Concerning Wegman's

For lo these many years, longing for Wegman's has been the emotional state that distinguishes those raised in, or educated in, upstate New York. When my daughter first went to college there, it was over two semesters before I got a hint what this was about. We asked and she brought us there.

For lunch: a good lunch. This would make perfect sense if one did not know that Wegman's is a supermarket. A huge supermarket. A squeaky-clean supermarket with employees who look like they enjoy their work, and good groceries at reasonable prices. In upstate New York's larger college towns, students hardly have to leave their Wegman's except to attend class. Some hardly do.

From the time I saw the Ithaca Wegman's, I knew New England supermarkets were in deep shit if the New Yorkers brought their concept here. They have and they are.

The first one is in Northborough, MA, and that's the worst I can say about it. The location is cool if you live anywhere from Framingham due west to Worcester, unless you're westbound on Route 9 and have to do a five-mile u-turn to get to the exit. Also it's over ten miles from the nearest college, so unlike the New York uber stores, the Northborough one isn't open 24 hours a day.

In their native habitat, Wegman's stores come in a variety of sizes, from maybe Super Stop & Shop size to something about the size of a small New England town. (When my kid was in grad school in Rochester, she and her peeps varied their shopping to take advantage of this variety. She also swears there's nothing in CA to match it.)

The Northborough store falls into the small town category. Just for starters, it has a produce section nearly as large as the whole Salem Market Basket: large, fresh, varied. Excellent meat and produce section...even fish...although I'm the sort of seafood snob who thinks Northborough is too far inland for fresh fish.

The typical giant Wegman's has at least two delis: one or more for the deli food you're going to eat in the on-site restaurant (unless you go for Italian, Asian or vegetarian, each of which has a separate line) and one for take-home. And, oh yes, there are groceries of the more conventional sort, all reasonably priced. Obviously, the profits here are in volume.

And, OMFG, there's a package store! It's bigger than the best packy in my area. I can only suppose this happens in Northborough because there isn't a lot else of the sort out there.

So, now when the kid comes home, she won't have to drive to Syracuse to satisfy her yen for a Wegman's sub. Word is the chain is eyeing a Chestnut Hill location for the next MA store. This may be one of the normal-supermarket size ones, so the process bears watching. If you're a stubborn New Englander who insists that supermarkets must smell like country stores, you may not like Wegman's. If you want to see what this business can really be, you will.