Business & Tech

New Wegmans Grocery Store Opens Doors In Reston Wednesday Morning

Wegmans will be opening its new grocery store on Wednesday morning in Reston's Halley Rise development off of the Dulles Access Road.

RESTON, VA — Wegmans Food Markets, the national grocery store chain originating in Western New York, is opening the doors of its new location in Reston's Halley Rise development at 9 a.m., on Wednesday.

The 85,000-square-foot store, which is located at 11950 Hopper St. next to the Dulles Access Road, sits atop a two-level parking garage. Unlike the sprawling Wegmans Store in nearby Fairfax Lakes, the Reston location was built with an urban design, similar to the grocery chain's Tysons location.

"In the last couple of years, we've been going more toward an urban design," said Marcie Rivera, a Wegmans spokewoman. "It's faster for people to come in and grab things. That's why we have a lot of these like veggies and prepared items you can just literally grab and go. It's super quick."

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

While testing the new pizza oven on Monday, a Wegmans employee tries out some of the store's pizza recipes. (Michael O'Connell/Patch

For customers on the go, the store also has a self-service coffee bar and a made-to-order pizza shop. Customers can also use the Wegmans App to place an order ahead of time at the store's Burger Bar Express. Once their order is ready, they can grab it on the way out.

"We also have a full-service sub shop and on the other side we'll have salads and sandwiches, as well," Rivera said. "Some of our new stores didn't open with a sub shop. But we've just had so much demand for it, we were like we might as well."

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

Of course, Wegmans isn't just about getting people out the door quickly.

An employee of Wegmans' new grocery store in Reston unwraps packages of cheese in preparation of Wednesday's opening. (Michael O'Connell/Patch)

"The Market Cafe is kind of a cool setup compared to some of our other stores," Rivera said, during a tour of the store on Monday.

A group of employees were having coffee and working on their laptops in a small cafe near two rows of self-checkout registers at the store's main entrance.

"Then upstairs there's additional seating as well as outdoor seating, so there are about 200 seats for both indoor and outdoor," she said.

One of the things that Wegmans prides itself in is bringing in local produce whenever possible.

"We have everything from peaches in the summer to lettuce that they're growing year round," Rivera said. "Up in Rochester, we have our own organic farm, where we test out different growing conditions, different crops. Then we'll share that information that we've learned with our farm partners, so that they can bring it back to their farm, create that product for us and then we guarantee that we'll buy and carry that product in our stores as well."

The company's focus on "local" extends to other areas of the store, as well. Not only will shoppers be able to purchase a selection of wine and beer from local wineries and breweries, they'll find other local favorites, including Reston's own Dano's Granola, bottles of Capital City Mambo Sauce, and Blanchard's Coffee.

Many of the Reston store's employees have already gotten a lot of experience by working at other Wegmans stores around the area. Once it's fully staffed, the Reston Wegmans store will have about 425 employee, according to Rivera. It still has about 20 positions to fill.

Since the company opened its hiring office last April, the store has participated in a number of community activities in Reston. Employees manned a booth and handed out bananas and water bottles to participants during the Reston Walk to End Alzheimer's.

In addition, Wegmans staff has met with representatives of the Reston YMCA, the local high schools, the food pantry, the Sheperds Center, the Reston Association, and the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce, according to a release.

Once the store opens its doors on Wednesday, it will have already donated $20,000 to the local community and will make an additional $10,000 donation to help Food for Others to expand its "My Market" facility.

Two Wegmans employees practice making sushi on Monday morning. Every day, fresh sushi will be available for people to take out or eat in the store's Market Cafe. (Michael O'Connell/Patch)


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here