Wegmans to open store in Lancaster, Pa.

When Rochester, N.Y.-based Wegmans Food Markets opens its new store this weekend in Lancaster, Pa., the regional supermarket chain will be just two locations shy of the 100-unit mark, a press release said. A team of 475 employees has spent months preparing to open the 120,000-square-foot store.

The doors will open Sunday, Sept. 23, and “not a moment too soon for shoppers anxiously waiting the store,” according to the family-owned retailer. Long before Wegmans announced plans to build the store, the company received hundreds of requests for a store in the area, the press release added.

“Shoppers from this area have been traveling to Downingtown and Harrisburg to shop at our stores for a very long time,” said Lancaster Store Manager Jimmy Bellis, in the press release. “That’s part of what makes this opening so special for us.”

Across the store, there will be more than 4,000 organic items; a group of 100 “culinarians” headed by Executive Chef Keith Briggs, who’s ready to bring innovations “starting day one” and three firsts for the Pennsylvania locations, including a family-friendly burger bar, made-to-order authentic Italian pizza and a made-to-order salad station with fresh ingredient. Shoppers will also be treated to an expansive produce department filled with hundreds of fresh fruits and vegetables; a “European open-air market atmosphere” with “shops” offering seafood, meat, deli, bakery, cheese, beer and wine; and more, the press release added. The store will also include a pharmacy, a floral shop and a health and wellness section.

In addition, Instacart groceries deliveries will begin in Lancaster on Sept. 26, the press release said.

Bellis said the Lancaster team can’t wait for the store to open. “We’re all here for the same reason: our customers,” he noted. “Our aim is to make food shopping a pleasure.”