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mundiel t1_iz4rmo9 wrote

Reply to comment by 8valvegrowl in Anybody else hoping Market Basket comes to Vermont? by Unique-Public-8594

You're 100% right, but they're not coming to VT any time soon. Probably ever.

I actually asked a Wegman's store manager about it once. He said their business model relies on being much closer to their supply chain than other supermarkets. They expand to whole regions at a time. It's not like Burlington just getting a single Target. All northern New England would have to become Wegman's territory, and it probably will never have the population density for that to be cost-effective for Wegman's, that manager thought.

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BudsKind802 t1_iz569yl wrote

I heard that same argument a decade ago from a Trader Joes rep I had known. Apparently the supply chain issue wasn't unsolvable, since they opened their store in S. Burlington a few years after that.

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mundiel t1_iz59edx wrote

Yeah, that seems reasonable. I'd love to be wrong, that was still the best major grocery chain I've ever shopped at.

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Nukeashfield t1_iz5vxvk wrote

I talked to a store manager at the Burlington MA Wegmans when it opened and he flat out told me in New England they're only going for sufficiently large affluent communities. So Bedford NH is about as close as you might see one to Vermont.

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bananabates t1_iz76zeq wrote

There's also the unofficial non-compete clause they have with Price Chopper. You'll never see a PC near Wegs locations and vice versa.

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