cheaper for me.
Thanks for the report-back, Nicole! I do most of my shopping between Price Chopper (which is a couple blocks away, a nice walk by Elm Park) and Wal-Mart, with an occasional stop at Price Rite on my way to or from work. But I’ve been visiting the Market Basket in Oxford every so often because it was the store I grew up going to and because they are quite inexpensive. Where is there a Hannaford around here? I grew up with those, too.
I heard a rumor that Market Basket is going to be on Park Ave in Worcester and hope that it does come! Do you know how I can verify a rumor like that?
Ask Bill Randell. He tends to be up on that kind of rumor mill.
The closest Hannaford is in Clinton (which isn’t terribly close) but that’s one of my favorite supermarket chains.
Clinton might be closest for the north & east parts of Worcester & the eastern/northern suburbs. If you’re on the western edge of Worcester or the western towns, the North Brookfield Hannaford might be a better choice.
http://tinyurl.com/6ggkr64
[…] even tried a few out-of-the-way stores, such as the new Wegmans, Atkins Farm in Amherst, and Whole Foods in Hadley. Same selections. But, each store offered […]
the way that 2,000 ppl camped out there on dayone, you would think that they had Steve Jobs back from the dead