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The Anti-Walmart: The Secret Sauce of Wegmans Is People
The Atlantic ^ | MAR 23 2012 | DAVID ROHDE

Posted on 03/27/2012 5:47:33 AM PDT by seton89

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Cashiers are barred from interacting with customers until they have completed 40 hours of training. Hundreds of staffers are sent on trips around the U.S. and world to become experts in their products. The company has no mandatory retirement age and has never laid off workers. All profits are reinvested in the company or shared with employees. A doomed Internet startup? Occupy Wall Street fantasy? Bankrupt retailer recently purchased by Walmart?

No, a $6.2 billion-a-year, 79-store-supermarket chain with cult-like loyalty among its customers. Wegmans, which operates its 79 stores in New York, Pennsylvania and four other East Coast states, shows that a business can generously train its workforce and profit handsomely.

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Food
KEYWORDS:
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To: newnhdad
About two years ago I decided to avoid Shopping at Wegmnan’s. Everything good thing the article says about the store is true. It's even better than the article has it: the food is excellent, the selection is unequaled, the prices are good, the wine selection is wonderful, the service is all you could want. The problem is that all of those factors add up to your spending at least twice as much as you otherwise would. I'll stay with Safeway where the prices are high and the selection is bland. I buy less, eat just as well, and save twice as much.
21 posted on 03/27/2012 6:43:18 AM PDT by PUGACHEV
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To: seton89

Only trouble is they let people who drive Camrys and Buicks drive carts on Saturday Afternoon.....This is the origin of my “I Hate People” song (to the tune of “I Feel Pretty!”)


22 posted on 03/27/2012 6:48:45 AM PDT by Shady (The undeniable truth of the Obama Administration...The numbers do not lie.)
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To: cripplecreek
Here in the midwest the alternative to Wally World is Meijer stores.

I sure miss Meijers and I love shopping there when I have a chance to go home.

I may be wrong but I think they had the "superstore" concept in place before Wally World. As a child I remember going to the toy and sporting goods section while my mom shopped for groceries and my father shopped the hardware area.

23 posted on 03/27/2012 6:50:49 AM PDT by OldMissileer (Atlas, Titan, Minuteman, PK. Winners of the Cold War)
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To: seton89

Here in NE Ohio we have Giant Eagle, Giant Eagle OR Giant Eagle. Closest Wegman’s is in Erie, PA. Wish they would open a store a few miles west in Ohio.


24 posted on 03/27/2012 6:56:14 AM PDT by bonfire
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To: kidd

The Wal Marts in metro NYC and South Florida are rather surly in terms of service. Trader Joes’s and Wegman’s provide quite a nice contrast.


25 posted on 03/27/2012 6:56:23 AM PDT by Clemenza ("History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil governm)
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To: OldMissileer

Seems like Meijer’s in Jackson Michigan was once the world’s largest single store of its type when it was built in the late 60s or early 70s.

There are two of them in Jackson today.


26 posted on 03/27/2012 6:56:41 AM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: cripplecreek

Amen, I love Meijer’s, best produce.


27 posted on 03/27/2012 6:57:07 AM PDT by gattaca (Great things can be accomplished if you don't care who gets the credit. Ronald Reagan)
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas

Trader Joes is a good place to shop, but you can fit several of them into one Wegman’s store. I visit Wegmans in State College PA when I visit my college student daughter.


28 posted on 03/27/2012 6:58:17 AM PDT by jdsteel (Give me freedom, not more government.)
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To: seton89
The Secret Sauce of Wegmans Is People

At first, I thought this was the sequel to Soylant Green.

5.56mm

29 posted on 03/27/2012 7:00:16 AM PDT by M Kehoe
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To: seton89

Wegmans’ subs.


30 posted on 03/27/2012 7:04:59 AM PDT by 92nina
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To: seton89
bullcrap - Im here in Roch and Ive met Danny - the co is ruthless to vendors - local brands are brought in for a couple years - then the recipe is pirated and you are kicked out - To get in - the broker adds 40% and wegs adds 40% - so to remain marketable, the producers cut is minimal - in my case, my bbq sauce would have made less than .10/jar - no thanks

additionally - the prices are high end ......profits are not shared with employees.....high end walmart of the east

31 posted on 03/27/2012 7:07:03 AM PDT by Revelation 911 (How many 100's of 1000's of our servicemen died so we would never bow to a king?" -freeper pnh102)
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To: seton89

Wow! That is great to know. Details? Maybe they could be something like Tom Monaghans (sp?)...the former Domino’s guy who has funded so many good Catholic causes and educational efforts.


