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Originally Posted by TheMeltyMan
I'd be surprised if they continued south from Northern Virginia. Maybe Richmond and some NC metros but their best bet is to invest into New England. New England has some pretty standard places like Stop n Shop and Shaws but I haven't seen any really modernized places like Wegmans.
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I wouldn't be suprised. The South offers a lucrative high-growth market. Wegman's would probably eye expansion into Raleigh and Charlotte before any significant expansion into NE, despite geographic proximity. Rapidly growing NC metros with their huge suburban white-collar populations is the type of market Wegmans wants to be in. In addition, Raleigh has a massive Rochester expatriate community, so there's immediately some built-in familiarity with the brand. I'm not sure what local chains exist in NC already (Food Lion's Bloom concept is similar to Wegmans)... which is certainly a potential factor. I would assume Wegmans would plant a few locations in Richmond and maybe Norfolk area and continue expansion in the wealthy suburbia of DC/Baltimore/Philly/Jersey. Elsewhere I can see Wegmans adding some stores in the Lancaster/York area (Harrisburg is coming soon)... Albany... and maybe the northern extremities of the NYC metro (Poughkeepsie area)...
New England is a mature marketplace with stagnant growth prospects and a high cost of doing business. In addition to those already mentioned, New England is served by: Big Y, C-Town, Hannafold, Market Basket
Massachusetts alone has 17 Whole Foods and 16 Trader Joes... which while "organic"... fill that upscale niche.
I just don't see Wegmans being too interested in NE in comparison to their mid-atlantic footprint and further southern expansion.
But what do I know...
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