FRESH LIFE: The beloved grocery store Wegmans is slated to open in the Brooklyn Navy Yard this fall.
Wegmans Food Markets
GOOD GIRL: Violet is ready for
adoption after spending two
years living on the street.
COURIER LIFE, J M B G AN. 11–17, 2019 3
BY JULIANNE CUBA
They’re stocking up!
Bigwigs at upstate grocery
empire Wegmans are on the
hunt for local talent as they
prepare to open the inaugural
city outpost of their beloved
supermarket in the Brooklyn
Navy Yard this fall.
But collecting a paycheck
for one of the hundreds of
open positions is just one benefi
t that those lucky enough to
land a job at the company will
receive, according to a veteran
employee.
“Here at Wegmans, you
drive your own development,
and the opportunities are
truly what you make of them,”
said Kevin Cuff, a 21-year
Wegmans worker who will
manage the store inside the
former ship-making Yard in
Fort Greene that builders are
transforming into a new commercial
hub. “You are more
than just a number. You are
a family member who has a
voice and an opportunity to do
whatever it is you are passionate
about.”
Leaders of the Flushing Avenue
store will staff and train
500 employees for positions
in entry-level management,
customer service, overnight
grocery, and several culinary
roles like chefs and line cooks,
according to reps, who said 150
of those gigs are full-time.
And when complete, the
supermarket — whose square
footage is about one-third
greater than that of the Williamsburg
Whole Foods —
will feature a second-fl oor
café serving food, wine, beer,
and spirits with seating for
roughly 100, in addition to its
grocery-stocked aisles.
Workers razed all but two
of the old historic houses on
the Yard’s Admiral’s Row —
a Flushing Avenue strip between
Navy Street and N.
Elliot Place where Naval offi -
cers lived when the area was
a shipyard — to make way for
the Wegmans, which in 2018
took second place in Fortune
magazine’s list of “The 100
Best Companies to Work For,”
according to reps.
News of the grocer’s arrival
fi rst broke in 2015, and
back then Navy Yard leaders
expected it to open sometime
in 2017, before pushing its debut
date to 2018, and then to
later this year.
Interested applicants should
apply online at jobs.wegmans.
com, or call (347) 652–2424 for
more information.
BY COLIN MIXSON
This gal needs a good home!
The female furball found
in the company of Brooklyn’s
famously lost pooch Pickles
is ready to move into a forever
home following her own
two-year odyssey on local
streets, according to leaders
of the shelter where she spent
the last few weeks.
Staffordshire terrier–lab
mix Violet — who escaped
her foster family back in 2016
— won the hearts of Kings
County animal lovers when
rescuers found her near
Brooklyn College last November
with the male dog whose
heart she captured sometime
after he ran off while on an
August walk .
And now, do-gooders at
Windsor Terrace’s Sean
Casey Animal Rescue — who
took Violet in for socialization
training following her
recovery — are ready to hand
her over to an experienced
dog owner with the patience
to further train the still-cautious
canine, whom the shelter’s
director said will make
a wonderful pet in time.
“She needs someone who’s
going to be patient with her,
and earn her trust,” said Theresa
Labianca.
Violet’s recent stay at
Casey’s E. Third Street shelter
wasn’t her fi rst — the
North Carolina native spent
time there in a semi-feral
state after arriving in Brooklyn
in 2016, before a Flatbush
couple with fostering experience
took the mutt in, according
to her former foster mom
Beth Smith.
But not long after the pair
took her in, Violet ran off in
November 2016 after another
dog spooked her while on a
walk with her then foster
dad Chris Bacas, beginning
a year-long search he and
Smith conducted with help
from several rescue groups,
which ultimately proved unsuccessful,
she said.
“We never ever got even
one credible sighting,” Smith
said. “We looked for her so
long.”
And two years later, the
news that rescuers found Violet
with Pickles bowled the
couple over with emotions,
bringing both of her former
foster parents to tears, Smith
said.
“I was over the moon,” she
said.
Following the pooch
pair’s recovery, Pickles’s humans
Joe Masella and Jasmin
Cruz Masella said they
would consider adopting Violet
to reunite their good boy
with his lady friend, but the
couple did not return this reporter’s
several calls about
whether they still might take
Violet in now that she’s ready
for a home.
Anyone interested in fostering
or adopting Violet can
call Sean Casey Animal Rescue
at (718) 436–5163.
Grocer gearing up
for arrival in boro
Lost lass seeks
a forever home
Wegmans recruiting local labor ahead
of fall opening in Brooklyn Navy Yard
Lady dog found with runaway
pup Pickles ready for adoption
BEST BUDS: Pickles, right, and Violet, following their rescue.
Joe Masella Sean Casey Animal Rescue