Tell 'em.
They know a lot more about groceries than the two of us put together, but I'm with you that it's insane that Wegman's is clutching to the big box concept when everything else in America is moving in the other direction (e-commerce, smaller formats, urban, walkable).
Urban 35,000-sf stores would crush it in the Upstate cities because a) people like Wegmans and b) there's relatively large new populations with no competition. I think the market needs to remind Wegmans about this and push them in that direction.
Without that, though, I agree that TJ's or Whole Foods could do well. Not only would residents support it (and concerns about schlepping lots of bags don't hold up for a couple reasons - first, a neighborhood store would probably patronized a couple days a week, so people wouldn't make giant purchases in one shot; second, people are already buying groceries and carrying them to their apartments without any trouble...this just brings the store closer to them), but there are over 20,000 employees downtown five days a week. Many of them would embrace another option, especially if it's got more appeal than your generic Tops.
