READ THIS NEXT: 5 Warnings to Shoppers From Ex-Wegmans Employees. If you prefer the cheese from Wegmans, that’s not surprising, considering that the chain goes the extra mile for it.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb In 2014, the company opened its own cheese caves near its headquarters right outside of Rochester, New York, The Washington Post reported. Despite not being underground, the building hosts seven high-tech rooms that mimic real cheese caves used in Europe. This allows Wegmans to ripen its own cheeses, which are then distributed to its stores around the U.S. “The carefully ripened cheese is only sent to our stores when it’s at its peak of perfection, so you can be confident any cheese you select is ready to enjoy,” Wegmans explains on its website. “If you need any help choosing a cheese, our specially trained employees are on hand to help you discover one that’s ‘just ripe.’” You might be shocked by the amount of stuff stocked at your local Wegmans. But it’s no coincidence that you’re able to find more at this company’s grocery stores when compared to other chains—Wegmans deliberately builds bigger stores. The grocer’s buildings are larger than most supermarkets at anywhere from 75,000 to 140,000 square feet in size. And Wegmans stores offer 50,000 to 70,000 different products to shoppers, as opposed to the 40,000 items that the average supermarket carries. “Inside each Wegmans is the equivalent of eight to 10 other supermarkets,” Burt Flickinger, the managing director of consumer industry consulting firm Strategic Resource Group, told The Washington Post. “The produce department by itself in Wegmans stores is twice as big as the total supermarket store volume of its average competitors in the U.S.” READ THIS NEXT: 6 Warnings to Shoppers From Ex-Publix Employees. Unlike other grocery chains, Wegmans doesn’t skimp on its deals. A New Jersey employee for the company told Business Insider that customers should never leave before looking at the Wegmans’ online saving opportunities. “Take an extra two minutes out of your day to sign up for or check the digital coupons the store offers,” they said. “They’re always on commonly-used products.” On Reddit, a Wegmans cashier also revealed a hack with the company’s weekly $1 off coupons: They work even when you’re not buying the specific product the coupon is for. “At first I thought they were just lenient with the products you had to purchase, but I’ve come to realize that they really just scan,” the employee wrote. “I don’t know why.” It’s not just cheese that Wegmans takes seriously. Flickinger told The Washington Post that this grocery chain places an emphasis on freshness, especially in terms of its high quality fruits and vegetables. They “never sit on the shelves for long,” he revealed. According to Strategic Resource Group, Wegmans goes through its produce as many as 100 times a year. In comparison, the average supermarket only turns over its inventory around 18 to 20 times a year. “That’s why their produce is almost always fresher than their competition’s,” Flickinger told the newspaper. For more shopper secrets sent straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter. Wegmans considers good customer service to be one of its top priorities, so it treats its employees really well. So well, in fact, that Wegmans has been included on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list every year since its inception. (It ranked third overall in 2022). The downside to this is that it makes Wegmans a coveted place to work, so it’s difficult to actually get a job with the company. For instance, when the Wegmans in Montgomeryville, Pennsylvania, was looking for workers before it opened, it received around 10,000 applications for just 500 available positions, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal. Even if the competition isn’t quite so high, it can still be hard to land a job at a Wegmans store. “I applied 4 times over the span of 4 years and was rejected 3,” one employee revealed on Reddit. Another worker gave insight into the company’s intense hiring process on Indeed. “I have worked everything from retail to corporate office positions, but Wegmans was the most strenuous and difficult interview process, by far,” they wrote. “The phone screening lasted almost an hour and was filled with complex questions about hypothetical scenarios and logic. I applied for a simple dishwasher job. You don’t even get hired until two more rounds of in person interviews. Very strange.”
