B E B E R E

Virginia Postrel on another great Rochester, NY company.

I remember when Wegmans first started opening up grocery stores in Buffalo. A lot of folks were kind of frightened to go into them, they were so huge. There was, however, and still is something that is so warm and welcoming about them that you want to come on in and stay a while. In high school, since this was one of the only non bars open in the neighborhood, my best friend and I would often just wander around within on Friday nights, picking up recipe cards, smelling air fresheners, etc (part of why I love to read James Lileks's bleats on the Target runs). I'm sure that some savvy manager picked up on the young people visiting, as eventually, they started having little singles events and other little goings on on Friday nights.
The closest experience nowadays to our Wegmans experiences in the 80s would probably be, perhaps, going to the sadly now defunct in the US Moevenpick Marche Restaurants.

Wegmans employed a lot of my friends back then. (Gosh, I remember how excited some of my girlfriends would be whenever Danny Wegman would be slated to visit. He was considered to be quite the catch back then.) From what I hear now, it continues to be one of the better places to work in Western New York. No doubt this has a lot to do with another Rochester company's founder having really raised the bar in employee relations.