Our first Manhattan store has been more than two years in the making, and the excitement of our team and our soon-to-be customers has never faltered. Join us for a stroll down memory lane as we count down to opening day, October 18.

Wegmans Announces Location in Manhattan

On July 29, 2021, we announced plans to open our first store in Manhattan at 770 Broadway, the former site of the Astor Place Kmart, which had closed just weeks earlier. Within days of Kmart closing, speculation of a regional grocer moving in started circling. When the time to make it official, we were beyond excited to share the news, and even more excited to see the response!

New York City news outlets quickly started spreading the news:

• Fan-Favorite Grocer Wegmans Announces Manhattan Debut – Eater New York
  “The rumors are true: Fan-favorite grocer Wegmans is coming to Manhattan. The company is taking over the former location of the eerie Astor Place Kmart at 770 Broadway, whose July closure sparked an avalanche of tributes to the longstanding, ‘vaguely creepy’ store.”
• Wegmans Announces Second NYC Location to Open in 2023 – New York Post
  “There’s something new in store for the former, and long-standing, Kmart location on Astor Place in downtown Manhattan. The Rochester, NY-based — and cult favorite — grocery chain Wegmans will open up shop there, at 770 Broadway, during the second half of 2023.”
• Wegmans Will Take Over the Haunted Astor Place Kmart Space – Grub Street
  “This is big news (82,000 square feet, specifically) for Manhattan Wegmaniacs, grocery superfans who, until now, have had to make do trekking to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for their Wegmans house-brand pan-seasoning flour (the Wegmans house brand, any Wegmaniac will tell you, is but one of many reasons for the store’s cult-like appeal).”

Supporting the Community

Over the last year, our Astor Place store team has met with many local nonprofit organizations and community leaders to learn how we can make a difference in our new neighborhood. In total, we’ve committed nearly $90,000 to the Manhattan community through donations and event sponsorships, as well as participated in several volunteer opportunities.

• Wegmans Launches Selfie Fundraising Campaign for Food Bank for New York City – Village Sun
  “Along with its announcement of the new outlet, Wegmans has launched a fundraising campaign for Food Bank for New York City leading up to the store’s grand opening in mid-October… Basically, for every person who takes a selfie next to or in front of one of the pieces of Wegmans artwork, tags it with #MyWegmansAstorPlace and posts it on social media, the chain will donate $1 to the Food Bank for New York City up to $10,000.”
• Wegmans Build Relationships with Lower Manhattan Community
  “At Wegmans we are committed to serving our local communities in ways that most impact them,” said Astor Place Store Manager Matt Dailor. “We have had such a good time participating in events and building relationships with many of our neighbors and partners here in Astor Place. We can’t wait to open our doors and continue to work to help address food insecurity, health and wellness.”

Opening Date Announced

Two years after announcing Wegmans Astor Place, and a lot of incredible work by a lot of incredible people, we opened our doors… for a sneak peek of what our customers can expect on opening day, October 18.

• Wegmans to Open First Manhattan Store with Swanky Style this Fall – TastingTable
  “The people of Manhattan are in for a welcome treat, as grocery chain Wegmans is set to open its first location this fall. Wegmans is a New York institution, but from upstate in Rochester, New York, where the first store was founded over a hundred years ago. Since then, it has grown slowly but surely, cultivating a loyal fan base that turns out in droves for new openings and becoming famous for massive stores that stock a huge variety of specialty items in addition to grocery store staples.”
• First Look Inside the Astor Place Wegmans, Set to Open on October 18 at 9 a.m. – EV Grieve
  “The Wegmans at Astor Place — the grocer’s first Manhattan outpost and No. 110 overall — will open on Oct. 18 at 9 a.m. Yesterday, store officials provided EVG with a tour of the under-construction 87,500-square foot space at the landmarked 770 Broadway…The space is enormous; you’d never guess you were in the former Kmart. The grocery is full of warm tones, muted creams, yellows, browns…”
• Here’s When Wegmans will Open its First-Ever Manhattan Location – New York Post
  “Downtown Manhattan is about to get a big dose of upstate New York. Almost exactly two years after the Rochester-based grocery giant Wegmans announced it would debut its first-ever Manhattan location in the former Kmart on Astor Place during the second half of 2023, now comes word of its specific opening date. And, just like the company said in 2021, it’s right on target.”

Now Open!

• Excited NYers tailgate while waiting hours in line for Wegmans to make its long-awaited Manhattan debut – New York Post
  “Plenty of others wanted to check it out as well — fueled by the anticipation of this long-awaited arrival. One shopper even quipped, “I’m getting overwhelmed!” News of the opening date came this past July, when the grocery giant announced the specific Oct. 18 debut.”
• Wegmans Opens its First-ever Manhattan Location – Fox 5 New York
  “It is going supremely well. A little before nine, they opened up the doors to Wegmans. There was line outside, up the block, around the corner. There were even people tailgating. People in line since 4 a.m.”
• The New Wegmans In Greenwich Village Is A Supermarket. But It Isn’t. – Forbes
  “Calling the new Wegmans a supermarket might not be right. It’s certainly big enough; at 90,000 square feet on two levels, it qualifies. But only 11,600 square feet of that space, about 13%, is what you would call traditional grocery aisle type shopping (grocery, dairy, frozen). The rest of the store looks more like a food hall you’d see in London’s Harrod’s or Eataly. It’s a broad range of products with different stations of workers preparing cuisines from all over the world.”