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Wegmans is a regional supermarket chain with 110 stores: 48 in New York, 18 in Pennsylvania, nine in New Jersey, 15 in Virginia, eight in Maryland, six in Massachusetts, four in North Carolina, one in Washington, D.C., and one in Delaware. It is one of the largest private companies in the U.S.:
Wegmans is a family company, founded in 1916, headquartered in Rochester, N.Y. Danny Wegman is chairman; Colleen Wegman, his daughter, is president and CEO. Danny’s daughter Nicole Wegman is president of Wegmans Brand. Robert Wegman, Danny’s father, was chairman until his death in April 2006.
Brothers Walter and John Wegman (Robert Wegman’s father and uncle) learned the food business by working in their parents’ store in Rochester. John peddled fresh produce from a pushcart, and in 1916, he opened the Rochester Fruit & Vegetable Company, which marked the beginning of Wegmans Food Markets. Walter joined him a year later. Robert Wegman assumed leadership of the company in 1950, guiding it until his death in 2006.
At Wegmans, we believe that good people, working toward a common goal, can accomplish anything they set out to do. In this spirit, we set our goal to be the very best at serving the needs of our customers. Every action we take should be made with this in mind. We also believe that we can achieve our goal only if we fulfill the needs of our own people. To our customers and our people, we pledge continuous improvement, and we make the commitment:
“EVERY DAY YOU GET OUR BEST”
Our roots go back to 1916, and we’ve hit many, many milestones that have gained attention in the supermarket industry since then. Here’s more about the journey that took Wegmans from its beginnings to today.
Select the decades below to expand and view our history.
Walter E. Wegman is employed in his parents’ Fernwood Avenue grocery store. His brother, John B., peddles fresh produce to Rochester, NY housewives from a pushcart.
Brothers Walter and John Wegman (Robert Wegman’s father and uncle) learn the food business by working in their mom and dad’s grocery store in Rochester. Walter works in the store while John peddles fresh produce from a pushcart. In 1916, John opens the Rochester Fruit & Vegetable Company, which marks the beginning of Wegmans Food Markets. Walter joins him a year later.
John and Walter Wegman purchase the Seel Grocery Co. and expand operations to include general groceries and bakery operations.
The two brothers make national headlines when they open a 20,000 square foot store—gigantic by standards of the day—with eye-popping innovations like a cafeteria that seats 300.
Wegmans stores are incorporated, and feature meats, produce, groceries, dairy products, and baked goods.
Wegmans introduces two Rochester firsts: refrigerated display windows and vaporized water sprays to keep produce fresh.
Wegmans runs a catering service and cooking school out of its East Main Street store. Wegmans Food Institute offers shoppers tips on food preparation and nutrition in a weekly menu bulletin.
Robert Wegman joins the company.
Frozen (then known as “frosted”) foods first appear at Wegmans.
Wegmans’ first suburban store and the first store located within a plaza opens at 1910 Monroe Avenue in the Twelve Corners Shopping Center, becoming the ninth store in the chain. The store has circular checkout counters (registers are at both ends of the store: three in front, two in back). Produce in processed in the basement and sent up to the selling floor by elevator. (The store closes in 1965)
Robert Wegman converts Wegmans stores to self-service format.
When Robert Wegman’s uncle died, Robert became president of the entire company at the age of 31. When he took the helm, Robert Wegman decided his goal was to build the finest supermarket chain in the land–even if that meant Wegmans wouldn’t be the fastest-growing company. One of the first things he did was to raise all salaries. He believed that if a company wants its employees to care about customers, then the company has to care about the employees’ needs.
Wegmans shoppers, who receive play money with their purchases, bid for merchandise in a television studio auction on Wegmans’ hour long TV show, “Dollar Derby.”
Wegmans announces a broad program of employee benefits for their more than 350 full-time employees.
Northgate Plaza, first envisioned by Robert Wegman who bought the land and sold it to the plaza developer, opens in September with Rochester’s largest supermarket to date a 16,500 square foot Wegmans store. Features of store include ledge rock and redwood exterior trim, a refrigerated Produce Department, a Kiddie Corner where parents may leave their children while they shop, and a conveyor belt meat-packaging operation where customers may watch their meats being wrapped. (Closes in December 1983.)
