Not a “Mini” Mart — Wawa Opens its 900th Store
We all know Wawa has been growing by leaps and bounds over the past several years with really nothing (besides Royal Farms here and there) between itself and eternal glory, but just how big has the not-so-mini mart chain gotten?
They opened their 900th store today in North Jersey.
900!
Maybe we don't realize just how big Wawa is. I mean, we all have "our" Wawa -- that one store that we always go to for whatever we need at any time of day or night. And then there's the Wawa you maybe go to that's near where you work. And maybe there's one that you run into between going from A to B. And maybe there's the one you swing by in some random place because you only need gas or coffee.
Maybe it's because they're everywhere that we don't realize that they are everywhere. There's 900 Wawa stores around here and down in Florida.
Speaking of - if you have ever flown into Orlando on a vacation, what is one of the first things you'll see when you leave the airport? Wawa. True genius.
Anyway, Wawa is the third largest food retailer in our area. Acme and ShopRite are the first two.
In 2017, Wawa reported $10.5 billion in revenue, according to Wikipedia.
Ten billion -- with a "b."
That's a lot of coffee and Shortis.
While the company can trace its roots back to the early 1800s, it wasn't until April, 1964, that the very first Wawa opened in Folsom, PA, roughly between Philadelphia and Wilmington. 56 years later, there are now 900 Wawa stores. That's about 16 every year or about one for every three week period since '64. Not a bad track record at all.
If you want to visit the 900th Wawa, it's now open right off of Interstate 78 in Springfield Township, Union County, NJ, according to News 12 New Jersey.