Long Island’s first Wegmans supermarket finally arrives on Wednesday morning in Lake Grove.
Traditional hours on all successive days will be 6 a.m. to midnight—yes, you read that right.
On its inaugural day of business, the chain’s animatronic rooster mascot, Casanova, will be on the scene to meet and greet those who turn out.
Located at 3260 Middle Country Road, Wegmans of Lake Grove first began crewing up its store staff last March. The new store will employ more than 500 people.
According to Long Island Business News, this won’t be the last Wegmans to touch down on the island, either. Brokers are already plotting three or four location sites on properties that can accommodate even more 100,000-square-foot supermarkets.
If the “Chick-fil-A-ification” of Long Island’s fast food scene over the past decade is any indication, expect Wegmans—vastly popular elsewhere—to become another Long Island staple in due time.
Its upstate presence notwithstanding, Wegmans opened its first NYC store in Oct. 2019. The Brooklyn location clocks in at approx. 74,000-square feet. Next, an 87,5000-square-foot store was erected and ready for business on Astor Place in Manhattan by Oct. 2023.
Wegmans corporate purchased the 8.5-acre Lake Grove development site from DSW Plaza’s owner, Prestige Properties & Development, for a whopping $15.3 million sum that same year.
The 1916-established chain isn’t the only supermarket that has announced its foothold extension onto Long Island turf.
The Phoenix, Arizona-headquartered Sprouts Farmers Market just revealed it will soon take over the 24,000-square feet of the 43,000-square space recently freed up at 1934 Middle Country Road in Centereach, just up the road from the new Wegmans.
Locals will remember this as the former stomping grounds of L.A. Fitness of Centereach—not to be confused with the nearby, and still in operation L.A. Fitness of Lake Grove, itself having been the beloved Sports Plus once upon a time. L.A. Fitness vacated the Centereach premises at the conclusion of 2024, further paving the way for the future of Long Island grocery, Sprouts hopes.
Per the company’s website, the fast-growing specialty realtor that recently converted a New Jersey Waldbaum’s targets higher-income consumers who hold health and wellness at the forefront of their priorities.
The average Sprouts shopper is 46 years old and has an average annual household income of $121,000.