Wegmans announces an employee profit-sharing plan.
A 15,000 square foot store opens in Eastway Plaza with the “atmosphere of a chic metro department store.” Features include special lighting techniques, a picture window through which customers can watch automatic meat packaging, cash registers that automatically calculate change, “electric eye” conveyor belts to reduce checkout time, magic-eye doors, and air conditioning.
A store opens in March in Newark Plaza, Wayne County, the first shopping plaza and supermarket developed outside of Monroe County by Wegmans Enterprises. It is the eleventh and largest supermarket in Wegmans’ chain, and the largest supermarket in Newark. The $2 million shopping center on a 35-acre site serves a 12-town area with a population of 70,000. Features of the 25,000 square foot store include Kiddie Corner, “electric eye” checkout desks and “magic carpet” self-opening doors.
The “largest and most elaborate supermarket for miles around” opens in May at 2833 Ridge Rd. West, Greece, in Ridgemont Plaza. The imposing building with laminated arch construction is called the “new look in supermarkets.” The third and largest development of Wegmans Enterprises, Inc., serves a trading area of 60,000 families, 38,000 of which live fewer than 15 minutes away. Features of the 26,000 square foot store include a “home center” with a wide variety of household equipment and apparel, a large gourmet section with such items as preserved octopus, hearts of palm and candied cauliflower, a total of 5,800 food items, and use of incandescent bulbs with fluorescent tubes to create the effect of daylight (one of the first such installations in the country).
Wegmans purchases its first truck trailer and displays its sunburst logo for the first time.
Wegmans joins Staff Supermarket Associates to obtain their own “Staff” brand for private label products ranging from frozen food to sponges.
A store at the corner of Clinton Avenue South and Broad Street in Midtown Plaza that blends “cracker barrel friendliness into ultra-modern market,” opens on almost the exact site of the earlier “showplace” store. Features of the 17,000 square foot store include the first service deli in a Rochester-area supermarket, a barbecue section where meat is cooked in full view of the customer, an extensive gourmet and specialty foods section, and pies baked on the premises.
Danny Wegman joins the company.
A store at 3195 Monroe Avenue, Pittsford, opens in December in a mini plaza adjoining Pittsford Plaza. The same size as Wegmans’ Ridgemont store, the new store takes advantage of improved design to increase the area allotted to customer shopping. An air curtain entrance, believed to be the first food store installation in the area, replaces conventional doors with a constant flow of heat directed downward to eliminate cold drafts. The total number of stores is still 22 because the Twelve Corners store closed several days before the new store opening. Features of this 26,000 square foot store include white marble facing, a 30-foot high arched ceiling, an 84-foot meat counter, and a carpeted bakery area where customers watch pies and doughnuts being made.
Robert Wegman is elected President of the Super Market Institute, a worldwide food research and education association with more than 890 retail and wholesale food companies as members.
Wegmans starts a $2 million egg-producing operation northeast of Wolcott, NY, to ensure a quality egg product and quick service to the 24 supermarkets. The location of the 350-acre egg farm, halfway between Rochester and Syracuse, foreshadows Wegmans’ move into the Syracuse market. The first eggs produced there in 1968. (The Egg Farm is sold in 2007.)
Wegmans opens its first Syracuse store at John Glenn Blvd. in Clay, NY.
Robert Wegman becomes chairman of the company.
In the 1970s, Wegmans begins food bank donations.
Operations begin at Wegmans’ own $3 million meat distribution center at the Brooks Ave. site in Rochester. The Meat Center, the first of its type, is another in a series of moves to enable Wegmans to gain firmer control of their food supplies.
Wegmans receives $100 Million Club Award, a plaque signifying that the supermarket company has topped $100 million in sales. A privately-owned firm that does not report profits, Wegmans previously had not reported sales.
The Consumer Affairs department is created to act as the voice of the consumer inside the company, and to educate shoppers about nutrition, food safety, and other food issues.
Wegmans is the first supermarket chain in New York to offer 24-hour service in some of its stores. To meet added training demands, the company opens its own Checker Training School.
The first Wegmans Pharmacy opens, at the Lyell Ave. store.
Wegmans begins the most extensive unit-pricing program in Upstate New York, and within a few months, “vigorous open dating of perishables” such as milk.
