Wegmans' Trend Toward Smaller Spaces Continues With New Pennsylvania Store
Regional grocer Wegmans Food Markets will open its second store in Bucks County, Pa., on March 20. Located at 925 Vansant Drive in Yardley, the 88,000-square-foot supermarket will be part of the Prickett Preserve development, which includes commercial, residential and retail facilities.
The new store will feature all of the traditional departments Wegmans is known for, including restaurant foods (sushi, pizza, chef-made salads and sandwiches); an abundant produce department with hundreds of different fruits and vegetables; and a wide variety of seafood, meat, bakery, deli and cheese options. The store will also offer one-stop shopping, with approximately 1,200 wines and 500 varieties of domestic, craft and imported beers and hard ciders.
The Yardley location continues Wegmans’ strategy of opening smaller-format stores. In the past, the East Coast grocer had opened stores as large as 150,000 square feet, especially in affluent suburbs. In 2021, however, the retailer started going smaller, opening stores closer to 100,000 square feet in size.
Wegmans went even smaller in 2022, when it debuted a 81,300-square-foot store in Alexandria, Va. In an interview with USA Today in December 2022, CEO Colleen Wegman confirmed that the company is trying to get away from opening larger stores.
Wegmans’ most recent new store opened in October. The retailer debuted its nearly 90,000-square-foot Astor Place store in the historic New York City neighborhood of Greenwich Village – its first in Manhattan and second in the New York metropolitan area.
Meanwhile, Wegmans is still hiring for part-time positions and select full-time positions at its upcoming Yardley store. The new location aims to employ more than 400 people in full- and part-time positions.
“We’ve been working hard to hire and train new employees, and we’re looking for more enthusiastic candidates to round out our team before opening day,” said Store Manager Bill Platt. “Construction on the new store is nearly complete, and we’re thrilled to begin the countdown to March 20th, when we can open our doors to our neighbors in the Yardley community.”
The company also operates a Bucks County store in Warrington.
Family-owned Wegmans operates 110 stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland and Massachusetts. The company is No. 37 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2023 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. PG also named Wegmans a Top Regional to watch in 2023 and one of this year's 10 Most Sustainable Grocers.
