Wegmans opening Delaware store in late October as it seeks 184 part-time workers
Delaware Business Now
The 84,000 square-foot Wegmans Food Market near Wilmington will open on Oct. 26 at 9 a.m. The new store is at the intersection of Lancaster Pike and Barley Mill Road.
The Rochester, NY family grocery store chain is still looking for 184 part-time workers.
Part-time job openings include food service (dishwasher, pizza, cook), stocking (pricing, receiving, frozen, dairy), perishable departments (bakery, deli, cheese, produce, seafood, meat), and maintenance.
Hiring for full-time jobs began this spring and is ongoing for select openings such as cooks, dishwashers, and customer service jobs in sushi, pizza, deli, meat, and seafood.
“The most important qualification is a willingness to learn and grow. Though the opening is still a few months away, new employees begin training soon after they’re hired so that when we open the doors, they’re knowledgeable about our offerings and ready to provide incredible customer service,” says Wilmington Store Manager Jared Fedor. “Wegmans has a long-standing reputation as an exceptional employer, with tremendous opportunity for career growth and development.”
Wegmans hired and trained employees at the Concordville store this year in preparation for the opening in Barley Mill.
Wegmans Wilmington will employ approximately 450 people, most of whom will be new to the company and hired locally. The store will include a Market Café, a coffee shop, and The Burger Bar, a casual restaurant counter that serves burgers, sandwiches, and fries.
The store will be smaller than the Concordville-Chadds Ford store near the Delaware line, which has a beer and wine department. A sizable portion of store traffic at Concordville comes from Delaware.
The smaller store will still have most of the features of Wegmans markets as noted above.
Wegmans has been reducing the size of new stores as it moves into more urbanized areas. The grocer is opening a location on Broadway in New York City with about the same square footage as the Delaware store.
Despite having only one store, Wegmans, which draws shoppers any time it moves into a new market, is likely to cut into the large market shares of Shoprite and Albertstons’ stores in northern Delaware. Albertsons owns Acme and Safeway stores in the state.
The Delaware grocery market is becoming more competitive with Aldi, Food Lion and Lidl opening new stores in the state. The three chains operate smaller store formats.
Applicants for jobs at Wegmans can apply online at jobs.wegmans.com/wilmington, or call 302-551-6101 for more information.Applications are not accepted at the store construction site, and interviews are conducted at an offsite employment office.
Wegmans ranks high on best places to work lists and offers benefits such as an Employee Scholarship Program that has awarded over $130 million in college tuition assistance to more than 42,500 employees.
Part-time employee scholarship recipients are eligible to receive up to $2,000 per year for four years (a maximum of $8,000), and full-time employees can receive up to $4,000 per year for four years (up to $16,000 total). No limit is placed on the number of scholarships awarded each year, and no restrictions are made on a student’s area of study.