Economies of Yummmmm

While our great buddy, Greg, is going to do his part to jump start our troubled economy in Vegas, baby!, our contribution is decidedly less lofty. You should know that we have a couple of real talents - photography and cooking. You gots it, friends. Come on over and Momma will cook for you. Seriously.  Next Sunday you'll be able to find us at the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show... so yeah, we take our food and its ingredients seriously.

Consequently we were excited to hear about the opening of a new Wegmans near our home. For those not in the know, Wegmans is a high-end grocery store. It has a cheese shop inside it, a ginormous wine area that, we kid you not, had a $1,400 bottle of wine for sale, a butcher shop, and a food court that has everything from Chinese and Indian to pizza, bagels, wings and sushi.  You could spend half a day traipsing down each aisle. 

Wanna talk about a great advertising roll-out? This one was out of the park. We got our applications for a rewards card in the mail early, then coupon books and finally a sales circular with it's Grand Opening specials. We walked in and received a magazine chock filled with more coupons and recipes. The anticipation was killing us!

There were "event parking" signs, orange traffic cones and police officers directing traffic into and through the parking lot. And it was tough to find a parking spot - even at 9 a.m.

We're not kidding that thousands of people came out on Sunday - in the middle of nowhere, Virginia. Yes, for the opening of a grocery store. What kind of samples did they offer? Prosciutto wrapped bread sticks, slices of honeycrisp apples, brie on crostini, homemade meatloaf, fresh squeezed orange juice, green tea ice cream, apple pie, mimosas, triple chocolate mousse cake. The list goes on and on. A little something for everyone.

Plus the prices were great - $1.99 for a half gallon of milk, $2.49 for a box of cereal. Ground beef was less than 2 bucks a pound.  And folks were buying.... what recession? People with full carts were jamming the aisles as they'd stop to get a bite or this or that. The line at the deli to buy havarti cheese was 25 deep.  We bought some of the biggest artichokes we've ever laid eyes on. Not to mention all the ingredients to make that meatloaf.

Way to go, Wegmans!  Way to attract shoppers with quality foods at great prices and helpful employees.  As a veteran cook (and consumer), we know a good recipe and first-class ingredients when we see it.  And we see it in Wegmans.

--Contributed by Deb