In an era where customer loyalty is hard to come by, the devotion — bordering on fanaticism — of Wegmans’ fans is the stuff of legend. Year after year, the upstate New York grocery store chain is either ranked as America’s favorite or at least in the top three. The media has raved about it, consumers have flocked to it — it’s even been the subject of a musical.
It was a high school musical, written by a high school drama teacher, but it was such a runaway hit in the Massachusetts town where it was performed they had to find a larger venue to accommodate all the people who wanted to spend a weekend night watching high school students sing and dance about a grocery chain.
To say the least, Wegmans doesn’t really have fans. It has devotees.
And this weekend, its most recent convert made the viral rounds, proclaiming his sudden, complete and total devotion to Wegmans.
The rapper was Tyler, the Creator, and his admiration was brought upon suddenly when his driver, upon hearing the artist complain that there wasn’t much to do in upstate New York, offered to take him to the local grocery store Wegmans. The rapper — when recounting this story to several hundred audience members at a show later that night — did not think this boded well for his afternoon.
He was wrong — a fact he explained to his audience in extremely colorful terms.
“This [expletive] is crazy,” he told the audience of his experience. “This is the nicest [expletive] store I’ve ever been to.”
He went on to highly praise both the sushi on offer and the freshly baked bread.
He also took time to throw shade on the competition and wonder if he could ever go back to his old shopping haunts.
“Oh my God. What? Whole Foods is trash compared to this.”