In February 2004, Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. will be opening its first Virginia store in the Dulles Corridor. Jim Nicholas, a 30-year Wegmans employee, will be the store manager.
"Our goal is to bring a lot of departments to this area that we see aren't currently available to the consumer now," said Nicholas, a Northern Virginia resident who has managed the Princeton, N.J. store and six other Wegmans stores since 1980. He joined the company at age 22 and moved up from a clean-up clerk in the bakery to store management, working in every department in the store, he said.
Wegmans is a private, family-owned supermarket chain headquartered in Rochester, N.Y. that was founded in 1916 by the Wegman family. Wegmans now operates 65 stores, 52 in New York, 10 in Pennsylvania and three in New Jersey.
The store in Dulles will provide "high perishable" goods and an assortment of food items in separated departments and aisles of the store. Some of the departments will include scratch baked bread and other bakery items, produce from around the world, deli items and gourmet cheese, seafood, service meat, health food and a patisserie, along with a 200-seat Market Cafe with hot-line entrees, soups, salads and specialty coffees.
"It's almost like an aisle of shops," Nicholas said.
Wegmans selected Loudoun for its fast-growing population and demographics. "You have to look at the area. We are a family-friendly type of organization," Nicholas said.
Wegmans is scheduled to open on Feb. 29 at 45131 Columbia Place at the intersection of Route 28 and Waxpool Road. The building is 90 percent completed with finishing work under way, along with the installation of racks and the building of the brick oven, a two-week project. The building will span 130,000 square feet.