I dont usually get on a soap box on Facebook, but I have to here - Lately I have been seeing a lot of Facebook posts from the folks up in Rochester shouting about how great Wegmans food markets are. I keep hearing that most people who move out of Rochester cant wait to make Wegmans their first stop when they come back to town. One guy I talked with on Facebook is so smitten with Wegmans that he claims Wegmans is one of the main reasons he chose to live in Rochester. This may sound nasty, and it has nothing to do with the fact that I moved out of Rochester for reasons other than where I shop for food, but this intimate love affair with a grocery store really strikes me as being the result of some sort of brainwashing; indeed, there are a lot of articles you can pull up with a Google search that speak of the cult of Wegmans, and thats just what it looks like to me - So many people have drunk the Kool-Aid and see Wegmans as more of a way of life than as what it is - A GROCERY STORE. We shopped at Wegmans before we left Rochester simply out of convenience, it was the closest store to where we lived. When we left and moved to Houston the world did not end because there was no Wegmans in Texas - There was, however, Randalls, which at that time was a better store than Wegmans, especially their flagship store on lower Westheimer where a pianist in tuxedo and tails played Christmas carols on a grand piano inside the entrance for the entire Christmas season - That was impressive but was not something that made me glad I moved to Houston or gave me an extra dose of civic pride, just another nice grocery store where we bought our food every week. We moved here to Florida and now we have Publix - and OH MY GOD THEY HAVE NO SALAD BAR!!!! HOW HAVE I SURVIVED HERE FOR 18 YEARS???? I have had to tighten my belt and survive on the meager offerings that our big bright and new Publix has. But thats not the most important thing - Now I have to call the Publix corporate office and find out exactly how much they give to charity every year, and if they give less than Wegmans I will have no choice but to move back to Rochester where the largest grocery store gives the most money to charity!!!! Top priority in my life!!! No, second top - The top priority is what kind of car Danny Wegman drives when he visits the flagship store in Pittsford, if its nicer than the car the Publix CEO drives then Rochester here I come again!!! There are many who say that Wegmans is one of the best things about Rochester. If that is the case and a grocery store is truly one of the best things about a city then Im sorry but that city doesnt have much else to offer, I dont care if we are talking about Rochester or any other city. There was a time when Rochesters businesses were legitimately a source of civic pride - Rochester was the place where two international leaders in their respective fields were founded - Xerox and Eastman Kodak. Rochesterians not only could point with pride to the leading edge technological achievements of those multinational corporations, but they could also legitimately say that people moved to Rochester because those companies were there, for jobs and a plainly better future and way of life - Kodak was never unionized because they were so good to their people, providing comfortable incomes, off hour recreational facilities, and super generous retirement benefits. The ebb and flow of the business world and changing times, along with some very stupid management decisions, turned Xerox into a shadow of its former self that mostly moved out of town and Kodak into an embarrassing poster child for bad management and a source of misery for those who worked there all their lives and lost most of their retirement benefits. Rochesters economy really lost its driving forces when it lost Kodak and Xerox. Wegmans is also subject to that ebb and flow - Heres an article about the historical life cycle of large grocery chains, see if any of this sounds familiar: smallbusiness.chron/industry-life-cycle-analysis-grocery-store-80741.html Wegmans may be in its growth cycle now, but change is inevitable and those who see Wegmans as an important part of the Rochester lifestyle may very well also see them go the way of Kodak and Xerox at some point, and then those who drank the Kool-Aid and invested emotionally in a local grocery store will feel personally lost and betrayed. When I return to Rochester my first stop isnt at a grocery store - Its to friends and family, and then to Abbotts for a custard or Bill Grays for a Zweigles white hot to get my hands on the great things that are really unique about Rochester. Really folks - Wegmans is only a grocery store, its not a lifestyle or a religion.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 13:37:47 +0000
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