Wegmans Prepared Food Counter

Wegmans treats the prepared food section like a restaurant inside a grocery store. Good enough execution means I eat dinner from the hot bar at least once a week. Running about 40 feet along the back wall, the counter offers a rotating selection of dishes, roasted chicken, sushi. Pizza, stir fry, salad bar, soup, all prepared in an open kitchen where you can watch the cooks work. Hot bar pricing is by weight at $8.99 per pound. A moderate meal runs about $10-12, cheaper than a restaurant but more expensive than cooking at home. Wegmans works because the quality control. Roasted vegetables are seasoned well and not overcooked, the sushi rice is warm and properly vinegared. Pizza has a thin crust that gets crispy rather than soggy in the takeout container. The store layout funnels foot traffic past the prepared food section on the way to checkout, which is a deliberate merchandising decision that increases impulse purchases from hungry shoppers. That the lighting over the food counter is warmer than the fluorescent lighting in the grocery aisles, which makes the food look more appetizing. Wood and stone materials at the counter rather than stainless steel create a restaurant atmosphere within the grocery context. Staff behind the counter wear chef coats and take orders with the same attentiveness as a restaurant server. Restaurant-quality food at grocery-store prices with the convenience of eating on the way home has built Wegmans a following that borders on devotion. I think the prepared food counter is where the boundary between grocery store and restaurant dissolves. Wegmans is the best example I've seen of a store that commits fully to that dissolution rather than treating prepared food as an afterthought in a deli case.