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New Wegmans ripens in Leesburg
Since last May, Phil Quattrini has worked at one job only: Open the Leesburg Wegmans at 7 a.m. Nov. 8 without a hitch.
He’ll be standing at the entrance that morning, Quattrini said, watching people come in. His job, and the job of his four managers and of every one of the 550 employees, is to make sure those shoppers are so happy they come back.
They will come back for the fresh produce, the low prices on the shelves, and maybe for the fresh sushi and piping-hot pizza. Most of all, they’ll come back because shopping at Wegmans is designed to be a pleasant experience. If the last thing that happens to a shopper, Quattrini said, is that one of the Helping Hands crew appears on a rainy day and walks the shopper back to the car, “It leaves a lasting impression. You will come back.”
Quattrini lives in Leesburg today, but his Wegmans career started in New York. He decided college wasn’t for him, and had the good luck, he said, to land a part-time job in the produce section of the Johnson City Wegmans. He moved up to night produce manager and has moved up the ranks of the company’s management ladder since. He came to Leesburg six years ago as the perishables manager at the Dulles Wegmans, the New York-based company’s first venture into Virginia.
When the Leesburg store opens, it will be the sixth Virginia Wegmans.
More Wegmans stores will never mean less quality, Quattrini said. This year will be the first time Wegmans has opened three stores in one year – Collegeville, Pa., opened in October, Fredericksburg is coming, and Leesburg is a little more than a week away.
“We try to keep our growth rate very small so we can keep the details right,” Quattrini said.
The key to keeping shoppers happy, Quattrini said, is a first-rate crew. His job is to make sure the 550 employees have every resource they need, and to make sure they know management cares about them and their futures with the company. A majority of the managers, like Quattrini, started out on the floor – serving coffee, sweeping sawdust off the butcher shop floor, rearranging hot rolls in the bakery.
“It’s a nice thing being able to build a career like that,” Quattrini said. “You take the next step when you are ready but not forget where you came from. I think it helps build respect with our employees. I’ve done what they are doing.”
Shoppers will look in vain for a “Quattrini” in the store. All Wegmans people, from Dan and Colleen Wegman down to the part-time cashier, are on a first name basis. Ask for “Phil.”
Leading the 550 employees (the winners from the 5,000 applications) at the Leesburg Wegmans are executive chef Vaughn Puccio, also a Leesburg resident; perishables manager Gerry Troisi, who commutes in from Maryland; merchandise manager Paul Mayer, another Leesburger; and service manager Julie Hill, who put down roots in Ashburn six years ago when she came here to help open the Dulles store.
Troisi (his career started behind the coffee bar), like Quattrini, brings a heritage of Italian family cooking to his leadership for bakery, meat, seafood, produce, cheese, deli and wine. He’s been to all the openings in Virginia in some capacity, but “always with the bakery. The opening is an experience our people are really excited about.”
Skeptics may wonder why people will be lined up at 4 a.m. waiting for the doors to open at 7 a.m. Nov. 8.
“They just don’t understand the Wegmans experience,” Troisi said.
Contact the reporter at jershan@comcast.net
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