BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Supermarket chain Wegmans is opening its first New York City store this Sunday and it's creating a lot of buzz.
Wegmans is famous for its prepared foods, extensive produce section, meats and cheeses.
The location at Flushing Avenue and Navy street in Brooklyn's Navy Yard will have all of that, plus the chain's first standalone bar.
Otherwise, it's everything so-called Wegmaniacs would expect from the stores located throughout the Mid-Atlantic states and New England.
"This store is going to feel exactly like you were to walk into anyone of our stores," said Wegmans Manager Kevin Cuff.
The new 74,000 square foot store employees 540 people, incuding more than 200 found through local recruiting efforts by the Navy Yard Development Corporation's Employment Center.
(Wegmans employees have been training for months at stores in N.J. ahead of Sunday's grand opening in Brooklyn)
Wegmans says it is the people who truly set them apart from the crowd.
"They are so proud of what they're doing, I mean this Sunday is their day. I'm just proud to be on this assignment with them. We got really lucky. We found 540 just unbelievable people in the community here. So it's gonna be a good day, it's gonna be a great week and it's gonna be good for Brooklyn," Cuff said.
"After awhile, like a week or so in, I started picking up on it, it started grabbing me, and now I'm part of the Wegmans family," said Charles Griffin, the store's dairy team leader.
Developer and Chairman of Steiner NYC and Steiner Studios Doug Steiner has had a relationship with Wegmans for years. He said it's the perfect fit for the Navy Yard and especially for residents in the neighborhood adjacent to it.
"It was a food desert. There was no fresh food or a good supermarket within a big radius for the people who live here," Steiner added.
(Wegmans' Brooklyn location features the grocery chain's first standalone bar)
New employees have been training for months at their stores in New Jersey to prepare for the crowds expected to arrive for the opening.
"Anyone can sell a can of corn at the price we do, but they don't have our people. And that's what really is going to separate them and I think that's what Brooklyn is going to see," Cuff said.
The store opens at 7 a.m. Sunday.
How crazy will it be? Last month in Raleigh, North Carolina, a Wegmans store opened to a crowd of 3,000 loyal Wegmaniacs.