Wegman's Liquor Store to Open in April

The hustle and bustle inside is not going for naught. All the construction over the past few months is going to spawn a new liquor store to open in what used to be the frozen food aisles of Wegmans.

The opening is slated for April 26.

The store will be in Wegmans, but will be accessible only from an exterior entrance, not from inside the supermarket. That had been one of the sticking points with the  on allowing the liquor store to open inside of a supermarket. 

There will be access inside the store to Wegmans, but that is to be used only by store employees.

JWG Fine Wine and Spirits Inc. is the owner of the new liquor store, and that is controlled by Wegmans family member Joan Wegman Goldberg, according to Supermarket News. JWG also owns a liquor store in the Manalapan Wegmans supermarket.

The New Jersey Liquor Store Alliance (NJLSA) fought the opening of the liquor store at council meetings, saying that having a Wegmans family member own the store was an attempt by the family to evade state law that limits liquor license ownership to two per entity.

“Wegmans has successfully circumvented the two license limitation law with the help of family members,” said Paul Santelle, president of the NJLSA and owner of Garden State Discount Liquors in nearby Perth Amboy, told Supermarket News.

“They’ve been doing it all over the state and they’re hurting scores of businesses.”