Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
The Wegmans at Astor Place — the grocer's first Manhattan outpost and No. 110 overall — will open on Oct. 18 at 9 a.m.
Yesterday, store officials provided EVG with a tour of the under-construction 87,500-square foot space at the landmarked 770 Broadway.
This retail space was previously Kmart, which
closed after 25 years in July 2021. (Wegmans had agreed to buy out the fading retailer's lease to make this 30-year deal possible.)
A note before going inside... the former Kmart entrance on Eighth Street at Lafayette will be for the onsite restaurant, featuring a sushi bar and champagne-oyster bar set to open in the first half of 2024.
The grocery entrance is on Lafayette between Eighth Street and Ninth Street. Now that we explained that... here we go...
The ground floor will feature the prepared foods ready to eat or heat, and a market — the architect told me they were going for a "village concept feel" — including items familiar to Wegmaniacs, such as the in-store-made soups, salads, sushi (the star of the show), pizza, mezze station, sandwiches, an Asian foods station with woks and chefs, bakery, and a floral station, etc.
The space is enormous; you'd never guess you were in the former Kmart. The grocery is full of warm tones, muted creams, yellows, browns...
Also on the ground level: 31 self-checkout stations and seven staffed checkouts (management expects a high volume of customers here, hence the 600 newly hired employees)...
You can only check out on the main floor, so even if you shop on the lower level, where the grocery store will be, you still have to pay upstairs.
However, there are new escalators here with easy cart transport...
The lower level has the grocery items.
Upon opening, there won't be any wine or spirits for sale in the store, though they will have a beer section.
Also! You cannot access the store from the 6 train, and vice versa, like in the old Kmart days. The turnstiles are still there, but they are blocked off.
And Wegmans will just have the main and lower levels. (Kmart gave up the second floor
back in 2018, presumably in use by Wannamaker building tenant Meta/Facebook.)
Finally, if you want to get a headstart on the Wegmans experience, you can
download the store app and create an online account. Otherwise, see you in October...