The first Wegmans home center opens in March next to the Lyell Ave. superstore. The self-service center features merchandise for the home, including lumber, paneling, hardware, tools and paint. At the same time, hard goods are integrated into several Wegmans supermarkets. Such services as coin-operated copy centers and expanded flower departments are added to supermarkets.
Wegmans’ first seafood department opens.
The Pittsford superstore, with a decorative, boutique-like atmosphere and a resident home economist, opens in October. This “Superstore II” format includes the first state-chartered commercial bank completely within a supermarket and becomes the first major food store in the area to accept BankAmericard for groceries. Other features of the 60,000 square foot store include a pharmacy, soft goods, fabrics, in-store bakery, flower shop, 4,000 item Old World cheese shop, and a Fisherman’s Wharf fresh seafood department.
Acquisition of Bilt Rite Chase Pitkin, Inc., a retailer of lumber, hardware, millwork, garden and landscape materials, and building supplies, adds customer assistance capability to the previously self-service, home center operation.
Wegmans East Rochester is one of the first stores in the country to use laser scanning to read UPCs printed on products. It is the first in New York State and third in North America to install this checkout system.
Danny Wegman becomes the president of Wegmans.
Conversion to unwrapped produce begins in response to customers’ desires to select their own quality and quantity of fruits and vegetables. “Pick a little or pick a lot” departments replace pre-packaging practices in effect since 1955.
Wegmans opens the first Buffalo, NY store on Dick Road.
Wegmans develops a private-label buying program and introduces Wegmans Brand items chain wide.
A Super Natural Health Food Center opens May 21 in the Henrietta Wegmans superstore to offer a greater concentration of specialty or “natural” food items–3,500 in all. Decor features random pegged-oak floors, a rustic stained glass effect over display areas and an old-fashioned “metal” ceiling. The second Super Natural Health Food Center opens at Eastway in July.
The Bakeshop installs a spiral glass freezer that enables Wegmans to freeze bread dough and roll dough and danish for use in in-store bakeries. Its capacity is 5,000 pounds per hour and temperature is -35° F.
Robert Wegman is awarded the Sidney Rabb Award, the Food Marketing Institute’s highest membership honor. The award was named after Sidney Rabb, who was Chairman of the Board of Stop & Shop Companies of Boston. It is bestowed “in recognition of extraordinary contributions to the food marketing industry and to his community.”
Installation of the world’s fastest egg-processing machine begins at the Egg Farm. The computerized Diamond 200 grader and packer pre-sorts, candles, weighs and packages the eggs. It both is cost and labor efficient. At the time of its installation, Wegmans’ Diamond 200 is the only production model in existence. (The Egg Farm is sold in 2007.)
The Wegmans Employee Scholarship Program begins.
The company’s first Bulk Foods Department, offering 226 items, is introduced in the Dick Road store in Buffalo on May 4.
The Wegmans Federal Credit Union begins daily operation on August 1. As a non-profit financial institution, it is committed to providing higher dividends on savings and lower-interest loan rates. The Wegmans Federal Credit Union was formed as an employee benefit to provide an alternative to traditional banks. Within its first six months of operation, it grows from a $5.00 credit union to one with over $1.5 million in assets.
Wegmans, in partnership with the Rochester City School District, announces the establishment of the “Work Scholarship Connection.” The program is designed to provide academic assistance and part-time jobs at Wegmans for 14 and 15 year old city school students who need special motivation to complete high school. By providing positive role models and work experience, the program is intended to help these students understand the relationship between work and education. Wegmans also offers the promise of a college scholarship upon graduation to provide the incentive for these students to stay in school and perform at a higher level.
A floral warehouse and processing facility opens, allowing Wegmans to handle fresh and cut flowers for the stores on a more efficient and economical basis.
FORTUNE Magazine awards Wegmans best in customer service among national food retailers.
A United Way Give-Away campaign starts in the stores and raises $1.6 million in its first year.
Wegmans Brand product standards begin to go beyond national brand quality.
Nicole Wegman joins the company.
The company’s first Big Pack warehouse section is launched at our Corning store. These items foreshadow the Family Pack products customers know today, offering the best value throughout the store.
In the 1990s, Wegmans begins hiring executive chefs to create better ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook foods.
