Wegmans — Local services in New York

I hate to be a scrooge, but we had a bad experience at Wegman's Astor Place today. We're both 65+, so when doing a big shopping we need delivery. We shopped at the same Wegman's last year, Xmas Eve 2023, and had no problem - we checked ahead to make sure they offered delivery, and it all worked without a hitch. This year no. This year we again checked ahead to make sure they offered delivery, and asked again once we got into the store. We were told yes. We did our shopping - 2 shopping carts worth - and were again told, at checkout, there was delivery. The cashier was told by someone who seemed to be their supervisor that for delivery just make sure the cold items are in bags separate from the rest. So another person letting us know we could arrange delivery. But when we got to customer service to arrange the delivery we were told there was no delivery any longer that day. No delivery after 3pm one customer service employee told us. After 3 different employees assured us we could get our shopping delivered.

So we needed to finagle for a cab at the curb, but we were told we couldn't bring the carts to the curb by yet another employee, and yet another - seemingly a manager of sorts - apologized to the preceding employee about US, instead of apologizing to us for the lack of delivery. Then we heard another story about the lack of delivery - that "instacart wasn't answering their app, so it's not on Wegman's." So there's no in-house delivery people? Finally, once we had been helped to a taxicab we were given an apology of sorts - "Sorry. We made a mistake." But there was nothing apologetic in their tone or manner. And they left with: Give us a break. We just opened this year." Untrue - we shopped at the same location last Xmas eve. They offered another excuse too - "we usually have delivery, just not today" - but what good does that do us?

If we had known there was no delivery we would either have shopped somewhere else entirely, or only shopped for items we might not be able to get elsewhere local, like fresh produce. We wouldn't have ended up with two full shopping carts of groceries. I'll add that we were not abusive or insulting to the employees (my -partner did raise their voice apparently at one point)- but we did suggest that they let cashiers and other employees know that there was no more delivery for the day. We got no traction on that...

I live near this Wegmans so I go most days, and hope it never closes!! This is a mix of subjective/objective thoughts.

The Good:

The hot bowls. I get these for lunch like 2-3 times a week, and they’re great and they’re big. A lot of the time I end up eating half and finishing it for lunch the next day. Highly recommend the hot bowls instead of the ones sitting out. Shoutout James and everyone else at the bowl station, haven’t had a bad one.

The wings. The wiiiiiiings. Fast, easy, and they’re consistently good. Haven’t had a dry wing, though caveating that I’m usually getting them for lunch, so they haven’t been out long.

Meat deli. The wegmans rosemary ham! Everyone is always super helpful, and it’s never a crazy weight to get stuff sliced.

Well-stocked. It’s infrequent that something I need isn’t there. The things I notice sometimes missing at the end of the day are certain fish, specific milks, liquid egg whites, and packaged sliced bread (downstairs, not the Wegmans bakery).

Quick lines. Usually am in line for under 2min to checkout

Helpful/kind staff. I don’t expect to have any level of service at a crazy busy nyc supermarket, it’s a stressful job and I’m sure it’s not easy dealing with everyone who comes in. But wegmans just has a nicer friendly vibe. It feels closer to a suburban grocery store.

Plants! It’s rare that they have plants, but when they do they’re very affordable and good quality. I got a 3 ft rubber plant for $20!

Bathroom. Appreciate that they have a bathroom that is easy for customers to use. There is an attendant, but they don’t require a code.

Cakes, the marbled sheet cake is so good. Easy and affordable for events

Better quality produce.

The Not-so-good

The sushi. I want to love the sushi, but refrigerated grocery store sushi just doesn’t ever taste that good, even at wegmans.

The sandwiches. Have never really been impressed by them, they’re super bread-y.

The shoppers club. I enter my phone number every time I checkout and there’s basically no benefit. They have fairly limited coupons, and that’s basically the only use for it. There’s no rewards for continuously shopping at wegmans.

Selection. Also not terrible, as they’re far better than most nyc stores. But there’s some classic items that they don’t carry. For example, they don’t stock a lot of the refrigerated pillsbury and toll...

the brand spanking new Wegmans is finally open. the ground floor is basically hot foods (like pizza and various heated serve yourself areas), prepared & packaged foods (like sushi, sandwiches, and take-home meals), bakery items, and a huge checkout area. the below-street-level is all your grocery items like produce, dairy, snacks, and much more.

have shopped at this Wegmans a few times. initial impressions: —got a rotisserie chicken for dinner. it looked good but was dry and most of the bird was stringy and flavorless. would highly recommend not getting one bc they seemed to be cooked right but not basted or seasoned well hence the dry chicken taste. pass on this.

—had the pizza. pretty overpriced by the slice for the quality. while the sauce tasted fine. the pizza was far too doughy and on the thicker side for crust to be decent New York pizza. the cheese was fine. the pizza also looks smaller because of the way they cut it but it likely the same portion of pizza by the slice bc it is so dough-heavy versus a classic NYC slice. pass on this.

—there is no make-your-own sub / hero sandwich like other Wegmans locations which is like what Wegmans is known for. maybe they will add a hero sandwich station later. all they have now is packaged sandwiches and a hot sandwich station where they just have hot sandwich that they cut up and package for you.

—the grocery section is hit or miss depending on what you’re getting. the items i saw seemed on the high side for NYC versus other grocery chains. Other things like dairy seemed less expensive. the snack aisle and frozen foods section are huge but beyond that this Wegmans is pretty mid rn.

there are plenty of staff who are superfiendly. the store is very clean and bright. the lines for checkout seem chaotic at times.

overall, there is room for a lot of improvement at this Wegmans that can happen, but only time will tell. if you’re a fan of the Wegmans hero sandwich and that bread—you’re outta luck for now unless you go to the Brooklyn Naval Yards Wegmans.

anyways the best part of this Wegmans is probably if you want a prepared meal to take home and heat up. but why do that when you get better value and pricing by just going to a takeout restaurant etc.

rooting for this Astor Place Wegmans but right now it’s solidly mediocre except...