I ran into Richard Talkin at the Roger Lewis talk this past Wednesday. Richard is the local counsel for Wegmans. Whenever I’ve wanted to find out what’s going with Wegmans I’ve turned to Richard.
In my last post on Wegmans (Wegmans Saga Part Eight) I speculated that, with their most recent court victory, they would likely be on track for a late 2009, early 2010 opening. Local food blogger HowChow pointed out that on the list of upcoming store openings on their website; the opening for the Columbia Wegmans is listed as “to be determined.”
I asked Richard if Wegmans was postponing their expansion plans due to the economy.
“We’re still working to resolve the legal challenges.”
Apparently, the latest Board of Appeals victory was not the end of the legal battles. “We have three separate court cases going on,” he told me, “It’s ridiculous.”
Indeed.
The Wegmans opponents continue to appeal every loss despite not having won a single ruling so far. It seems that the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union has determined that even though they may not stop Wegmans from eventually opening in Columbia they can at least delay the inevitable.
Not suprisingly, this same union has also allied itself with a very vocal minority who are trying to keep Harris Teeter out of Turf Valley. They seem determine to pud a lid on anymore non union grocers in Howard County.
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