County Gets New Wegmans

Gainesville Store To Open Today

Eighty-pound parmigiana cheese wheels from Italy, authentic French pastries and 500 varieties of produce are some of the items that await Prince William residents at the county's newest grocery store.

At 7 a.m. today, Wegmans employees will unlock the doors to a new 140,000-square-foot facility in the Shops at Stonewall center off Route 29 in Gainesville.

There will be no traditional ribbon-cutting to mark the event. Instead, the 600 employees will burst into song.

"All the employees gather in front and do the Wegmans cheer before we open a store," said Jo Natale, Wegmans media relations director. "I can't tell you how the cheer began, but I've been with the company 23 years, and we've always done it. We spell out Wegmans and shape the letters with our arms. . . . It's our tradition."

The Rochester, N.Y.-based company, which opened its first Prince William store in Woodbridge in June, has had its eyes on the county since 2005, when it was approached by Regency Centers, the company that operates the Gainesville shopping center, Natale said.

"We did our homework and determined this to be a good location," Natale said. "We wanted a spot with great regional access because people drive a long way to shop at our stores, and we wanted to be in a market where we would bring something unique and different."

The store's regular hours will be from 6 a.m. to midnight seven days a week. It will offer fresh seafood, a tea shop, a Mediterranean aisle, a deli with imported meats, a bakery with European and artisan breads and an "olde world cheese shop," where employees will crack fresh cheese wheels daily for some of the shop's more than 400 varieties.

The store also has a kosher deli, an international section, an 8,000-square-foot wine shop and more than 600 varieties of domestic and imported beer.

Newspapers from around the world can be found at the newsstand by the entrance, and seasonal items, dinnerware, kitchen tools and cards are in the back corner.

"Some people walk into our stores and are shocked, because what we offer is beyond anything they have ever imagined," said Mike Dempsey, manager of the new Wegmans. "People just go through in awe."

The store also features a Market Café, which offers restaurant-quality food prepared by head chef Kris Chase, Natale said.

The cafe, which will have indoor and outdoor seating for up to 500 people, has an Asian-inspired bar, a pizza and wing bar, subs, specialty coffee drinks, a soup station and a seafood bar.