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Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Originally Posted by tylerSC
Do we think long term they are interested in Florida? I guess because of an abundance of Northeastern and Mid Atlantic vacationers and transplants that makes that an attractive region. Wawa has skipped from Virginia over the Carolinas and Georgia and opened in Florida. But of course they have some sort of noncompete agreement to avoid QuikTrip territory.
But Florida has room for more supermarket competitors. Publix dominates, along with Walmart and the remains of Winn-Dixie. Only one Harris Teeter near Jacksonville. Albertsons and Food Lion pulled out. So could be a good long term move for Wegmans, but that may be a stretch from the Virginia distribution center. We'll see if they get to Charlotte first.
Danny Wegman wants to get into Florida. I've seen it mentioned in other grocery threads. I think it might have been one of the Wegmans threads on the Triangle board where I first saw it.
They usually go into an area and plant a few stores then move on. What they did in the Triangle is unusual for them, but they've gone into a more spread out area. They planted a handful of stores in the Philadelphia suburbs then moved on, but they kept coming back to add. Heck, they're adding a store in the Wilmington Delaware area that will be the first Wegmans in Delaware.
It would make sense for them to drop a store in Greensboro on their way to Charlotte. On the other hand, they may head straight to Charlotte. It's hard to say. Coming to Charlotte will mean leaving the I95 corridor where they've been planting stores for about 20 years. I sincerely doubt that they'll go south on 95 from Raleigh. Their ultimate aim is to get to Florida, so they'll be headed south on 95, but they'll take the fork in the road for 85 to get to Charlotte. Once they plant stores in the Charlotte market I suspect that they'll go to Wilmington NC then potentially Spartanburg, Greenville, Ashville, Winston-Salem, Myrtle Beach, and Charleston I don't know about other locations in SC. But dropping a store in Savannah gets them almost to Florida, whereas Atlanta would hold them up. With Florida as their goal, I would guess that they'd start planting stores in the Atlanta area after they get into Florida. The Triangle and Charlotte have much better demographics for them.
We had a couple of stores within a few miles of where we used to live in the DC area. We were nowhere near I95. So it's certainly feasible they will put some in the Charlotte area.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,814 posts, read 34,670,113 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Riley09swb
We had a couple of stores within a few miles of where we used to live in the DC area. We were nowhere near I95. So it's certainly feasible they will put some in the Charlotte area.
Oh, they'll definitely take the fork in the road in Richmond and take 85 to Charlotte. The demographics are too good for them to ignore Charlotte. The only question in my mind is if they drop a store in Greensboro on the way.
They've been working the I 95 corridor for about 20 years, heading south, but that doesn't mean that they stay on I 95. They have stores in Charlottesville, Virginia and State College Pennsylvania, but not in Pittsburgh. That's why I'm saying that they will take 85 to excellent demographics in Charlotte and may stay on 85 for Greenville and Spartanburg, but I don't think that they'll worry about Atlanta in the trip south to Florida. They'll have to build another distribution center, probably in Florida, so they can worry about Atlanta at that time. They're just now building a store in Delaware. They might do several NC cities after they've moved south of it.
Danny Wegman wants to get into Florida. I've seen it mentioned in other grocery threads. I think it might have been one of the Wegmans threads on the Triangle board where I first saw it.
Doesn't Wegman's only have around 100 stores? They are still relatively a small player up against Publix with over 1200 stores and Kroger with probably close to 3,000 Kroger owned stores across the country. IMO they are going to be up against a lot of good competition in the Carolina's (HT,Publix, Ingle's and Lowe's). Maybe a bit different than the Northeast.
Kroger just beat them to it in Florida with it's new automated fulfillment center for home delivery.
Doesn't Wegman's only have around 100 stores? They are still relatively a small player up against Publix with over 1200 stores and Kroger with probably close to 3,000 Kroger owned stores across the country. IMO they are going to be up against a lot of good competition in the Carolina's (HT,Publix, Ingle's and Lowe's). Maybe a bit different than the Northeast.
Kroger just beat them to it in Florida with it's new automated fulfillment center for home delivery.
Wegmans blows HT and Publix out of the water. Have you ever been? There are so many NE, DC, etc transplants here in the Carolina's that will flock to Wegmans. Personally, I can't wait. We had two Wegmans near us when I lived in the DC area and they competed against HT/Giant Food/Safeways up there and I don't think it was much of a competition, to be honest.
The more challenging thing for Wegmans will be finding 15 acres of real estate as a late entrant into the market in areas like Ballantyne, South Park, et. There are lots of organizations and companies trying to accumulate smaller parcels or large land hold outs in order to build. Examples being Novant Hospital securing Hall Family Farm (one of the last continuous large land holdings in Ballantyne) and Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools struggling to find a spot for a new high school to relive Ardrey Kell and South Meck. Wegmans may be limited to secondary locations such as a strip mall in Pineville rather than being right in the heart of Ballantyne, et.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,814 posts, read 34,670,113 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CLT4
The more challenging thing for Wegmans will be finding 15 acres of real estate as a late entrant into the market in areas like Ballantyne, South Park, et. There are lots of organizations and companies trying to accumulate smaller parcels or large land hold outs in order to build. Examples being Novant Hospital securing Hall Family Farm (one of the last continuous large land holdings in Ballantyne) and Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools struggling to find a spot for a new high school to relive Ardrey Kell and South Meck. Wegmans may be limited to secondary locations such as a strip mall in Pineville rather than being right in the heart of Ballantyne, et.
I think that they have to be 1- creative and 2 - stay suburban in Charlotte. But then, they are mostly suburban anyway. There is no Wegmans in Philadelphia or Baltimore, in the cities. None, zip, nada. They will look for locations easily accessible from city neighborhoods of interest to them
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,814 posts, read 34,670,113 times
Reputation: 10256
Quote:
Originally Posted by vistatiger
Doesn't Wegman's only have around 100 stores? They are still relatively a small player up against Publix with over 1200 stores and Kroger with probably close to 3,000 Kroger owned stores across the country. IMO they are going to be up against a lot of good competition in the Carolina's (HT,Publix, Ingle's and Lowe's). Maybe a bit different than the Northeast.
Kroger just beat them to it in Florida with it's new automated fulfillment center for home delivery.
Wegmans has been competing with Teeter and Kroger for over 10 years in Virginia. They've been competing with Publix since Richmond. They're competing with Lowes Foods in the Triangle. Ingles is the only one that they haven't encountered.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,814 posts, read 34,670,113 times
Reputation: 10256
Quote:
Originally Posted by SGMI
If space is such an issue, maybe they should break the mold and see if US shoppers will go to a grocery with a second floor.
Wait? What did he just say?
Yeah, really - supermarkets can have second floors. A magnetic conveyor belt moves people and carts between floors. This is already done in Europe.
If people really believe Wegmans is the be-all (kind of like Trader Joe's shoppers) they could adapt.
This has been discussed in the grocery thread on the Philadelphia board. I've been in a 2 story grocery store in a small town in Luxembourg. It had paper goods, cards, etc.on the 2nd floor. Elevators had been installed, so people could take their carts up, but most people just left their carts by the staircase and walked up.
As for Wegmans, I suggested making 2 store fronts, Wegmans groceries and Wegmans Foods for bakery and premade foods, in Center City Philadelphia.
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