9 Wegmans Habits Virginians Have That Out-of-Staters Find Weird

Wegmans hit Virginia in 2004, and the state has been hooked ever since.

Virginia now has 15 Wegmans locations, making it the third-largest Wegmans state behind New York and Pennsylvania.

Walk into any Wegmans from Short Pump to Virginia Beach to Reston, and you’ll spot the regulars right away.

Here are some Wegmans habits Virginians have that out-of-staters find weird.

Treating the Market Café Like a Restaurant, Not a Grocery Stop

Virginians don’t grab Wegmans’ prepared food and run.

They sit down. They eat.

The Market Café at Wegmans can seat dozens of people, and you’ll find Virginians treating it like a casual restaurant for lunch, dinner, or a coffee break.

Northern Virginia commuters stop in after work to grab a hot bar dinner and eat in the café before heading home.

Virginia Beach families show up on Sunday afternoons for the salad bar and sushi.

Charlottesville UVA students study at café tables for hours with a sandwich and a Blanchard’s Coffee.

Out-of-staters from grocery cultures where you bag your stuff and leave watch this happen and ask if they’re in the wrong building.

Driving 20 Miles for Hubbard Peanuts

Hubbard Peanut Company has been supplying Wegmans since 2003, based out of Sedley, Virginia.

Hubs Peanuts are a Virginia institution. Every Wegmans in Virginia carries them, often in their own dedicated display.

Virginians who grew up on Hubs will drive past three closer grocery stores to pick them up from Wegmans, where the selection is often bigger.

The dedication is real.

A Sedley peanut shouldn’t require a special trip when you can get them at Kroger, Harris Teeter, or Food Lion.

But Virginia Wegmans regulars know that Wegmans carries the full Hubs line, including the Salt and Pepper, Sea Salt, and Redskin varieties that other stores sometimes skip.

Out-of-staters who’ve never had a Hubs peanut find this devotion confusing.

Knowing Exactly Which Local Farms Supply Which Aisles

Wegmans has worked with Virginia farms for over 20 years, and Virginians know the suppliers by name.

Clay Jackson heritage beef from Madison, VA. Soli Organic herbs from Rockingham. Mountain View Orchard apples from Stafford. Cherrystone Aqua-Farms seafood from Cape Charles. Blanchard’s Coffee from Richmond.

A Virginia Wegmans regular can walk through the produce section and tell you which berries came from Virginia farms this week.

They can spot Clay Jackson beef in the meat case from across the store.

This kind of regional grocery literacy doesn’t exist in states where the grocery chain has no farm partnerships.

Out-of-staters from Walmart Supercenter cultures find it strange that anyone would know or care who grew the cilantro.

Loving the Reston Underground Parking Garage

The Reston, Virginia Wegmans opened February 1, 2023, and it has hundreds of parking spots in a garage directly beneath the store.

A cart conveyor system runs alongside an escalator to bring groceries down to the parking level.

Wegmans regulars in Northern Virginia treat this like a hidden gem.

The Tysons Wegmans has structured parking, too, but the Reston setup is the gold standard.

Out-of-staters used to surface-level grocery parking show up at Reston, see a garage entrance, and assume they’re in a mall or office complex.

Virginians know exactly where to park, exactly which elevator to take, and exactly which lane brings the cart down without breaking anything.

Eating on the Potomac Store’s Second-Floor Balcony

The Wegmans Potomac store, located in Woodbridge at the Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center, has alfresco dining via a second-floor balcony.

Northern Virginia regulars from Prince William County, Alexandria, and the Mount Vernon area know about this.

They show up on warm Saturday afternoons, grab a sub or a salad, and eat outside on the balcony like they’re at a wine bar.

Out-of-staters who’ve never been to a grocery store with a second-floor balcony don’t even realize the option exists. They stand in line at the Market Café register, never look up, and assume the only seating is at the basic tables inside.

The Potomac balcony is one of the most underrated grocery store features in the DMV area.

Stocking Up Before Football Saturdays in Charlottesville and Blacksburg

UVA fans in Charlottesville and Virginia Tech fans across the state share one weird habit.

They run a full Wegmans haul on the Friday before a home game.

The Charlottesville Wegmans opened in November 2016 and quickly became game-day central for UVA tailgaters.

The store stocks up on local craft beer, premium meats from Clay Jackson, and Wegmans-brand party trays that show up at tailgate after tailgate in the parking lots near Scott Stadium.

Virginia Tech fans drive to the Short Pump or Midlothian Wegmans for the same reason, even though Blacksburg doesn’t have a Wegmans of its own yet.

Out-of-staters wonder why anyone would plan a grocery run around a college football schedule.

Treating Wegmans Brand Items as Premium Products

Wegmans fans don’t see the store brand as a generic.

They see it as a curated product line.

Wegmans-brand pasta sauces, frozen pizzas, ice cream, cheese, and Italian olive oils get the same shelf attention as national brands in Virginia kitchens.

Some Virginians have stopped buying Barilla pasta sauce entirely in favor of the Wegmans Italian Classics line.

The Wegmans store brand keeps winning industry awards for quality and consistency. But most non-Wegmans states don’t have access to the products and assume “store brand” means generic.

Out-of-staters who think generic equals lower quality see Virginia Wegmans regulars filling carts with store-brand items and assume they’re cutting corners.

They’re not.

They’re buying products that often outrank the name brands in taste tests.

Knowing the Difference Between the Short Pump, Midlothian, and Wegmans Hill Layouts

Virginia has 15 Wegmans locations, and Virginia regulars have strong opinions about which one is best.

Short Pump (opened August 2016) is the choice for Richmond-area shoppers who want the full Wegmans experience with a big café and an extensive prepared foods section.

Midlothian opened the same year and is more compact but easier to navigate.

The Charlottesville location, opened in November 2016, has its own dedicated UVA crowd.

Chantilly (opened June 3, 2018) and Reston (opened February 1, 2023) are the Northern Virginia heavy hitters.

Virginia Beach (opened April 28, 2019) is the Hampton Roads anchor.

Virginians know which Wegmans location has the best wine selection, which has the longest deli counter, and which has the freshest sushi.

Out-of-staters who think a grocery store is a grocery store can’t follow the conversation.

Defending the Service Center

Wegmans opened its Virginia Service Center (VSC) in Hanover County, Virginia (Ashland, on the I-95 corridor) in mid-2024.

The facility employs 500 people. It serves all 24 Wegmans stores in the Virginia/North Carolina/DC/Maryland region.

The Wegmans Virginia Service Center has been recognized by local Virginia media as a major economic contributor to Hanover County, and Wegmans donated a tractor-trailer with 40,000 pounds of food plus a $10,000 gift to Feed More, the Central Virginia nonprofit that fights food insecurity.

Virginians talk about the Wegmans VSC the way Texans talk about H-E-B’s distribution network or Floridians talk about Publix’s Lakeland headquarters.