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1. We like craft beer.
According to Wegmans, Northern Virginians buy 40 percent more craft beer than residents of Rochester, New York, where the chain is headquartered.
2. But not just any craft beer.
Shoppers here buy local—really local. At MOM’s Organic Market, DC Brau sells twice as much in DC as in Virginia, while Alexandria’s Port City Brewing Company sells five times as much in Virginia as in Maryland.
3. We buy a lot of healthy and organic.
Safeway sells more ground turkey in DC than in other parts of the region. Meanwhile, of the milk sold at the Great Falls Safeway, 66 percent is plant-based—such as almond—versus 34 percent dairy.
4. Yet we can’t resist cookies.
Wegmans sells twice as many cookies by the pound in Northern Virginia as it does in Rochester. Is it that we don’t bake our own? Or that we prefer to buy one cookie —as opposed to having a whole, tempting package?
5. We can’t resist sushi, either.
Wegmans sells 70 percent more of it in Northern Virginia than in upstate New York. Virginia customers, in fact, buy more prepared foods of all kinds, and more ethnic fare.
This article appears in the March 2018 issue of Washingtonian.
Sherri Dalphonse joined Washingtonian in 1986 as an editorial intern, and worked her way to the top of the masthead when she was named editor-in-chief in 2022. She oversees the magazine’s editorial staff, and guides the magazine’s stories and direction. She lives in DC.
