after dinner sneeze

t says:  Wegman’s is a force to be reckoned with, as I can’t even count the number of people who claim to “save a bundle” because the generic Wegman-branded items are “so good”.  While I slightly disagree with the “saving a bundle” statement (everything not Wegman’s brand is pricey indeed), I’ll acquiesce that for the most part, Wegman’s items are “ok” (with a few noteworthy highlights – g loves their version of Cheerios).

Well, now Wegman’s has gone and opened up a liquor store just across the river in Cherry Hill.  Actually, it’s interesting how they do this, as the parent entity is only allowed a certain number of stores in Jersey (i.e. 2), and Wegman’s clearly has more than these.  To circumvent the rules, they rely on family members to open the stores.  Cool, right?  No?  “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.”

Ok, let’s focus on the Cherry Hill store that just opened:

Wegman's newest EtOH outpost

This new store is directly caddy-corner to a longtime favorite of mine (WineLegend) which is conveniently located between Wegman’s and HMart just down the road.  Furthermore, WineLegend’s website, although crappy, allows me to FREELY ship wine to the Cherry Hill location for convenient pickup.  I imagine that the WineLegend folk are pretty pissed that Wegman’s is so nearby, and very convenient for the Wegman’s grocery shopper.

g and I busted up into there to investigate the new digs …  It was kind of disappointing …  WHAT?  Yep.  It’s true.  The shelves were stocked with a whole lot of nothing special.  Yea, there are a lot of common wines in there, but it’s not like you’re going to find a bottle that’s particularly noteworthy.  What was weird was that even though the store, itself, is small, the selection seemed even smaller than the store’s size would suggest – they had a whole lot of a fairly limited selection.  Maybe as they get up and running they’ll increase the variety and cut down on the billion bottles of Yellowtail?

The upside is that it’s clean and bright in there … and, of course, it’s convenient as all hell.  I suspect that for most people, this will be the place to go to pick up a few last-minute drinks needed for a party or something … meaning that this place will probably make a killing from the droves and droves of Wegman’s shoppers.  But not me.  I’m sticking with WineLegend.  WineLegend’s got a guy named Phil in there that really knows good wine (that said, he’s not a particularly “friendly” guy – but who cares if he nails a good selection or two, right?).  Furthermore, I don’t mind WineLegend’s selection – it’s at least better than Wegman’s.  Actually, if only WineLegend cleaned up their store to make it bright/beautiful like Wegman’s – that’d be awesome.  But I doubt they will.  Oh well.  I better enjoy them while they’re still here.

One thing I did find that was particularly funny (I’m not sure why I find it so funny) was this:

"Du Pin" ... that's Le Pin's second bottling, right? Riiiiiight.