Wegmans introduces Shoppers Club, an electronic discount program, as an alternative to coupon clipping. The program is introduced in the Corning store in March.
A pilot plastic bag recycling program is set up in February at the Ridge-Culver store. By June 1, all stores are participating.
Wegmans begins donating perishable foods in Rochester. Buffalo and Syracuse also have similar perishable donation programs, which started the previous year.
Colleen Wegman joins the company.
The Strive for 5 program is launched in the produce department in May to encourage customers and employees to eat five cups of fruits and vegetables every day.
The first Market Cafe opens at the Corning, NY store.
The Wegmans Food You Feel Good About program is launched in the bakery on February 2nd.
A new 105,000 square foot corporate office building opens in Rochester, NY on Wegmans Market St.
Wegmans is included in the book, “100 Best Companies to Work For in America.” The selection was based on pay, benefits and job security.
In June, Robert and Peggy Wegman announce their gift of $1 million over three years to the Catholic Diocese of Rochester to run early-childhood education programs for 3- and 4-year olds.
The first Wegmans store outside of New York State opens in June in Erie, Pennsylvania.
The company’s first Nature’s Marketplace department opens in October at the Marketplace store in Rochester, NY. Nature’s Marketplace offers natural and organic foods, supplements, herbal remedies, cleaning products, cosmetics, and loose-leaf teas. There are also foods for people with special dietary needs.
Robert and Peggy Wegman announce a 10-year, $25 million gift to offer children in city neighborhoods the choice of attending one of six Catholic elementary schools in Rochester.
The Wegmans Italian Classics line of products is introduced–it’s the largest Wegmans brand product launch to date.
A W-Dollar program is introduced, enabling customers to add a cash value to their Shoppers Club card. (This program ends in 2015.)
Wegmans’ first website airs, featuring more than 300 pages of information and services for customers online.
Wegmans launches its Seafood HACCP program for food safety chain wide.
On April 1, 1997, Robert B. Wegman celebrates 60 years of service to the company.
A Wegmans mini “store” opens in The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester. A 3,500 square foot kid’s exhibit offers working checkout counters, kid-sized shopping carts, and loads of imitation food to buy or reshelf. It becomes the most popular exhibit in the museum.
“A new generation of superstores” opens in Pittsford Plaza. This store greatly influences future store designs. Eight-hundred employees are employed to “help our customers serve great-tasting food at home,” said Bill Congdon, store manager. There is even a Wegmans Menu Cooking School for customer classes and employee training.
Wegmans is named to FORTUNE Magazine’s first-ever list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For.” The list appears in the December 29, 1997 issue. Wegmans is ranked #16 and is highest among retailers.
Wegmans becomes title sponsor of the Rochester LPGA event. The tournament is renamed the Wegmans Rochester International. (The company continues title sponsorship through 2014.)
Danny Wegman is elected chairman of the Food Marketing Institute board. He serves as chairman for the next two years.
Wegmans Pittsford opens the company’s first French pastry shop called the Patisserie. The shop is 2,000 square feet and features 20 different French pastry items.
Wegmans opens its first New Jersey store with the grand opening of Wegmans Princeton. Princeton is the first “announcement-free” store. More than 40 phones and 50 pagers keep employees connected. There is also no weekly ad printed here.
Wegmans and the Buffalo Bills form a five-year marketing partnership.
Wegmans’ weekly specials go online, with a feature that allows customers to build a shopping list by store layout.
Wegmans Menu Magazine debuts.
Wegmans receives the Golden Shopping Cart Award for Best Supermarket
Wegmans’ company positioning statement is enhanced to reflect the company’s goal of bringing customers consistent low prices. This new way of doing business affects all departments and all stores. Beginning in April, a campaign to introduce the new lower prices includes videos mailed to Wegmans shoppers and signage throughout the stores.
Robert Wegman announces a two-year, $10 million gift to Aquinas Institute. Half of the money is used for capital improvements; the remaining half to provide tuition assistance to families in need.
Wegmans opens its first full-service restaurant, Tastings, at the Pittsford store. (Closes in 2009.)
Wegmans Brand Organic products are introduced.
Danny Wegman is named one of the “50 Power Players–People Whose Actions Drive the Food Industry” in the July issue of Supermarket News. The list includes retailers, wholesalers, mass merchants and manufacturers. In an article profiling Danny, Supermarket News states that he was chosen because he is “an innovator and advocate for bettering the industry through technology.”
