Dive Brief:

• Wegmans intends to open a pair of stores it is currently building in North Carolina in the spring, according to the East Coast supermarket chain. Without being specific, the company said in an article posted to its website that its location in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, will open in the early spring, followed in the late spring by a store in Wake Forest, North Carolina.
• The East Coast supermarket chain intends to hire about 400 employees for each of the two stores and intends to begin training workers who will be assigned to the locations at its existing stores in Raleigh and West Cary, North Carolina.
• The two new stores will be the third and fourth of six locations Wegmans has either announced for or already opened in the Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, area as part of what it describes as one of its speediest building sprees in a new market.

Dive Insight:

Wegmans, which runs more than 100 stores in seven states, is in the middle of a high-octane expansion program in North Carolina that will see it open at least four stores in the Raleigh-Durham region in less than two years.

The grocery chain opened its first North Carolina store last September in Raleigh, attracting 30,000 people on opening day, 3,000 of whom were in line before the doors were unlocked. The enthusiasm reflected what Wegmans said were years of entreaties by North Carolina residents eager for the New York-based company to set up operations in the state.

In July, Wegmans’ second North Carolina location, in West Cary, made a much more low-key debut under decidedly less optimal conditions brought on by the pandemic. The retailer reversed plans to open the store quietly, instead welcoming shoppers with music and employees lined up to greet them as they walked in.

In a sign of the impact Wegmans had on the West Cary community, the chain attracted applications from more than 8,000 people hoping to land jobs in the new store, according to the company.

Wegmans’ location in Chapel Hill is arriving later than originally planned because of complications the company encountered in developing the site, which had been home to a car dealer and had to be cleaned up, according to The Local Reporter, which focuses on coverage of the Chapel Hill area.

The store, which is still under construction, had been expected to open in late 2019 and then in the spring or summer of 2020 before being delayed until next year. At 99,000 square feet, it will be smaller than the 130,000-square-foot facility the grocer had asked local authorities for permission to construct.

The Wake Forest store, which Wegmans announced in 2018, is expected to occupy up to 100,000 square feet, according to the chain.