Philadelphia is home to Wawa, a beloved convenience store chain that has been around since the late 19th century. Wawa has since expanded to seven states and territories in the U. S., with one location per 32,298 people. The chain is now looking to expand even further, with plans to nearly double its number of stores by 2030.
Wawa currently operates stores in Delaware, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington, D. C. The chain once extended to northern New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, but in the late 1990s it decided to abandon franchised stores in the New York metropolitan area.
Wawa
has just hypothetically analyzed rents in New York and its current expansion goals do not include New York City at this time.The convenience store retailer announced that it plans to expand its presence in the Florida Panhandle and adjacent markets in South Alabama in the coming years. It's part of what CEO Chris Gheysens calls a bar strategy of continuing to offer the long-standing products that made Wawa a much-loved suburban accessory, while developing new products that could appeal more to millennials living in the city. The chain has plans to enter new adjacent markets in the coming years and will fill the Virginia-Florida market along the I-95 corridor throughout the decade. Some of the new locations will include drive-thrus, a format that Wawa began testing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wawa has no stores in North Carolina, South Carolina or Georgia, despite extensive markets along the I-95 corridor. That said, CEO Chris Gheysens was investigating the possibility of opening Wawa locations in New York City but said high real estate prices were a deterrent. So is there a Wawa in New York State? Unfortunately not at this time. But with plans to nearly double its number of stores by 2030, it's possible that Wawa could make its way to New York State soon.
