Wigmen on Wegmans
KEVIN
My favorite thing about Wegmans is the prepared food section, I think I must have gotten stuff from there maybe once a week or something when I lived in PA.
I don't know if they still have it, but the Indian food in the prepared food section was my absolute favorite. Pretty decent quality in an area of PA that didn't have a ton of available Indian food restaurants
Also Wegmans probably had one of the best beer sections of anywhere around for at least 3 or 4 years
RYAN
I used to go to Wegmans when I worked near one in Pennsylvania. I remember when I was very poor, I would buy a Wegmans branded paper cup in the beginning of the Week and come back everyday to fill it up with free soda. It was a grift that actually wasn’t that clever and I was sure that all the employees knew what I was doing and they didn’t really care too much.
KEVIN
Hahaha, that's so good
STEVE
Haha. Fuckin grifter
RYAN
Haha i told Steve before but when they do those free coffee days I would fill up a coffee cup full of Dr Pepper instead 😏
I almost got caught but ally convinced the cashier it was just cold brew haha
BRANDON
Hahaha, that’s so good.
STEVE
Haha that's right. Sneaky bastard. Tell them you use 95% creamer and just a dash of coffee
RYAN
Hahaha
BRANDON
One of my favorite parts about Wegmans is how it’s divided into the two sections: Beer/hot food buffet and the grocery store. The hot food section has always felt utilitarian in its design. Even when you’re lining up to pay for your food, it feels clinical, like I’m at the DMV. I appreciate that. There’s no frills or attitude applied to the process of buying three pounds of Lo Mein for myself. A lot of my Wegmans lunches would come out to be way more expensive than I should be paying for lunch but at the end of the day, I need these four slices of pizza and cup of white rice. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.
The grocery store section has this even more clinical feel, with everything feeling so brightly lit. It’s like I’m sneaking through Gattaca.
Of everything, my favorite part is their usual wall of assorted candies. It’s like a 1984 version of Willy Wonka. Any candy I could want for myself but it’s all split off into their own plastic cylinders. It’s my favorite section of the store but I can’t go as often as I would like. The last time I got candy from that section, I had an employee ask me if I needed any help. I said no and then maybe five minutes later, I had another person ask if I needed any help finding anything.
I think at the end of the day, I just look far too serious when I’m trying to decide how many peanut butter cups I want to buy for the day.
KEVIN
Hahaha, that's so good, B, you're right that whole hot food section is pretty utilitarian
I don't think I ever went to a different one than the Collegeville one--have you guys ever been to other locations?
I also can't remember if I ever ate in the Pub. Maybe once?
BRANDON
I’ve been to the one in Malvern when I worked up that way a few years ago. It’s pretty nice but I ended up running into coworkers too often and I can’t have that happen when I’m suffering from hunger madness.
RYAN
I used to go to the one in Malvern a lot as well also the King of Prussia one. I went to one somewhere in Maryland last year and it was solid!
Haha hunger madness
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten in the pub. Once COVID is over I’m gonna just sit in there all day, with my mouth wide open eating everything they have to offer
BRANDON
Hahahaha, I love that idea
STEVE
Yea I've been to a few different locations, not to brag... Pretty worldly as far as wegmanssss are concerned.
BRANDON
Hahahaha, well-traveled!
KEVIN
I still think Wegmans are better than Whole Foods or any other of the really fancy upscale grocery stores. Even when Whole Foods wasn't owned by Amazon, it still wasn't quite as good as Wegmans. That prepared food section in Wegmans is probably the best one I've seen in a grocery store
I like that there was sometimes live music in the dining area in Wegmans. Or did I hallucinate that?
Even though I rarely bought anything from the fancy cheese or charcuterie sections, it was still fun to walk through those areas and see what they had
SEAN
I have a story similar to Ryan’s but I wasn’t as successful at grifting as he was.
They had a really good selection of candies and dried fruits and stuff in those large bins in one of the “world foods” aisle, I think it was the same spot B was talking about too, it was massive . My girlfriend at the time was super into candied ginger (I should’ve known she was a lunatic because of this) and I wanted to surprise her with a big bag of the weird shit for her birthday or something. It was really expensive and I was broke so I tried to pass it off as gummy bears but I messed up entering the PLU at the checkout and the checker was alerted. I started sweating so hard and tried to say I messed up the number, but he laughed really loudly and put in the correct code. I had to pay like $17 for that bag of shit and was so embarrassed I don’t think I went back to that side of the store to pay for anything again.
Haha I don’t remember if they had live music, maybe in the pub section? That was a big deal that you could drink inside a grocery store in PA since their liquor laws are 300 years behind every other state’s.
Walking around and looking at all the prepared foods was the best, especially the bread aisle. They had so many different kinds of breads and loaves around the bakery, it felt magical haha. I wanted to take a bite out of each thing and put it back, that was a fantasy of mine I had for a while and still would love to fulfill.