Wegmans Food Markets history

The new store was incorporated in 1931 as Wegmans Food Markets, Inc.

1949: Stores are converted to self-service format.

In 1950, Robert Wegman, son and nephew of the founders, became president of Wegmans stores, and the company began to invest in businesses that would enhance its central focus.

In 1969 he was named chairman and CEO of Wegmans, and the company expanded outside of Monroe County, building stores in Syracuse, New York.

Wegmans also became only the third chain in the country to use electronic cash registers, installing an optical scanner system in a Rochester store in 1972.

In 1973, Robert Wegman capitalized on the growing demand for do-it-yourself home improvement products, opening his Home Improvement Center next to one of the company's Rochester groceries.

Robert Wegman's son Danny assumed the presidency of Wegmans in 1976.

The first Wegmans market in the Buffalo area opens in January 1977.

In 1983 Wegmans became one of the first chains to install automated teller machines connected to local banks.

Wegmans' violations of state item pricing laws dated back to 1986, but the company argued that item pricing increased consumer costs because of the expense of pricing each item.

In 1987, Fortune magazine named Wegmans the best United States supermarket in terms of customer service.

In 1991, Wegmans' Work-Scholarship program was awarded a "Points of Light Award" by President George Bush.

By 1993, the largest Wegmans stores were 120,000 square feet, three times the size of the "mall-in-a-store" facilities established 20 years earlier.

According to customers, in a 2000 Consumer Reports survey of supermarket chains, Wegmans ranked second.

Danny's father, Robert Wegman, who died in 2006, was previously chairman.

Wegmans, having long planned to expand into New England, opened their first store in that region in Northborough, Massachusetts, on October 16, 2011.

As a part of the company's continued expansion efforts, Wegmans opened its fifth Maryland location in Columbia on June 17, 2012.

Wegmans opened a store at the Montgomery Mall in North Wales, Pennsylvania, on November 3, 2013, the first store to be part of a shopping mall since the closing of the Midtown Plaza store in Rochester.

2014 saw Wegmans opening two more Massachusetts stores, in Newton, Chestnut Hill on April 27, and in Burlington on October 26.

2014 saw Wegmans opening two more Massachusetts stores, in Newton, Chestnut Hill on April 27, and in Burlington on October 26. Its fourth Massachusetts store opened in Westwood on October 11, 2015.

The eighth Maryland store opened in Owings Mills, Maryland in September 2016.

The Montvale, New Jersey location opened in September 2017.

The Chantilly, Virginia, location opened on June 3, 2018.

The chain's first store in North Carolina, located in Raleigh, opened on September 29, 2019.

In March 2020, Wegmans announced partnership of its new Brooklyn store with Instacart to extend its reach to include all Manhattan ZIP codes.