baking

Yeast: the canary in the grocery store

Posted on May 12, 2020May 12, 2020 by Wegmaniacal

At the start of each shift, I do a quick circuit, marking all the touchstones. Sanitizers, wipes, toilet paper, meat, and yeast, always in that order. Inventory, I realize, isn’t a true measure of recovery. I am, after all, wearing a mask as I walk the aisles, and the store is closed overnight, as it…

Cake and cookies: your patriotic duty

Posted on March 31, 2020March 31, 2020 by Wegmaniacal

I spent much of last night filling shelves with sacks of flour and bags of sugar. In the continuous overbuying that has accompanied the COVID-19 crisis, flour and sugar are outranked only by hand sanitizers, paper towels and toilet paper. Baking, it would seem, is the ultimate comfort. Wegmans is selling cake mixes, chocolate chips,…

Upstate New Yorkers love their Wegmans, with a bond that newer customers in other parts of the East are discovering. As a customer and former employee, I share the obsession.

I launched Wegmaniacal in December 2019, to examine the cultlike following the company has developed since its founding in Rochester more than a century ago.

The site stagnated when I left Wegmans and returned to other endeavors. But with rising grocery prices, lowering environmental regulation, and pharmaceutical challenges, it’s time to resume writing here.

Much of what I have to say is positive. Nevertheless, the company is family owned and most of its operations are conducted in private. As a longtime journalist, I’ll also delve into topics Danny Wegman would prefer to keep behind closed doors.

— Laurie Bennett