Matt LePore found himself with no shortage of applicants when gearing up to open Maryland's eighth Wegmans.
Before the Owings Mills location opened a week ago, 11,000 people had applied to work at the grocery store at Foundry Row, a new shopping center on the former Solo Cup manufacturing site at Reisterstown and Painters Mill roads.
As the Owings Mills store manager, LePore, 36, was responsible for whittling those numbers down to the 475 people hired.
"My job was to prepare those folks for the new store opening and also hire them," with the help of a team of managers for the kitchen, perishables and fresh departments, said LePore, who was working in an office across the street from where the supermarket was being built. "It's an all-out effort to get the best people for our team."
Once hired, new employees get sent to other Wegmans stores for training in the technical aspects of their job in the bakery or as cashiers or in the kitchen, he said. But hiring the right person is key.
"We need people who understand our values … and share those values with others … someone who cares about taking care of people," he said.
Rochester, N.Y.-based Wegmans, which expanded into Maryland just over a decade ago, is known for megastores with chef-prepared food, cooking demonstrations and European-style marketplaces that showcase seemingly unlimited varieties of meats, seafood, produce and baked goods.
The Owings Mills store has seating in the Market Cafe, an Asian bar, a vegetarian bar, sushi, pizza and subs. Shoppers will find something new as well: a burger bar with fries and milkshakes.
In Maryland, as elsewhere, Wegmans typically far surpasses other grocery sellers in sales per store. Its four Baltimore-area stores averaged about $82 million a year in sales, according to Food World, an industry publication.
LePore, a Rochester, N.Y., native, was 17 when his job at a local baseball stadium ended with the team's season. He went to work for Wegmans as a cashier and parking attendant.
"I never thought of it as a future career path, but one thing led to another," said LePore, who attended college on two Wegmans employee scholarships while keeping his supermarket job. "I knew I wanted to do something in business and I wanted to work with people. … It was right there in front of me all the time."
After graduating with a business administration degree from State University of New York at Brockport, LePore took a permanent job with Wegmans in 2004 as an entry-level manager at a then-new location at Dulles International Airport in Virginia.
Before moving to Owings Mills, LePore worked at the Frederick Wegmans, moving up from perishables manager to store manager. He began preparing for the Owings Mills opening about a year ago.
On Sept. 21, about 23,000 people showed up for the opening, LePore said, a "phenomenal" response in an area brimming with supermarkets.
"Folks have a choice to go anywhere," he said. "Our core business is … making great meals easy for customers and helping them live healthier, better lives."
Matt LePore
Title: Store manager, Wegmans Owings Mills
Previous job: Store manager, Wegmans Frederick
Age: 36
Residence: Westminster
Hometown: Rochester, N.Y.
Education: State University of New York at Brockport
Family: Wife, Beth; two daughters
Interests/hobbies: Watching sports, Orioles fan