Marcie has done a lot of work in the food industry. She and her partner Leslie put on some spectacular events with me when I was working at Ocean Garden. Marcie is a real foodie and knows so much about the industry. And she told me that I couldn't leave Pittsford without seeing the flagship store of Wegmans. This is a family owned regional grocery chain started in 1916. They have 81 stores and employ 43000 people! They made 6.25 billion in 2012!
Wegman's caters to upscale clientele and offer meals ready to eat and pre prepared food items. They have been listed the top grocery store in the country by many food and grocery magazines. They are known for their innovative food serving areas. You can get just about anything you want in their eat-in store Market Cafe's. They also have stand alone restaurants close by the grocery stores.
And they have quantities of fruits all cut and ready to eat. Wegmans is the guru of this category of retailing.
John and Marcie stood in front of the counter where you could order a salad prepared and ready to eat. There is a huge dining area on the second floor. In one area, they play movies for families who come to the grocery store, choose their meals and eat while seeing a movie.
In addition to prepared seafood meals, they had a wide variety of whole fish, smoked fish, lobsters, shrimp, clams, etc.
There are tremendous aisles of meats, cheeses and breads.
And wide aisles of foods of every ethnic variety, or food type like chicken, pastas, that you could go down and mix and match to make a meal.
These food areas are almost impossible to comprehend. I don't know how they keep the foods hot, keep them stocked, offer such variety, and make a profit. Many graduates of the Culinary Institute in Hyde Park covet getting jobs here.
And the other part of the store contains regular grocery items!
After we had eaten our meals upstairs, Marcie treated us to a fruit tart at home. Everything was delicious and quite an experience! Marcie called this Danny's tart - he is the current President and CEO.
I couldn't leave Don and Marcie's without showing this ingenious feeding station they have for ducks on the stream below their house (I am standing on their deck.) It is rigged on a pulley which takes food down to this dock. This stream is normally small, but it was very high the previous night. The dock was turned sideways in the current last night. Normally, it is an area you can step over. It had receded, by Don's estimation, about 6 feet since we got there. Marcie was convinced that the ducks we saw at the canal were the ones who were normally on this stream, but it was too swift and high for them at the moment. Sure hope the rain stops!
We had a marvelous time with this long time friend!
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