My usual shopping trip at Wegmans, is WITHOUT children. I am calm, slow and relaxed. I usually start off with eating a sushi roll, then I am ready to shop, visit all of my favorite fresh locations and head off to the tea section, there I get their daily free sample of tea and I am in my happy place ready to go down every aisle looking for bargains. That should be the end of my review but wait, I want to tell you of a different experience I had this past summer....
My friend and her 3 kids were in town, we had a great day at Luray Caverns and on the way home I was thinking what the heck am I going to feed her 3 kids and my 2 kids, plus us, plus my hubby at home, 8 people. Then we drove up to Wegmans, STOP!!!!!!! We swerve in as she is screaming STOP at Wegmans!! Oh fun times are coming.
Here we are, 2 adults 5 kids at Wegmans at dinner time, not my calm, relaxed, tea in hand shopping experience. We start off getting everyone sushi, pizza and drinks, head upstairs to the TV room and enjoy! No mess at my house!!
Then my friend decides, there is no way she is leaving without shopping, (there is no Wegmans on the Eastern Shore). We start off at the bread section, FREE bread, and EVERYONE has to try a piece, the poor bread man's eyes are rolling, we buy Bread. Moving on to the cookie section, STOP! Everyone has to have samples and the cookies ladies are pleased to offer with smiles, we buy Cookies! We are now at the deli section, and we are crowding the whole counter when one of the kids notice Spanish ham is available for $$$$ a ridiculous amount, 59.99, 69.99. 79.99 a pound???Somewhere around that price!!!
My mom is from Spain, this is the same damn ham that they have hanging in every open air market and restaurant in Spain, it even hangs in duty free at the airport! Cured Spanish ham is a staple in Spain, they eat it everyday with french bread, and it does NOT cost $59.00lb!!!! The kids want a sample, are you kidding me??? So, I smile and ask/plead for a FREE sample, and I say "just make it small so that they can taste it", the HAM man smiles and hands me a HALF A POUND of the EXPENSIVE HAM, you should of seen the kids jumping up and down asking for ham with their mouths open, it was very embarrassing, like seagulls! It went fast. It was good but it's not worth 59.99lb.
And we shop on.....my friend walking down the aisle saying "a 1.99 for cereal??? WOW! I love it here, where is the wine section." But wait, we must try the cheeses, free samples for all with a smile! They have the smoothest buttery brie you will ever find, we tasted it and they cut it to perfection for her.
We find the wine section, it takes up the whole back end of the store, and what do you know, FREE wine samples. My friend an I make a bet. We bet that we can NOT find our favorite champagne that we have to fly to Germany for, (we are flight attendants). Henkel Drokken, we search and search and can not find it, we are stunned its not at Wegmans? For goodness sake, they have the ham here! So, we ask the man that is giving out wine samples, and he says with a smile, "oh sure its here", and sure enough he finds it!!! Yeah!! my favorite champagne from Germany is right here in my neighborhood, only at Wegmans!
We love this place, and with 5 kids it tuned out to be a happy day! Can't find this experience at any other grocery store so I give it a 5 star for sure! read more