BURLINGTON — The first sign is more than a mile away. The sign that Wegmans is coming.
Heading south on the Middlesex Turnpike, just off Route 3, motorists encounter one of those large mounted construction signs and the first screen reads, “Wegmans Will Open.”
It then blinks and you get, “Oct. 26 Expect Delays.”
Call it the Route 9 Lesson.
“When we came to Northboro (in 2011), we had 2,800 people waiting in line as we opened the doors,” said Jo Natale, director of media relations at Wegmans Food Markets Inc., a Rochester, N.Y.-based grocery chain. “We had 25,500 people come through the registers.”
Similar chaos is anticipated at 7 a.m. Sunday, when Wegmans’ 85th store (third in Massachusetts) opens at 53 Third Ave. in Burlington.
“We’re as ready as can be,” said a harried Kevin Russell, as he hustled through the wine section with other employees preparing for the opening. “We can’t wait to meet our new customers.”
The Burlington Wegmans, nestled between Northwest Business Park to the north and the Burlington Mall to the south, offers 135,000 square feet of shopping and eating (more than one-quarter of its 600 full- and part-time employees are in culinary positions) space. The two-story design features a cart-conveyer system with an adjacent escalator for customers who park on the adjoining garage’s second level.
The store’s Market Cafe is a prominent and unique feature. It has its own separate entrance, for those who are coming just to eat, and it occupies nearly one-third of the store’s overall space. The cafe offers restaurant-quality prepared foods, from veggies, to soup, salads, pizza, fish, chicken wings and “The Buzz,” a coffee shop. It has seating, indoor and outdoor, and upstairs and down, for more than 200 people.
“They resemble a European grocer — it’s a different experience,” said Scott Latham, an associate professor of management in UMass Lowell’s Manning School of Business, adding that in Europe, shoppers accumulate their groceries at a more leisurely pace, even so far as to take a lunch break in the middle of their shopping.
“Wegmans wants to be a destination,” Latham said. “They want you to linger.”
As shoppers move through the store, they’ll have a sense of visiting different shops, which Natale described as being in a “European open-air market.”
Other departments include seafood, meat, deli, bakery, Nature’s Marketplace (with natural and organic foods), a Kosher section, cheese shop, Mediterranean bar and more.
Among the 60,000-plus products offered at the Burlington store, more than 3,000 are organic.
In addition to groceries, the store, which boasts about $7 billion in annual sales, has a full pharmacy, floral shop, health and beauty section, and gifts/housewares.
Latham said that while Wegmans’ core characteristics (family-run, nearly 100 years old) are similar to that of a local grocery favorite, 72-store chain Market Basket, the two stores are “going after a different customer.”
“Market Basket is for the no-nonsense shopper — get me in, get me out,” Latham said. “And they may be the best-run grocer in the nation.”
He did say other competitors, including Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Roche Brothers, Donelans and even Hannaford, “should be concerned.”
“Wegmans is a category killer,” Latham said. “They have a devout customer base. People will drive 100 miles and spend a half-day there.”
Natale, a 33-year employee, said a key lure for customers is the store’s “Family Pack” sized items, which frequently offer per-unit savings of about 30 percent.
“We don’t do weekly sales fliers,” Natale said. “We pay attention to our competitors and aim to keep our prices consistently low. That way, customers know what they’re getting.”
Wegmans does offer a Shoppers Club Card, which is free and offers extra savings and other benefits. Another tool is the free Wegmans App, which allows shoppers to create and save a shopping list using the Wegmans product catalog, and then organize the list by aisle.
Marybeth Stewart, Wegmans human-resources manager for New England, said the store is still interviewing for part-time positions.
“It’s just really neat,” Latham said. “They’re one of those retailers who come in from the outside and by word of mouth, people are willing to go to them as a destination. It’s like IKEA.
“There’s a certain energy in those retailers.”
Follow Dan O’Brien on Twitter @dobrien_thesun.