32 posted on 03/27/2012 7:12:52 AM PDT by ConservativeDude
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To: Revelation 911

the co is ruthless to vendors”

You know, I was about to post a thought, really an assumption or speculation and it was this: probably better to work FOR Wegman’s rather than WITH them...and I was about to speculate that they are probably ruthless with suppliers.

Not that I have a problem with that. To get profit, you have to squeeze somewhere. Vendors are capitalists also and they can go elsewhere, too. But that was my thought: lavish foreign trips on the cheese counter folks, but I’ll bet the cheese wholesalers aren’t enjoying any of those perks. (Which makes them not so unlike Wal Mart if you think about it.....)

Will it work longterm? I don’t know. Maybe maybe not. But always interesting to see and consider. So long as they remain profitable, I wish them well!


33 posted on 03/27/2012 7:16:37 AM PDT by ConservativeDude
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To: seton89

I’m surprised the article didn’t mention anything about Alec Baldwin. His mother famously refuses to move from Syracuse to Hollywood because she doesn’t want to give up Wegmans, and Alec volunteered to do TV commercials for the store. After his airlines antics last December, Wegmans pulled the ads because some customers complained that he was not an appropriate representative. When lots more customers complained about that decision, Wegmans put him back on the air.


34 posted on 03/27/2012 7:33:02 AM PDT by drjimmy
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To: seton89

Born and raised in Rochester, and Wegman’s was the grocery store to go to even back then. They’ve only improved over the years. The closest store to me is about 45 minutes west of here in Fayetteville, NY. I’ll take a ride out there every so often, then stop at the Red Robin for a bite. Although they’ve expanded to different states, they’ve never opened any stores east of Syracuse. I’ve never been able to understand that.


35 posted on 03/27/2012 7:47:49 AM PDT by mass55th (Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway...John Wayne)
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To: PUGACHEV

I agree. We have a small grocery here in town. Then a superstore was built down the road. The superstore, under the banner of health is pushing bad food choices. The little market has great meat and I can shop the perimeter, where most healthy food is, in 10 miniutes. One small cartful and there is senior pricing twice a week.

Their individual items are a few cents more, but I save lot of time and money by staying out of the maxi-stores.


36 posted on 03/27/2012 7:56:43 AM PDT by Chickensoup (In the 20th century 200 million people were killed by their own governments.)
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To: Cailleach

Ping


37 posted on 03/27/2012 7:59:42 AM PDT by kalee (The offenses we give, we write in the dust; Those we take, we engrave in marble. J Huett 1658)
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To: seton89

Since I moved out of Buffalo, Wegman’s is one of the only things I miss. There’s one over in Jamestown about 45 mins. away, so now when I go there it’s a real treat. Not sure if it’s still true, but for years, Wegman’s was also the most profitable grocery chain in the country.


38 posted on 03/27/2012 8:51:14 AM PDT by BfloGuy (The final outcome of the credit expansion is general impoverishment.)
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To: oh8eleven

[ The Secret Sauce of Wegmans ...
Another Wegmans “secret” that’s just starting to get reported:
They have at least one cashier who’s Muslim who refuses to handle any pork products or alcohol.
She has a sign posted ar her register asking you to respect her religious views and asks you to move to another line if you’re buying any of these items.
I wonder if they’ve accommodated any other cashiers for religious reasons such as those who find contraception products offensive? ]

So if you get a Raw Vegan cashier you won’t be able to buy and meat/eggs/pasta/milk/etc.....


39 posted on 03/27/2012 8:56:57 AM PDT by GraceG
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To: cripplecreek
My sister lives just up the road in Leslie and shops in Jackson all the time. I was raised in Lansing and we would shop the Meijer out on West Saginaw Ave. I remember when it opened. I was really young at the time but the place was a wonderland for a little kid back then.
40 posted on 03/27/2012 8:57:51 AM PDT by OldMissileer (Atlas, Titan, Minuteman, PK. Winners of the Cold War)
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