Wegmans is awarded the prestigious Black Pearl award. This honor is given to “a company for its efforts in advancing food safety and quality through consumer programs, employee relations, educational activities and adherence to standards.”
Wegmans is named the “Most Family-Friendly Supermarket in America” according to Child magazine.
Wegmans enters the Virginia market with the opening of Wegmans Dulles.
Wegmans also opens a Retail Service Center in Pottsville, PA. This new state-of-the-art distribution point outside of Rochester helps serve Wegmans’ market expansion in the Mid-Atlantic region and houses a 115,000 square foot fresh produce facility. A 300,000 square foot dry grocery center is added in 2005, and a 492,000 square foot refrigerated and frozen facility is added in 2012.
Robert Wegman is named to the Junior Achievement National Business Hall of Fame. Junior Achievement has been honoring the nation’s most distinguished businessmen and women for “their outstanding contributions to free enterprise and the promise of a better, stronger society” for nearly 30 years. Mr. Wegman is only the third Rochester-area business leader to receive this honor. George Eastman (Eastman Kodak) and Joseph C. Wilson (Xerox) received the award posthumously.
Wegmans is selected to receive a 2004 Innovation Award by the Great Place to Work Institute. Wegmans is being honored for credibility, which the institute attributes to the company’s “innovative communication practices.” Specific programs mentioned are full-time orientation, top management spending time in the stores, employee focus groups, Jack’s Idea Exchange, Meeting in a Box, and The Merchant newsletter.
Wegmans is named the #1 company to work for by FORTUNE Magazine’s list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For.”
Robert Wegman donates $5 million to St. John Fisher College in Rochester for the Wegmans School of Pharmacy, which opens in fall 2006 for students looking to pursue a career in pharmacy.
Wegmans Hunt Valley becomes Wegmans’ 69th store and the first for the state of Maryland.
Wegmans announces the closing of the Chase-Pitkin Home and Garden Centers
Robert Wegman names Colleen president and Danny CEO.
St. John Fisher College announces an $8 million gift from Robert Wegman to be used to fund the Wegmans School of Nursing.
Robert B. Wegman dies. Mr. Wegman was the son of Wegmans Food Markets co-founder Walter Wegman and was a pioneer of the one-stop shopping concept. Until his death, he was the Wegmans chairperson. In more than a half century under his leadership, the family grocery business grew into one of the largest private companies in the United States.
The Wegmans Organic Farm in Canandaigua, NY has its first growing season. The 50-acre farm operates with the following mission statement: “Following our customers’ desire for fresh produce that is both organic and locally grown, we operate our organic farm to develop and share best practices with our customers and partner-growers. We continually work to grow the best-tasting varieties and extend growing seasons, making local farms more economically sustainable.”
Wegmans wins the 2007 Food Network Award for “SUPER Market – presented to the grocery chain that has changed the way we shop.”
Agreement is reached to sell the Wegmans Egg Farm to Kreher’s Farm Fresh Eggs, based in Clarence, NY. Kreher’s continues to produce eggs for Wegmans at the Wolcott farm. Kreher’s is a family-owned farm run today by the third generation of the Kreher family.
Robert Wegman is named to the inaugural Supermarket News Hall of Fame. “(Robert) Wegman created true differentiation with massive, one-stop-shopping supermarkets and an approach to employment that stands alone in the industry.”
Wegmans introduces the Half-Plate Healthy concept to employees. In 2010, it’s shared with customers.
Wegmans announces the decision to stop selling cigarettes and tobacco products, and introduces a smoking cessation program for employees. “We have come to this decision after thinking about the role smoking plays in people’s health. We certainly respect a person’s right to smoke, but we believe there are few of us who would introduce our children to smoking. The main reason we have come to this decision is that we truly care about each of you,” said Danny Wegman.
J.D. Power and Associates announces the results of its 2008 National Pharmacy Study, which ranks the Wegmans Pharmacy #1 in Customer Satisfaction among supermarket pharmacies in the northeast. The comprehensive study is based on interviews with more than 15,000 pharmacy consumers across the U.S. JDPA is a global marketing information firm that conducts independent and unbiased surveys of customer satisfaction.
