Photos: Wegmans; Publix
As Publix continues expanding up the East Coast, Wegmans maintains its inexorable push south. The popular grocery chains are bound to compete head-to-head in Virginia as they open new stores in markets across the state. North Carolina is also shaping up as a battleground with Wegmans planning to open more stores in the Tar Heel State. As its southern expansion continues, the obvious question is whether Wegmans will make its way into Florida, a market long dominated by employee-owned Publix.
Wegmans is focusing its North Carolina expansion into the Raleigh/Durham market, home to three major universities — Duke, North Carolina State and UNC at Chapel Hill — and thousands of well-paid professionals working in medical research and other fields.
Burt Flickinger, managing director of the Strategic Resource Group, sees “a huge opportunity” for Wegmans as its moves into more southern states. He told the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, “Wegmans could double the current size of its corporate sales just by filling out the region between Virginia, the Carolinas, into Tennessee and Georgia and north Florida.”
Wegmans' expansion southward is keeping to a familiar script — slow and steady. The chain has not yet identified locations it plans to build in the Raleigh/Durham area and its big box stores will be spaced out geographically, as in the past.
Publix has been much more aggressive in its move up the coast. The company recently announced the acquisition of 10 Martin’s locations from Ahold in the Richmond, VA market.
A move by the family-owned Wegmans into Florida is probably a ways off, but there are some who think the Sunshine State offers opportunities for grocers who compete directly with Publix.
A Tampa Bay Times report in June covered Albertsons' decision to rebrand its three remaining stores in Florida under the Safeway banner. At the time, retail analyst Jeff Green told the paper that the rebranding was probably due to Albertsons/Safeway management viewing Publix as having an “unreasonably high market share in Florida.”