Also going to compete w travel stores like Pilot Buc-ee's etc.

NEW JERSEY — Hold onto your hoagies. As Wawa embarks on an aggressive push to expand, with plans to bring "travel centers" to existing markets, which could mean larger stores in New Jersey.

CEO Chris Gheysens described the travel centers as "Wawa on steroids" during the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia's 2023 Economic Outlook on Jan. 13. While they won't have overnight accommodations, the centers will include offerings targeting "light-duty vehicles" carrying travelers and some single-day commercial truckers, the Philadelphia Business Journal reports.

Gheysens first hinted at opening travel centers last April, telling the Business Journal that the company plans to nearly double its store count and operate about 1,800 locations by 2030. The plan involves new locations in existing markets and expansion into new states.

The opening of travel centers will likely take five years, a Wawa spokesperson told NBC10 Philadelphia. The facilities will be bigger than typical Wawa stores and located in more high-profile locations on major highways, such as Interstate 95, which has a lengthy stretch in the Garden State.

The average Wawa store is roughly 4,000 square feet. While the company hasn't estimated the size of any travel centers, the plan could put Wawa more in line with southern chain Buc-ee's, known for its mega travel centers.

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Buc-ee's holds the world record for the largest convenience store — a 66,335-square-foot facility in New Braunfels, Texas. The store, which is larger than a football field, features 120 gas pumps, 83 toilets and a wider selection of goods available than a typical Wawa. The average Buc-ee's is 35,000 square feet.

Wawa operates about 950 stores, located in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Florida and Washington, D.C. The business plans to open locations in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee.


Warning they are very lib and anti-gun. They posted "State Law: EVERYONE entering MUST wear a mask. There WAS no State Law, it was a Governor mandate. I will not go there.

Not to steal Wawa’s thunder but
In n Out is moving south

https://www.wate.com/news/tenn...-bill-lee-announces/

We have a lot of WaWa's here in Virginia and I go to them often. I have not noticed any no firearm signs in the ones I go to, but then again I am not looking for them and legally carry concealed . Next time I go I will check and update this post. God Bless

While these large "public entertainment" gas stations are exciting (we have a few in Alabama) I really enjoy the Mom n Pop's that have the hidden food treasures, sporting goods, and butcheries.

If you know...you know.

I guess Wawa is just falling all the transplants that move down here after everything they have touched in other places has turned to crap. Just my $0.02.

Freeking WAWA. My corporate HQ is in NJ and it is amazing at best how crazy the Locals are for WAWA. Just another Quik Trip as far as I’m concerned.

Just to show how popular and how insanely well Wawa is doing, I just saw a news story about how they are going to tear an old hardware store near me on Rt 100 in Gilbertsville PA down and build a new Chick-fil-A and a Wawa. There’s a Wawa literally like 1 mile away!

I’m a Wawa boy, born and bred. None of that Sheetz BS for me.

quote:

Originally posted by Ronin1069:
Freeking WAWA. My corporate HQ is in NJ and it is amazing at best how crazy the Locals are for WAWA. Just another Quik Trip as far as I’m concerned.

Not in these parts, not IMO or experience. WAWA reinvented the gas station and C store as we know it. Seems like the folks who want to compete have stepped up their game.

I had a damned good fresh made sub at one in FL, QT can't touch that

I was a Wawa fanatic
Especially from 2001 to 2017 when I lived/worked in Virginia/MD

When we relocated to NC my cravings fell off for the most part.

I did spent the last month and a half at my parents place in Florida and the zeal has somewhat came back.

A few years ago they switched their coffee and I became less than a fan.

For some reason I love their pretzels.
The other half is heading to Richmond tomorrow, and I already asked her to get me a Chicken Fiesta burrito and a couple of pretzels from wawa.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Just to show how popular and how insanely well Wawa is doing, I just saw a news story about how they are going to tear an old hardware store near me on Rt 100 in Gilbertsville PA down and build a new Chick-fil-A and a Wawa. There’s a Wawa literally like 1 mile away!

I’m a Wawa boy, born and bred. None of that Sheetz BS for me.

Any new Wawa being built around here in lower Bucks, they are selling beer now, and they have tables for you to sit down and drink your beer.

Any new Wawa being built also sells gas. They are putting them within eyesight of older stores. In some cases they are keeping the old stores too.

I've never been. I hear of these fictional gas station places like Buckee's? or Wawa? and I've no idea what you all talk'n about.

Sit down beer and pretzels at a gas station? Sounds like fiction.

quote:

Originally posted by BigSwede:
I had a damned good fresh made sub at one in FL, QT can't touch that

What is this “sub” you speak of?

Wawa makes hoagies!

quote:

Originally posted by mrapteam666:


A few years ago they switched their coffee and I became less than a fan.

For some reason I love their pretzels.

I was not aware they had ever switched their coffee? I’ve never been a fan of it, it’s not that it’s not good quality or fresh. It just has an acrid flavor that I don’t care for, I don’t know why.

Their soft pretzels LOOK great but have a weird sweetness to them I don’t like. A true Philly soft pretzel is not sweet like that.

They started pushing burgers a year or so ago trying to compete with the Five Guys and Red Robin burgers and I tried one and found it not at all bad but I’m never thinking “I’m going to stop at Wawa and grab a burger!” Nope. It’s get gas and get a breakfast sandwich or a hoagie.

I go visit my folks in NJ and friends in PA a lot, so I love Wawa. I hope we get it in AZ. It's way better than QT. But then QT in Phoenix has turned into a hangout for bums, beggars, drug addicts, etc. I don't know how Wawa will keep those losers away. But if they can do it, I'll never go to a QT again.

Oh, please. Give me a Sheetz any day over Wawa. Based on the ones around here (which are very popular), they are NOT ready for prime time - not in that market.

Consistency and predictability are not words I would associate with Wawa, particularly where their made to order stuff is concerned. Random availability of menu items and ingredients combined with a back-end POS system that routinely creates disparities between what is “available” on the app vs. in the store, neither of which may accurately reflect what they actually have on hand, makes for a very frustrating experience.

Hell, even Rutters has them beaten in my opinion.

-Rob

quote:

Originally posted by mrapteam666:

For some reason I love their pretzels.

Their pretzels used to be really good. A few years back they changed vendors and the current pretzel supplier seems to think that there is a world-wide shortage of salt.

They used to be something like this:




Now, they seem to have about three specks of salt. Mostly just plain dough.

---

'Nother complaint: WaWa store policy is, if there are more than three customers waiting in line to pay, open another register. Never happens. There are frequently a dozen or more people in line for one register, at the local stores.

They make a pretty decent sandwich. I actually really like their fries.

The best part about then around here is that they make food 24 hours a day. One of their sandwiches is way better than a McDonald’s burger at 2am.

WAWAs have sprung up like bamboo around here. Within 10 miles I can think of seven of the damned things.

WAWA has a special meaning for me.

In Liberia, and other countries on the African Gold Coast, when some west African Deus ex machina witch comes along and stops you dead in the water, blocking you from going forward not by an obstackle, but thermonuclear idiocy, ignorance, and irrationality you are at West Africa Wins Again.

I'm so hungry, I could eat a sandwich from a gas station.

I haven't been inside a gas station in a decade, but the large chain ones are being built at breakneck speed around me, so someone is patronizing frequently.