No stores are very close to our rental house here in Pennsyl-tucky so a quick run down to the corner market is out of the question. We hoped to find a one-stop shop that could fill the large shoes noted above and satisfy our rather discerning (aka, picky) palates in the process, but were unimpressed by Giant and Acme. Personally, I can't help thinking about the old Looney Tunes cartoons in which the Road Runner faces off with Wile E. Coyote whenever I see the word "acme", which invariably manufactured the seemingly endless supply of devices with which the self-proclaimed Super-Genius detonated himself.
Wegman's, however, is in an entirely different category and merits some discussion. Kenn had heard the name mentioned a couple of times during conversations with locals leading up to his relocation. As luck would have it a large Wegman's store was close-by the corporate housing in which we lived during October.
In a nutshell, Wegman's is a combination grocery store, cafeteria, and food bar, with a beer store thrown in for good measure. The supermarket side of the store would remind Boiseans of Fred Meyer in its breadth and depth. The produce section is good and their gluten-free section is the best of any store in the area to our knowledge.
What distinguishes Wegman's, though, is the cafeteria and food bar. One can get an enormous range of cuisine including Asian, Indian, soups, pizza, deli sandwiches, kosher foods, fish, on and on. The Wegman's near Kenn's office is mobbed at lunchtime with workers from the area's office parks, and the Taters admit to grabbing Asian food to-go on nights when cooking dinner didn't seem in the cards.
Wegman's is also one of the few grocery stores (maybe the only - we haven't visited them all!) with a license to sell beer. And, they sell beer by the single or six-pack as well as case, whereas the state-run stores sell only by the case. We'll write another post on Pennsylvania's labyrinthine liquor laws but suffice it to say that this fact is a major draw for those of us who like to grab a six-pack to go with our pizza (or whatever.) The selection from the Northeast and elsewhere around the US and world is good; the fact the Wegman's sells beer this way has allowed Kenn to try a number of the micro-brews from Pennsylvania (the subject of another upcoming post) and for Tina to keep a stock of hard cider on hand. For those who can't handle the suspense, our favorites are from Victory Brewing and Strongbow respectively.
By our reckoning, though, Wegman's has been a little too successful at their effort to become a community center (or leech for your hard-earned cash, depending on your perspective). The stores are often so crowded that one literally cannot navigate the aisles while pushing a cart; we've found it far less frustrating to carry a basket or simply load up one's arms rather than playing bumper carts with dozens of others vying for milk or chicken breasts or veggies or whatever.
The parking lots are a similarly stress-filled environment, with vacant spaces difficult to come by (particularly at the absurdly busy Downingtown store) and ones near the store entrance the site of numerous skirmishes. The parking lot anxiety can spill out in unfortunate ways: During the holiday season it was pointedly recommended that Tina "go back home to Idaho" by a Mercedes-driving fellow patron who was incensed that Tina, whose car still proudly sports Idaho license plates, had somehow offended her. (Tina's response won't be printed here as this is a "family-oriented" blog.)
So, friends, keep us in your thoughts as you navigate the aisles at Albertson's, Fred Meyer's, Winco, Kroger, the Boise Co-op, or wherever else you find yourself grazing for items to stock your larder. We'll surely be doing the reverse as we jockey for a parking space or sheepishly fill to-go containers of orange chicken...
UPDATE: Saturday 21 Jan 2012
Around noon today we discovered the secret to a half-full Wegman's parking lot: Three inches of snow. Seriously.
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