My store used to have a big bread oven, desserts made in-house, fresh prepared food made in woks etc. right next to the buffet table, etc. All gone now; the coffee shop got replaced by robots, they tried to close the seafood counter (with enough negative feedback they reversed it), etc.

It's all made centrally now, for 3x the price and half the taste. All the kids went and got MBAs and the third generation family business curse hit hard as a result.

I've heard locals say "Bob Wegman loved people, Danny Wegman loves food, and Colleen Wegman loves money".

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PaulHoule 13 hours ago | parent | next [-]

In Ithaca the coffee went downhill lately, that's for sure. On the other hand, my favorite drip coffee anywhere is made by machines that brew it by the cup.

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ceejayoz 13 hours ago | parent [-]

Honestly, it's not even about the coffee. The lady working there would see me, greet me by name, ask after my kids, and start making my drink without me having to tell her my order. That was part of the Wegmans magic for a long, long time.

(Same reason closing the seafood counter got a big backlash. There's a similarly awesome guy working there. For now.)

	▲	dredmorbius an hour ago \| parent [-]
		One of my favourite cafes ... thirty years ago now ... the barista would set up my drink when she saw me walk through the door, by the time I'd reached the counter she was handing it to me with a big smile. Tipped her generously on her last day there, got a big hug for it. There's something no machines can replace.

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jorvi 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That isn't something isolated to Wegmans or even supermarkets.

This[0] image basically says it all, and quality has only further nosedived since 2020.

[0]https://i.ibb.co/Zz2Mb6rF/e0vb5drbeh0e1.jpg

In general, it seems like the pareto products dont exist anymore, the midrange has basically dropped out for daily products and it's been bifurcated. If quality is a scale from 1-100, most places sell a 1, a 10, or you go to an artisanal place for a 90, for exorbitant prices.

But in the past a supermarket or toy store would have sold you an 80 for a reasonable price.

What sucks even more is that for example due to the cacao shortage, lots of products now contain less cacao for the same price. And usually down from 500g/250g to something like 485g/235g. Shrinkflation.

But, when cacao becomes cheaper or inflation stabilizes, companies don't think "let's push the quality back up for the same price", no, they'll pocket the difference. The same is planned to happen if Trump's tariffs get struck down. Businesses will get a huge refund, but the customers that got the costs passed along won't see a penny.

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ceejayoz 12 hours ago | parent [-]

I know it's widespread, I just would've thought Wegmans would be one of the last to do it. The premium vibes have long been their thing, and it was part of their secret sauce to vastly larger per-square-foot sales in their stores.

	▲	jorvi 10 hours ago \| parent [-]
		One thing I'm really envious of as European is Costco. Costco is absolute king of finding pareto stuff (20% of the investment nets 80% of the quality) and offering that. I know their whiskys are good, their tires are good, their medicines are good, their chicken is good. And all for a relatively reasonable price. It really seems like a last bastion haha.