Super Wawas Getting Some Push Back Amidst Expansion

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A Super Wawa store on West Baltimore Pike in Media.
Image via Tom Gralish, The Philadelphia Inquirer
A Super Wawa store on West Baltimore Pike in Media.

Here in Montgomery County, Wawa continues to evoke positive feelings. But that’s not true everywhere, writes Bob Fernandez for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Robert Costello, owner of Costello Asset Management (a close observer of local retail), said the Wawa brand generates personal feelings in the Phila. region because it started here, in nearby Folsom, Delaware County.

 “But Wawa is now approaching 1,000 stores, including 250 in Florida. And now they’re going into North Carolina and these states where they don’t have real competition and where the state makes it easy for them.”

The chain is so big, in fact, that its leadership can choose to close stores in Phila. without adverse economic results. The tactic has been successfully employed to escape drawbacks associated with rising crime.

“That’s how huge Wawa has gotten,” Costello said.

But in Bucks County, residents are starting to question how big Wawa should get. Residents there are pushing back against a 6.5-acre Super Wawa in Holland with 60 parking spaces and 16 gas pumps.

The store will “destroy Holland as we know it,” said local Pam Duffey.

A fight over a Cherry Hill super Wawa with gas pumps and another one in Newtown Township are also in play.

Wawa’s been looking at bigger stores, with lucrative gas pumps, as it moves beyond Eastern Pennsylvania.

Read more about Wawa’s Super Wawa expansion at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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This April 2022 video looks at the general trend of gas stations turning into markets.

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