Wegmans Woodmore (aka, How KP spent her Sunday)

Firstly, I do not work for Wegmans...or in the food industry in general. However, I am now considering applying to work part time at the future Crofton, MD location; I have seen the sign for the future site and I am excited. I have shopped at five Wegman's locations, 3 in VA and 2 in MD, so I have a baseline for my Wegmans experience. The new store in Woodmore, MD felt like it was the biggest one that I have been in.

It was a mad house in the store at 9 AM. Thankfully, my shopping companion and I already had our cards so we didn't have to stand in the 20+ people deep lines at all the entrances. The main entrance, as with every Wegmans that I've ever been to, funneled the crowd into the vegetable section and that was a huge bottle neck. However, I must commend Wegmans on signage, traffic control, and having an employee in every aisle.

Bigger than a bread box differences:

• There is a sit down restaurant. I had the mahi mahi sandwich and my companion had the crab cake sandwich, both very tasty meal options. We would have stayed for dessert but the band was starting their set and it was VERY loud in the Market Cafe. I understand that the restaurant is where they hold the cooking classes.
  
• The store layout is flipped. The bakery, meat and prepared meals are to the left of the entrance; these things are to the right in the Hunt Valley and Potomac locations. Yes, there are other locations with these things on the left of the entrance but I usually shop at Hunt Valley so it was initially confusing for me.
• Where are the penguins and cow? The model train was there but no penguins and cow.

Other things I noticed:

• Still too far north for Cheerwine. Also, they don't have Diet Canada Dry Ginger Ale in anything smaller than a 2 liter bottle (important to my shopping companion).
  
• Fabulous cheese department. OK, I admit to being biased because I have a friend that works in this department.
  
• The only non-"baby" carrots in bags were Organic. While I do tend to prefer to purchase organic vegetables, I found the lack of options interesting.
• Maybe I don't pay enough attention in the fruit section of the Hunt Valley Wegmans...they have passion fruit in Woodmore.
  
• I really need to take a walk down the aisles in Hunt Valley because I didn't know that Wegmans includes the UK in their international foods section. They have McVitie's Penguins! Also, Jamaican guava jelly (a possible alternative when I run out of my supply from Hawaii).
  

So what did you buy?

• "Baby" carrots (on the short list of vegetables that DBF eats)
• Red seedless grapes
• Bananas
• Mushrooms
  
• Pacific Vegetable Stock
• Pacific Low Sodium Chicken Stock
• Pretzel rolls
• Bagels (plain, egg, blueberry, raisin & marco polo)
• Gluten free pretzels (for a picnic next week)
  
• Cream cheese
• Eggs
• Milk brie (should have used the $1 off coupon in the magazine but didn't see it until we got home) (for a picnic next week)
• Port Salut (for a picnic next week)
• Prosciutto (for a picnic next week)
  
• Sirloin steak ($1 off coupon)
• Butter (Free with $10 purchase)
• Bread (Free with $10 purchase)

How was your weekend?

Happy Cooking!
-KP