Robb M.
Yelp
I do 90% of my shopping here, including the pharmacy. Anyone who goes to Wegmans must acknowledge that the place is generally immaculate, well-staffed, and stocks tons of products, from common to high-end. I won't dwell on the quality of the store. What I'd like to talk about is the misconception that Wegmans is an elitist store with bloated prices who favors its house brand at the expense of others.
The first bit of advice is to shop the sales and take advantage of the in-app coupons. The sale prices aren't advertised in a circular, but if you check tags on shelves, you'll see pretty great discounts if you have the club card.
The next is to compare prices. I got a gallon of milk once at Aldi, and then went to Wegmans and saw the milk was $.01 less. Not a big gap but pretty solid evidence that the prices for commodities is competitive.
Lastly - and I see this a lot in a foodie group I'm in - is a complaint that they ditch brand names for house brands. I've seen no evidence of this. I saw a commenter once gripe that Wegmans no longer stocked brand name mayo. That was wildly untrue. Is an emphasis on store brands? Sure! It is everywhere, because retailers make more profit. I think people get offended because brands like Target and Aldi and Giant have house brands but never use their own names. There are few if any "Aldi" branded products, but nearly everything in Aldi is house. Wegmans puts its name on the products because THEY HAVE THE GUTS, DAMMIT.
I worked in a high-end grocery for years, and they didn't carry Kraft or Little Debbie or Hamburger Helper because they were targeting a higher-end demographic. Wegmans isn't doing that. They have the "everyman" products as well as the "elitist" products. Shop smart and they are a lovely store who won't break the bank. Don't impulse buy caviar and pre-cut pink pineapple and you should be fine.
Oh, I will add that it's not lost on me that they have increased their ready-to-eat foods (rotisserie chickens, buffet, salads, subs, etc.) to extortive levels since the pandemic, but personally it was easy to just not get that stuff anymore. There are literally seven restaurants in that shopping center alone. Why get a $14 sub at Wegmans when you can walk over to Cava or Habit or Chipotle, or drive five minutes to Jimmy John's or Jersey Mike's? I see in foodie groups people are really angered by this bloat, and I get the annoyance, but grocery store food should either be a guilty pleasure or a convenience, this isn't that anymore, so I've moved on.