The state of Pennsylvania is home to a unique town called Wawa, located in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Partly situated in the township of Middletown and partly in the district of Chester Heights, Wawa has been around since before the county and both municipalities were established. In 1989, Cynthia Mayer of the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the town was associated with convenience stores, such as Wawa Inc., which had announced plans to expand its dairy located in Middletown Township. Walter Kirby, head of the Wawa Farm Association, alerted residents of the community who showed up in large numbers at a meeting.
Although they didn't want the dairy to expand, they preferred it to other types of development. Wawa is divided into East and West sections by Baltimore Pike, and in 1989 had several open fields, farms, and the corporate headquarters of Wawa Inc., as well as what Mayer described as possibly the last dairy farm in Delaware County. At that time, population estimates ranged from five families to 265 families. The district of Chester Heights is part of the Garnet Valley School District, while Middletown Township is part of the Rose Tree Media School District.
In some Jersey Shore cities, Wawa designs its stores to match aesthetics and changes operating procedures to adapt to coastal culture. The city's name Wawa is derived from the Ojibwe word 'wewe', which means 'snow goose', despite the company's image of a Canadian goose. The chain's name comes from the site of its first dairy plant and corporate headquarters in the Wawa area. Starting in 1940, Wawa began selling 5-acre (2.0 ha) lots of what was its farmland.
Today, Wawa operates stores in Delaware, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington D. C., covering parts of Pennsylvania that don't yet have rival stores like Sheetz. The company serves customers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey by delivering milk to their homes.
