Wegmans: Your New Grocer?

It has now been a couple days since a to usher in Howard County's newest mega-grocery store.

The Columbia Wegmans will offer 700 different produce items, 300 kinds of cheeses, and employ 160 chefs. 

The effect of the Wegmans is already being felt by local Giant grocery stores. A Howard County Giant manager told Columbia Patch on Monday that there were noticeable losses in revenue at multiple county Giant grocery stores on Sunday, the .

On Tuesday, local food blog HowChow wrote about the Wegmans shopping experience after exploring the massive grocery store for the first time on Monday morning.

"Overall, the Wegmans lives up to the hype because the food is exciting," decided HowChow. But the blogger also noted the store doesn't replace everything else and said he couldn't find a pie ingredient his wife needed.

In a comment on a story about King's Contrivance Village Center published last week, a reader, Christine, noted, "nothing beats being able to walk over to the KC village center during the evening or weekend with the toddler in her wagon and get pizza or sushi or Chinese and then Rita’s. That village center, along with the park, pool, and the paths through the woods, are what keep me from wanting to move, even though we're starting to outgrow our condo. I've walked to the grocery store and the liquor store plenty of times and don't see that changing once Wegmans opens."

Despite these thoughts, on Monday it felt like half of Howard County was spending their morning at Wegmans. Shoppers were gawking at the diverse fresh fish selection, picking out pastries and populating the whole second-floor cafe during lunch.