Widely admired supermarket retailer Wegmans has moved into the Maryland market, opening a 140,000-square-foot store in Hunt Valley, Md., in early October.

The family-owned Wegmans Food Markets Inc. is a 68-store supermarket chain with stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, and now, Maryland as well.

The new Maryland store is offering more than 60,000 items, including up to 400 cheeses, extensive kosher and international selections, authentic French pastries and a large variety of household goods, ranging from patio furniture to imported linens. The Hunt Valley Wegmans also boasts a 300-seat Market Café, with menu items ranging from sushi to submarine sandwiches.  

In addition to its retailing achievements, Wegmans has been ranked within Fortune magazine’s “Top 100 Companies to Work For” every year since the listing was inaugurated in 1998. In 2005 Wegmans, which is also noted for its support of a long list of philanthropic causes, topped the list.

C-Store Candy Breakout (A breakdown of convenience store candy sales by subcategory)
	% of Sales
Candy Subsegment	2003	2004
Gum	24.54%	24.52%
Candy Rolls/Mints/Drops	9.90%	9.08%
Chocolate Bars/Packs	33.20%	34.53%
Non-Chocolate Bars/Packs	10.09%	9.77%
Bagged/Repackaged Peg Candy	12.44%	12.44%
Other Candy	9.83%	9.66%
Source: 2005 NACS State of the Industry Report

The Big 10 in the C-Store (As a percent of store sales)
		2003	2004
1.	Cigarettes	34.5%	34.7%
2.	Packaged Beverages (non-alcoholic)	13.0%	12.2%
3.	Foodservice	13.1%	11.9%
4.	Beer	10.9%	11.9%
5.	Other Tobacco	2.8%	3.5%
6.	Candy	3.7%	3.4%
7.	Salty Snacks	3.1%	3.3%
8.	Fluid Milk Products	2.6%	2.5%
9.	General Merchandise*	4.5%	2.0%
10.	Edible Grocery	1.2%	1.9%
Total		89.4%	87.3%
* Prepaid excluded starting 2004. Source: 2005 NACS SOI Survey Data