Wegmans Grand Opening in Raleigh, NC - October 2019

1200 Wake Towne Drive

Raleigh, NC  27609

(984) 960-5600

🎃  Exterior View 🎃 

Wegmans has finally opened a store in North Carolina. They chose Raleigh as their first location. The Grand Opening was on September 29th at 7 am. Future locations will be opening in Cary, Durham, Chapel Hill, and Holly Springs. On opening day they had 3,000 people waiting for the doors to open at 7 am. Some people started waiting the night before. On opening day they had 30,000 customers which is a record Grand Opening for Wegmans. Customers came from all over the state, some even stayed in hotels nearby just to shop there! Customers originally from New York and New Jersey speak very highly of this grocery chain. The parking lot was filled with NJ and NY license plates.

They are located in the shopping center off Wake Forest Road next door to Trader Joes. Their hours are from 6 am to midnight daily. They have a two-story parking deck. When we visited on Sunday, October 6th around 4 pm it was easy to find a parking space, but it was near capacity. They need a fan because the exhaust fumes are lingering, so I recommend parking on the top floor of the parking deck. There are outdoor escalators, a cart escalator, and two elevators to get to the 2nd level which is where the store is located. They have an employee assisting the customers with the cart escalator. The Raleigh Police blocked the front of the store so no one could drive past. 

Once you enter the store you'll find it is very congested since they have all their shopping carts parked at the entrance so it was time-consuming to get into the store. They need to move some of those carts outside to make room for all their customers! As soon as you get past that area it opens up and this is the view:

Produce Department Near Entrance

The Produce Department is very crowded since this is the area you need to walk through to get to any other department.  It's a very large department and we had some sticker shock. Their organic produce prices are similar to Whole Foods. I prefer produce from Lidl, it's fresher, looks better and it's reasonably priced. I purchased a pint of Blueberries for $3.99, a bag of lemons for $3.99, Gala Apples for $1.99 lb and organic bananas for $.59 lb. After taking a closer look at the apples at home, I'm not crazy about the quality. There were a few extra low prices scattered around the store and those organic bananas were one of them. The rest of their organic produce was overpriced. I recommend walking to the right and shopping the non-refrigerated food isles first which is less crowded.

View in Produce Looking Left

Shortly after arriving in the Produce Department look to your left and you will see the bakery, the buffet, followed by premade pizza, sandwiches, and salads. The prices of the premade salads were awfully pricey for a grocery store. A $12.00 premade medium-sized salad, no thank you. The cheapest one I saw was $8.00. I recommend going to a restaurant instead or one of the many salad restaurants that have recently opened. Here's a peek at part of the bakery:

Bakery Case

They have another case to the right of it filled with cakes. I've never seen so much cake! To the left of this case were some other premade desserts which gave me sticker shock again. $14.00 for a small pastry that would feed only two people. Skip that and buy pastries from Costco or make them yourself. I also like Harris Teeter's single servings which are always tasty and fresh. Publix offers some yummy creations also. I love their half pies and their Birthday Cake. I couldn't locate the donuts, though it was so crowded they were probably out of my view. For donuts, I prefer Krispy Kreme and Hubby prefers Duck Donuts, it's worth the extra trip. Wegmans has lots of freshly baked bread which were all very tempting. I like how they offer half loaves which are great for our family since I'm the only one eating it. The Apple Cider Raisin Bread half loaf I bought costs $3.50. I don't like how narrow it is, but toasted with a bit of Kerrygold Irish Butter is a scrumptious delight. I also wanted to try their Rosemary Bread to compare it to Costco's tasty creation, maybe next time. On to the Sushi, here's a view of part of the sushi case:

Sushi Case

The ones on the top left were priced at $12.99 which is ok. I would consider buying some of their sushi. It was too busy to be able to see all their offerings and make a selection, so I passed this time. While standing in front of the sushi case turn to your left and this will be your view of the Buffet:

Buffet

They offer rows of buffet offerings for $9.99 a pound. I'm not a fan of buffets since the food is usually not fresh nor hot. It was very popular, so maybe it's ok here. You'll have to walk quite a distance to find the cashiers to ring up your food, get a drink and find a place to sit. I thought it was odd how far apart they were. It's located on the far left of the store, walk past the Burger Bar Restaurant. Here's what that looks like:

Cashiers at Entrance to Dining Room

Self-serve soft drinks are $1.79 each. The Burger Bar Restaurant wasn't impressive to me, it's basically a very small fast food restaurant. You order at the front and hope to find an empty booth over to the left.  You'd be better off eating at Cava which is located in the same shopping center or BurgerFi next to Trader Joes. 

