COLUMBIA, Md. (WJZ) — The wait for a grocery store’s grand opening is over for thousands of shoppers in Howard County. The Wegmans in Columbia welcomed customers for the first time Sunday.

Gigi Barnett has more on excited shoppers and the superstore.

Bumper to bumper carts on every aisle. It’s part of the excitement of the newest Wegmans in Maryland.

“There’s so much stuff here, it’s unbelievable,” said Annette Hunter.

Hunter looped the store twice to absorb it all.

“We didn’t want to miss anything so we just kept going around,” Hunter said. “Actually, it was a good thing because we missed a lot of stuff the first time.”

Larry Phealan came for one thing.

“I came here for cheese. You ever see their cheese section? There’s like 10,000 cheeses,” Phealan said.

The superstore is like a mini village. It boasts 135,000 square feet lined with food and a double-decker parking garage. It’s so large, shoppers need a map.

Some of them scoped out the scene before this weekend’s grand opening.

“I pretty much know how they have the store and I looked at it ahead of time online, too, so I knew what the layout was going to be,” said Cynthia Madison.

The Columbia Wegmans is the fifth one in the state. The first came to Hunt Valley back in 2005, but shoppers pleaded for one in Howard County, too.

“We’ve had more than 500 requests to build a store in Columbia. It’s one of the most requested sites we have ever had,” said Wegmans spokeswoman Jo Natalie.

Wegmans has two more stores coming to Maryland by the end of next year: one in Anne Arundel County and one in Montgomery County.

Wegmans says it’s also looking to open another superstore in the Owings Mills area in the near future.