TOUR: Wegmans - Natick, MA

Wegmans
Open: 2018-2023

Owner: Wegman family

Previous Tenants: JC Penney

Cooperative: none

Location: 1245 Worcester St, Natick, MA

Photographed: May 17, 2022

Welcome to the famed Natick Wegmans! This store made news when it opened in a former JC Penney department store in 2018, occupying over 130,000 square feet on two floors. The store contained multiple restaurants and food service outlets inside, some of which closed shortly after opening but others that continued on until the end.

And yes, here, in a truly unusual situation for Wegmans, there was an end. The upstate New York-based chain tends to open stores at a rate several times that of their closure rate -- which is very close to zero -- but this Natick location couldn't make it and closed in 2023. It's a large location, and one located at the back of the Natick Mall where visibility was rather low. It was accessible to the mall on both levels (you can see that below), but Wegmans doesn't typically operate stores that deviate so significantly from their model. It seems this store was a bit of a risk for Wegmans, and it's clear they gave it all they had, but they said at the time of closure that the lack of traffic in a "non-traditional location" was an obstacle too significant to overcome.

The layout was a bit complicated, so here's a picture of the directories posted at the various entrances. The store was somewhat difficult to navigate, but the wayfinding signage was quite good. Wegmans has, for the record, experimented with other nontraditional locations such as the Astor Place location in New York City, but I've been to that store several times and each time it's more crowded than the last, so I doubt that one's in any danger of closure. In general, Wegmans stores do very well.

Below, we can see the view from entering the store from the indoor mall (you can also see the windows on the outside of the store straight ahead).

The store had a variation on the typical Wegmans decor. As you'll see throughout, the general appearance is similar but some of the individual signs are different. Compare this store to Burlington, for instance.

The majority of the grocery aisles were on the first floor, and the majority of the fresh departments were on the second floor.

Dairy and the liquor store ran along the outside of the grocery department.

Wegmans maintains several stores in the area, including in Chestnut Hill about nine miles east, Northborough seventeen miles west, Burlington fifteen miles northeast, along with Medford and Westwood which I have not been to. We'll tour Chestnut Hill when we're closer to Boston.

The liquor store was quite extensive here, as it typically is in the Wegmans locations that have one.

And the usual fine wine room, looking great here.

HABA is also in this area. I don't believe this store had a pharmacy.

You can see the department signs are a bit different from the usual Wegmans signage, but the rest of the store design is quite similar. I don't mind these signs, but they're not particularly exciting. We'll see some more fun signage on the second floor.

Alright, let's head up! The escalators (and the related cart escalators) were a centerpiece of the store.

The grand aisle is on the second floor, with the decor we're more used to seeing.

Prepared foods departments lined the outside of the second floor, and this is very different signage from what we typically see in Wegmans. I do love it, though!

There were multiple seating areas, including these we can see here.

The various service departments are also on this floor. (I'm going lighter on layout descriptions than I usually do because we actually have the floor plans here.)

I visited this store on a Tuesday afternoon about two years before its closure. Tuesday afternoon isn't a peak shopping time for sure, but it also was pretty empty.

As we can see, the ceilings on each floor are lower than they typically would be for a new-build Wegmans, so the decor is scaled down.

Produce is in the center of the second floor.

I find it a little odd that the grand aisle is on the second floor, when it seemed like the first floor was the main entrance. Wouldn't it make more sense to put the grand aisle where customers enter? On the other hand, there is an elevated enclosed walkway between the parking garage and the supermarket (which you can see in some of my earlier exterior pictures), so perhaps the assumption is that the majority of the traffic would be entering from the parking garage on the second floor.

A smaller but still substantial cheese department here, too.

And this Wegmans was equipped with a burger bar and coffee shop. I think the design of this area is pretty awesome.

I love everything about this room. I'm not sure, but it's possible this room was originally the Mexican restaurant. That would make sense.

There are checkouts on both floors and at all the entrances and exits, so I think they wanted to make it as easy as possible to enter and exit from any location.

Heading back downstairs...

And that's all for this Wegmans. I'm really glad I got to visit and photograph it so extensively before it closed, and it's a real shame this store couldn't make it since it was pretty awesome. But Wegmans continues to expand with new stores again and again, so it wouldn't surprise me if we see more stores from them in this area eventually. We have one more stop before we leave Natick, so come back tomorrow to check it out!