When the sun came up Sunday morning, Tim Altaner was sitting on a folding chair just off Snowden River Parkway and McGaw Road, waiting for a store to open.
A strange way to spendFather's Daymorning? His wife and two daughters thought so.
"They think I'm crazy," said the 50-year-old North Laurel man.
Thousands of others, however, would disagree. This was the grand opening of Wegmans in Columbia, an opening that has been anticipated since the New York-based grocer announced five years ago it was building a supermarket in Howard County. And while Altaner, who arrived at midnight Saturday, was the first in line, he was only one of an estimated 2,000 customers who, when the store opened at 7 a.m., was waiting to get in.
"It's even bigger than we expected," store Manager Wendy Webster said as customers streamed into the store shortly after 7, only moments after Webster and other Wegmans' managers led the employees in the traditional grand opening cheer, in which they shout out the letters in Wegmans while forming them with their arms. "Bigger and better."
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Baltimore Sun