Wegmans establishes the Organic Farm Partner Program.
Wegmans’ Culinary Innovation Center opens to develop new products for customers.
Wegmans opens a new store in Collegeville, PA. It’s the first store to introduce a full-service restaurant inside the Market Café, called The Pub.
Next Door by Wegmans opens on Monroe Ave. across the street from the Pittsford store. The restaurant seats approximately 270, including the bar, lounge, and private rooms, with outdoor patio seating for 44. The crew from Tastings restaurant moves to Next Door. Features include a more spacious bar area, a roomier main dining room with an incredible menu, a sushi bar, four separate rooms for private parties and an expansive selection of beer, wine and specialty drinks.
The Wegmans Mobile App debuts.
Rochester Business Journal (RBJ) readers select Danny Wegman as CEO of the decade. RBJ chose from a list of CEOs from companies based in Rochester or originally founded in Rochester with major operations there.
The first ripe cherry and grape tomatoes are picked on May 21 at Wegmans Organic Farm, just two months after the young tomato plants were put in the ground in March. The arrival of these “baby” tomatoes weeks earlier than their usual “due date” generated a lot of buzz at the farm as it continues its mission to extend the growing season in the northeast.
Wegmans Menu Magazine celebrates its 10-year anniversary. Design, typography and layouts are tweaked for the special issue, giving the magazine a fun, fresh look. For the first time, the magazine features QR (Quick Response) codes for smart-phone users.
The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) announces the Robert B. Wegman Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence. Each year, the award recognizes “a food retailer or wholesaler who exercises entrepreneurial leadership in the design of retail strategies and imaginative merchandising.” In making the announcement, Leslie Sarasin, president and CEO of FMI, said “This award is named in honor of Robert B. Wegman, whose half century leadership of Wegmans Food Markets was marked by a creative retail savvy that grew the Wegman family grocery business into one of the largest privately-held companies in the United States.”
Wegmans opens its first New England store in Northborough, Massachusetts. The store is located approximately 36 miles west of Boston and five miles east of Worcester.
The Wegman Family Charitable Foundation contributes $1 million to help fund an education and research center at the Rochester Institute of Technology, dedicated to the development and use of sustainable packaging. The Center is a testing ground for new ideas and solutions for students, researchers, faculty and corporate partners that are interested in sustainable packaging. It also educates the next generation of packaging professionals who are intent on bringing sustainable principles to manufacturers around the world.
Wegmans opens new East Ave. store in Rochester, NY along with Amore Italian Restaurant & Wine Bar.
The Wegmans Pharmacy begins home shipping and mail orders.
Wegmans opens the Cheese Caves, a one-of-a-kind, high-tech building that mimics the environments of famed cheese caves in Europe, where many of the world’s most-prized cheeses are ripened to reach their richest flavor.
Wegmans is one of the first supermarkets in the country to accept Apple Pay mobile payments through iPhones.
Wegmans is ranked number one for corporate reputation among the 100 most visible companies, according to the 16th annual Harris Poll Reputation Quotient® (RQ) study.
The Wegmans Employee Scholarship Program reaches a major milestone. Since it began in 1984, more than 32,000 Wegmans employees have been awarded scholarships totaling $100 million.
Wegmans announces plans for a store at Admirals Row in Brooklyn NY, which becomes a trending topic on social media and garners a lot of attention.
J.D. Power and Associates 2015 U.S. Pharmacy Study ranks Wegmans Pharmacy “Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Supermarket Pharmacies.” August 2015. Wegmans received the highest numerical score among supermarket pharmacies in the proprietary J.D. Power 2015 U.S. Pharmacy StudySM. Study based on 14,914 total responses, and measures 11 supermarket pharmacies. Proprietary study results are based on experiences and perceptions of consumers surveyed May-June 2015. Your experiences may vary. Visit jdpower.com
Danny Wegman announced that his daughter, Colleen Wegman, has been named president and CEO of Wegmans Food Markets, Inc., and he will assume the title of chairman.
Wegmans has won dozens of awards and distinctions for making the shopping experience better, and for treating customers, employees, and communities in an exemplary manner.