Walking back over to the Sushi and towards the rear of the store, you will find the premade take-home dinner and side selections then the marinated chicken and pork. We purchased a 2 pack of Cilantro Lime Chicken Breasts for $6.44, 2 Peruvian Cutlets for $6.94, Garlic Parmasean Chicken Thighs for $6.29, and Garlic Pork Loin for $7.80. So far we have tried the Cilantro Lime Chicken and the Pork Lion which were tasty. Keep walking to the rear of the store and you'll find the meats and seafood to the right. They offer whole ducks for $30 and duck breasts for around $17.00. A whole marinated chicken is around $12.00. Don't forget to pick up some NY Italian Sweet Sausage Patties, yum! A pack of 6 costs $7.28. Hubby bought 6 large scallops for $4.30 which was a great deal and he said they were very tasty.

To the right of the meats in the rear of the store is where the deli case and gourmet cheese department are located. They have a very large selection of cheeses. We buy our fancy cheeses from Costco since the prices can't be beat. The wait to get service at the deli was long, be sure to take a number. I prefer Publix since I order in advance and it's waiting for me when I get there. I also prefer Boar's Head brand which isn't offered at Wegmans. Hubby has been enjoying the Cooper Cheese ($7.29 lb.), White American Cheese ($4.99 lb.), Seasoned Roast Beef ($11.49 lb), Uncured Sandwich Pepperoni ($8.99 lb.), and Old Fashioned Ham ($7.99 lb.). Perfect for those on a low carb diet. He says their Pepperoni is the best he's ever had and he's never seen Cooper Cheese sold in the south before. If you leave that area and start walking the rear of the store towards the right you'll find the dairy department. They have a large Vegan section. I saw quite of few Vegan products throughout the store. They also have some reasonably priced regular block cheeses for $1.99. They have a small selection of eggs, so if you want cage-free buy them elsewhere. Their regular large eggs are only $.58 a dozen. It's one of the items they underprice to get you in the door. Passing through the Dairy Department you'll come upon the Floral Department on your right which is next to the Produce Department. While their flowers smelled wonderful, looked beautiful and fresh, they were on the pricey side. For arrangents I prefer Publix and Costco. For flowers without a vase, I prefer Walmart. Take a look at some of their flowers:

Floral Department

At the far right of the store, you'll find the large Beer & Wine Department. I picked up some of the large bottles of Yellow Tail Wine for $8.99 which usually runs around $9.99 to $11.99, so that was a bargain. Barefoot was $8.99 also. I don't remember seeing it at that low of a price before, so I would shop for wine there again. They also have a large selection of North Carolina wines. Take a peek at just part of this department:

Wine & Beer Department

We then walked through some of the non-refrigerated isles looking at peanut butter, crackers, etc. We found some of their sections had a very small selection such as the eggs and peanut butter. We found their frozen food section to be smaller in comparison to the competition. I prefer the selection at Harris Teeter and Publix and the prices at Food Lion. For frozen vegetables, Publix's brand is my favorite. I didn't find an international section of foods that I enjoy at Publix. Once they open the Cary and Holly Springs locations I'll probably shop there once or twice a month, but I'll be very picky about my selections. I would repurchase the wine, deli meats, sausage, regular cheddar cheese, seafood on special, poultry, and fresh bread. I plan to try their sushi next time.

Checkout

Finally, we reached the checkout lines. They have more registers than I've seen in any NC grocery store plus a large self-checkout section. The question is how many will be open once the grand opening madness dies down. The lines weren't long and we were checked out quite fast and they had a bagger. The bagger didn't do a very good job though. Customer service was either excellent or horrible. An employee in the produce department completely ignored my husband when he was asking for some fresh mint. Finally, another employee said she would have to go and look to see if they had more, but didn't offer to. Normally, one expects to hear "let me go check to see if we have any in the back, I'll be back in a couple of minutes". Some of the employees stocking shelves didn't mind the customers and interfered with their ability to shop. When I shop at Publix all the employees acknowledge customers and smile. They always move out of the way if I'm looking at something they are stocking. The deli, seafood, and meat department employees were the only ones who showed respect to their customers. If you want help with taking your groceries to the car, go to Publix, Wegmans doesn't offer that service. If you don't like crowds and rude self-centered customers, I'd wait at least a month to visit or wait until they open their 2nd Triangle location.

If you have visited a Wegmans store before, I'd love to hear about your experience. Comment below! Be sure to browse around before you go, I'm sure you'll find some other posts that interest you.

Have a PEACEful Day!