Wegmans Food Markets, Inc.

What does Wegmans own?

Wegmans operates as a single-brand company. It owns the Wegmans supermarket chain, the Wegmans private-label product program, in-store restaurant concepts such as The Pub, and supporting assets including distribution centers and an organic research farm in Canandaigua, New York.

Is Wegmans publicly traded?

No. Wegmans is privately held by the Wegman family through Wegman Enterprises, Inc. It has never issued public stock and does not disclose detailed financial statements.

Who founded Wegmans?

Brothers John and Walter Wegman founded the company in Rochester, New York, in 1916 as the Rochester Fruit and Vegetable Company. John Wegman's son Robert later led the chain for more than five decades and shaped its modern format.

Where is Wegmans headquartered?

The company is headquartered in Gates, New York, a suburb of Rochester, where it also operates offices, warehouses, and food production facilities. Roughly 11,000 of its employees work in the Rochester area.

How many stores does Wegmans have?

As of November 2026, Wegmans operates 115 stores across New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Virginia, North Carolina, Connecticut, Delaware, and the District of Columbia. The newest location opened in Ballantyne, a Charlotte, North Carolina suburb, on October 14, 2026.

Who owns Wegmans?

The Wegman family owns the company outright through Wegman Enterprises, Inc. Danny Wegman is chairman, and his daughters Colleen Wegman and Nicole Wegman serve as CEO and senior vice president respectively, representing the fourth generation of family control.

Why is Wegmans so popular?

Wegmans combines very large stores with deep perishables, extensive prepared food, and service levels unusual in grocery retail. Decades of investment in employee pay and training support that service model. Consumer surveys by Market Force and Consumer Reports have repeatedly ranked it the top U.S. supermarket chain.

The company began on January 30, 1916, when brothers John and Walter Wegman opened the Rochester Fruit and Vegetable Company in Rochester, New York. John Wegman had learned the produce business working at his parents' grocery store. The shop's early differentiator was an emphasis on quality produce displayed attractively, a principle that still defines the chain.

The business grew steadily through the 1920s and adopted the Wegmans name in 1930. A major step came in 1931 with the opening of a 20,000-square-foot self-service store on East Main Street, an unusually large grocery format for the era. The company incorporated its own bakery and added cafeterias inside stores during the 1930s and 1940s, decades before prepared food became standard supermarket practice.

Robert B. Wegman, John's son, joined the company in 1937 and became its driving force for the next half century. Under his leadership, Wegmans expanded across upstate New York, adopted scanning technology early, built private-label lines, and invested heavily in employee wages and training. Robert Wegman's philosophy, which he summarized as treating employees well so they treat customers well, became the foundation of the company's service reputation.

The chain opened its first stores outside New York in Pennsylvania in the 1970s and 1980s, entered New Jersey in the 1990s, and later moved into Virginia, Maryland, and Massachusetts. Each entry followed a deliberate pattern: large stores in suburban corridors, long site development timelines, and heavy community investment before opening day.

Danny Wegman, Robert's son, became CEO in 2005 and later chairman. Colleen Wegman assumed the president and CEO role in 2017, the fourth generation of family leadership. Under her tenure the chain entered New York City with a Manhattan store at Astor Place in October 2023, opened its first Delaware location, and pushed south into North Carolina with Raleigh-area stores.

Recent expansion has stayed methodical. Wegmans opened three stores in 2025, including its first Connecticut store in Norwalk and a Lake Grove location that marked its Long Island debut. On October 14, 2026, the company opened its 115th store in the Ballantyne area of Charlotte, North Carolina, drawing more than 25,000 customers on opening day, a weekday record for the company. A second Charlotte-area store in Cornelius is under contract, and the company has indicated plans for three to five locations in the region.

Wegmans is not a certified B Corporation. Its sustainability work runs through a self-published impact report covering food waste reduction, packaging changes, and supplier standards.

The company reports donating millions of pounds of unsold food annually through partnerships with regional food banks and operates food-waste diversion programs including composting and animal-feed channels. It has removed plastic bags from stores ahead of regulatory deadlines in several states and shifted a portion of private-label packaging toward recycled and recyclable materials.

On labor, Wegmans is consistently rated among the best employers in American retail. Its scholarship program, above-market wages, and internal-promotion culture are documented through third-party rankings such as Fortune's Best Companies to Work For and Glassdoor ratings rather than independent labor certification.

Wegmans has appeared on Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list every year since the ranking launched in 1998, reaching the top spot in 2005. The chain has also been named America's favorite grocery store in multiple consumer surveys, including Market Force Information studies where it ranked first among U.S. grocers for several consecutive years.

Progressive Grocer named Wegmans among its 2026 Super Regionals and lists it at number 36 on the PG 100 ranking of top North American food retailers. Consumer Reports has repeatedly placed Wegmans at or near the top of its supermarket satisfaction ratings.

Wegmans has faced limited controversy relative to its scale, though not none. The company's 2023 Manhattan opening drew scrutiny when it deployed facial recognition technology to flag individuals flagged for prior theft concerns. Following public criticism, the company removed the system, stating it would not use biometric surveillance in that store.

The chain has also dealt with occasional product recalls consistent with any large food retailer, including supplier-driven recalls of produce and prepared items, all handled through standard FDA recall procedures. In 2022, a data exposure incident involving cloud-stored customer information affected an undisclosed number of shoppers and was resolved without reported fraud losses.