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JAN. 13, 2019, BROOKLYN WEEKLY
FRESH LIFE: The beloved grocery store Wegmans is slated to open in the Brooklyn Navy Yard this fall. Wegmans Food Markets
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 shipmaking
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.
GOOD GIRL: Violet is ready for
adoption after spending two
years living on the street.
Sean Casey Animal Rescue
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.
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.
Grocer gearing up
for arrival in boro
Lost lass seeks
a forever home
Wegmans recruiting ahead of fall opening of
its fi rst city market at the Brooklyn Navy Yard
Lady dog found with runaway
pup Pickles ready for adoption
BEST BUDS: Pickles, right, and Violet, following their rescue.
Joe Masella
/jobs.wegmans.com