Here are the highlights:
Dale Carnegie Training gives Wegmans the Dale Carnegie Leadership Award, ‘for its exceptional customer service, development of their people (and) demonstrated dedication to the philosophy and core values (Wegmans) was founded on.’ September 2010
National Down Syndrome Congress gives Wegmans 2012 Employer Award ‘for employing individuals with Down syndrome and providing the necessary supports to ensure positive outcomes.’ July 2012
The National Council on Aging presents Wegmans with its Distinguished Achievement Award for employing senior adults. June 2014
ATHENA International honors Wegmans with the National ATHENA Organizational Leadership Award. The award is presented to organizations that demonstrate professional excellence, give back to the community, and assist women in realizing their full leadership potential. November 2019
Ranked #1 since 2015 on FORTUNE magazine’s list of the 15 Best Workplaces in Retail.
Wegmans is on Forbes magazine’s list of America’s Best Employers from 2015 through 2023.
FORTUNE names Wegmans to the magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list, every year starting in 1998 through 2023. The company ranked 1st in 2005 and ranked #4 in 2023.
School Administrators Association of New York State presents Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. and the Wegman family with its 2011 Friend of Education Award, given to ‘an individual, group, or organization that has consistently contributed to the support and advancement of outstanding public education and the students of New York State.’ April 2011
The Morrie Silver Award is presented to Colleen Wegman at the Rochester Press Radio Club Dinner, an honor bestowed each year on “a person who has shown an exemplary interest in bettering the community through their efforts in the area of sports.” The award recognizes her longstanding support for the Wegmans LPGA Championship. June 2013
Named to PEOPLE magazine’s list of 50 Companies That Care from 2017 through 2021, ranking #1 in 2021. The list highlights “US companies that have succeeded in business while also demonstrating outstanding respect, care and concern for their employees, their communities and the environment.”
Ranked #1 on The Harris Poll 2018 Societal Return on Investment Index, which measures a company’s corporate reputation for social good. November 2018
Danny Wegman is named by Supermarket News to its list of 50 Power Players, the most influential people in food retailing. 2003 through 2014
BusinessWeek magazine includes Wegmans in its list of 25 Customer Service Superstars. The list includes standouts from a wide range of industries, including luxury hotels, restaurants, banks, and automotive companies. February 2010
Named to Ethisphere Magazine’s list of the World’s Most Ethical Companies. 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012
The University of Rochester awards Danny Wegman the George Eastman Medal, which recognizes achievement and dedicated service. May 2010
Danny Wegman is given the inaugural Robert B. Wegman Award for Entrepreneurial Leadership by the Food Marketing Institute. The award will annually celebrate the food retailer or wholesaler responsible for creating exceptional retail innovations. January 2012
The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) presents Danny Wegman with its highest honor, the 2013 Hall of Achievement award, given “to individuals who have had a strong and lasting impact on the food, beverage and consumer packaged goods industry.” January 2013
GS1, a global information standards organization, gives Danny Wegman its Lifetime Achievement Award “for outstanding contributions to the advancement and adoption of GS1 Standards, the most broadly used supply chain standards globally.” May 2013
The Boston Consulting Group names Wegmans to its 2013 list of Most Recommended Brands, “in recognition of the company’s superior ability to attract word-of-mouth recommendation.” December 2013
The 2014 Harris Poll EquiTrend study, which measures brand equity, names Wegmans Northeast Brand of the Year in the Grocery Store Category. July 2014
American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) release study ranking customer satisfaction at retailers across six channels. Wegmans ranked highest among supermarkets and received the highest score across all retail channels. February 2016
A survey of more than 12,000 consumers nationwide conducted by Market Force Information ranks Wegmans #1 – America’s Favorite Supermarket. June 2018
Glassdoor includes Colleen Wegman on its Best CEOs List. 2018 and 2019
Wegmans is ranked #1 for Corporate Reputation among the ‘100 most visible companies,’ nationwide according to the 2019 Harris Poll Reputation Quotient ® study. February 2019
J.D. Power and Associates U.S. Pharmacy Study ranks Wegmans Pharmacy “Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Supermarket Pharmacies.” 2018 through 2020
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized Wegmans as an outstanding Safer Choice Retailer for fostering awareness of the Safer Choice program and committing to offer cleaning products that meet Safer Choice standards. 2014 through 2020
Last updated April 2023