Listen to this articleWegmans Food Markets has announced the much-anticipated opening of its first Long Island store will be in February.
The supermarket chain will hold a grand opening for the 101,000-square-foot store at 3270 Middle Country in Lake Grove at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 26.
“We have been actively hiring and training new employees and are seeking more enthusiastic candidates to complete our team before opening day,” Dawn Cooper, the Lake Grove store manager said in a company statement. “The construction of the new store is nearly finished, and we are excited to open our doors on February 26 to serve the Lake Grove community.”
The new store will employ more than 500 people in full- and part-time positions. Wegmans began hiring and training staff in March. Hiring at the store is ongoing for the remaining part-time positions and select full-time positions, according to the statement. Jobs are available in departments throughout the store, including sushi, pizza, prepared foods, deli and charcuterie, cheese, seafood, bakery and front end.
In addition to flexible scheduling, competitive pay and benefits, Wegmans says its employees enjoy ample opportunities for career development and growth, as well as tuition assistance through the company’s employee scholarship program. Founded in 1984, the Wegmans Employee Scholarship Program awards tuition assistance to employees who meet specific academic, employment and work-performance criteria. Part-time workers can receive up to $1,500 per year and full-time workers up to $2,200 per year for four years, with no restrictions on the course of study or post-college career path, according to the company.
Wegmans has been looking to open stores on Long Island for a while. After signing letters of intent and entering into lease negotiations for a few retail spaces in Nassau and Suffolk counties in 2015 and 2016, the family-owned chain pulled out of those deals. The company had been considering sites in Holbrook, Huntington and Yaphank, as well as the former Sears property in Hicksville, according to real estate industry sources.
After opening stores in Brooklyn and Manhattan, Wegmans finally secured a Long Island foothold last year when it closed on its purchase of the 8.5-acre Lake Grove development site. The grocery chain paid Prestige Properties & Development, owner of DSW Plaza, $15.3 million for the property.
Founded in 1916 as the Rochester Fruit & Vegetable Company by brothers John and Walter Wegman, the business has evolved as a regional supermarket chain called Wegmans Food Markets. The chain, which had 2023 revenue of about $12 billion, according to Forbes, now has more than 53,000 employees and 111 stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Delaware and North Carolina.