Rivera said it is too soon to say if the grocery chain will open any other stores in Connecticut. And the company has announced it will open a store in a former Kmart location at Astor Place at 770 Broadway in the second half of 2023. Wegmans opened its first New York City store in the Brooklyn Navy Yard redevelopment project in October 2019. The chain has also been focused on the metropolitan New York area. Wegmans has established itself in southern New England with six locations in eastern and central Massachusetts inside the interstates 495 and 128 corridor. “So I think there is room for both of us in Norwalk,” he said. Leonard said sales “are still growing” at his family’s Westchester County store in Yonkers, N.Y., even after Wegmans opened a location in 2020 about 15 miles away on the opposite side of lower Westchester in Harrison, N.Y. I welcome them to Norwalk and I plan on being there with a big bouquet of flowers the day they open up.” “Both our families love helping out people and providing good quality food. “Obviously, we are competitors, but I have tremendous respect for their quality and their corporate culture because we are both family businesses,” Leonard said Tuesday. Stew Leonard Jr., president and chief executive officer of the chain, said he is “really good friends with the Wegman family.” That store is located on the opposite side of Norwalk at 100 Westport Ave., and is one of six Stew Leonard’s locations, including three in Connecticut. Opening a store in Norwalk puts Wegmans in direct competition with Connecticut’s home-grown upscale grocery chain, Stew Leonard’s, which got its start as a small dairy store in 1969. Wegmans has an 80,000-square-foot store in Chestnut Hill, Mass., and has locations that are as large as 140,000 square feet, according to the Food Marketing Institute. The Norwalk property is a mid-sized location for Wegmans, according to Rivera. Rivera said Wegmans has been considering opening a Connecticut location for several years. MBI makes a variety of collectibles like coins under the Danbury Mint brand and porcelain figurines.Ĭolleen Wegman, president and chief executive officer of Wegmans Food Markets, said in a statement, “each year we receive hundreds of requests from residents for a store in Connecticut, so we’re excited to bring Wegmans to Norwalk and to get to know our new neighbors.” The property has been occupied by an office complex owned by MBI Inc., which Norwalk officials said is looking to relocate to another site in the city. “It usually takes a couple of years from when we announce an opening to when it actually opens,” Rivera said.
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