Update: Wegmans has instituted measures designed to increase the distance between people at checkout. Customers are asked to stand behind a line on the floor as they approach the register, place their reusable bags and their groceries on the belt, then remain at this distance as the cashier scans and bags groceries. The only point…
Month: March 2020
Stop using cash
Update: Wegmans has introduced measures designed to reduce contamination from money. Customers are now asked to place bills and/or coins on the shelf next to the payment screen. The cashier takes the cash from the shelf, and places change on the same shelf for the customer to pick up. The shelf and the rest of…
Wegmans again cuts hours
Wegmans has announced another temporary curtailment of shopping hours. All stores will be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. (Update: Beginning March 20, the Brooklyn and New Jersey stores will be open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.) The company has also temporarily closed: Market Café seating areas In-store Pubs Select Burger Bars Amore Next Door
Winner of TP olympics is still a loser
Our store entrance is 207 steps from the toilet-paper display. This is a distance of about 158 meters or 173 yards, or almost the length of two 90-yard dashes, which today’s first shopper covered in just 1.3 minutes, only to be met with disappointment. The shelves were bare. His letdown was followed by despair from…
How to assist grocery workers
Thoughts from a Wegmans employee on ways you can help slow the spread of the coronavirus and speed up lines at the registers. Use the hand sanitizer provided at store entrances. If your store doesn’t have sanitizing stations, tell the manager you want them. Curb your worst instincts. Do you really need every package of…
It’s still crazy, but maybe a little less crazy
Hundreds of people stood outside the store entrance Saturday morning, the first shopping day after Wegmans announced it was curtailing nighttime operations. The scene when the doors opened was like something from the Oklahoma land rush. Customers sprinted inside, grabbed carts and hurried toward the far corner of the store, toward the toilet paper and…
Lonely left-behinds
On Saturday night, before the arrival of the delivery trucks, items remaining on otherwise empty shelves looked almost forlorn, like rejects on the island of misfit groceries. There was the gefilte fish… and the sauerkraut… and the squid-ink pasta… and, of course, we’ll always have Peeps.
Wegmans issues a polite suggestion that you stop hoarding
Wegmans posted the following press release this morning: We want you to know, we are here for you, and our doors remain open. Our people are giving their very best to serve you. We recognize you may not find everything you expect at the moment and we appreciate your understanding. If we can all please…
The rush, and then the emptiness
The public response to the Wegmans announcement that it was curtailing hours? Another stampede. This is more than panic buying. It’s an insatiable need to do something, to connect with a trusted provider at a time when other sources of support are shutting down or failing. (School closings and event cancellations are justifiable; the lack…
Use the Purell!
Most of you seem to be ignoring the sanitizer stations Wegmans has set up at store entrances. Please don’t. Note the sign below the dispenser: Attention Customers: We politely ask that you apply hand sanitizer before you enter our store. The stations are not only for your protection, but for that of store employees and…