When Groceries Have Cult Appeal

Wegmans’s star power will be tested when its first New York City supermarket opens

- Dimitra Kessenides and James E. Ellis

Most 60-year-old men don’t go food shopping every day, but Tommy Mule does. Mule (pronounced Moo-LAY), a morning radio host in Rochester, N.Y., pops into his local grocery store daily for some Vietnamese spring rolls, a rotisserie chicken, or just a coffee and some chitchat with Jimmy, his pal in the produce department.

The broadcaster likes the place so much he hired the supermarket to cater his wedding. He often takes out-of-town guests on a tour of the place. “They say, ‘It’s a goddamn grocery store. How good could it be?’ ” he says. “But I say it’s the best shopping experience you’ve ever had.”

Mule’s retail nirvana is Wegmans Food Markets. If you haven’t heard of it, you’re not alone. The privately held, family-run chain based in Rochester has only 98 stores scattered across six eastern states, fewer than Walmart operates in New York state alone. But it punches well above its weight, combining the product breadth of a Walmart, the quality of a Whole Foods, and the quirkiness of a Trader Joe’s.