PHILADELPHIA -- "The most powerful economic force in Philadelphia these days is the one making your Shorti," according to report in Philadelphia magazine, which details "how [the] homegrown convenience store went from cult favorite ... to superpower." It said, "Wawa ... has achieved the level of cult-like customer devotion that every consumer brand on the globe dreams about. To build a world-class cult, you need a core of gung-ho zealots and a mass of zombie followers, and Wawa is fully loaded in both categories."
There are the five young women from West Chester who in 2009 completed an almost two-year trek to visit every Wawa in existence. ... There are the high-school graduates who choose a college based at least partly on campus proximity to a Wawa, and there are the University of Maryland students who, when the company announced it would close an on-campus Wawa in 2007, flash-mobbed the closing store, "screaming and reminiscing," according to the school paper. There's the official Wawa page on Facebook, which has 753,394 "likes," and there are the splinter Facebook groups, such as "People who miss Wawa" (after moving away from the store's five-state realm) and one group called "If Wawa was a person I would get married to it." And there are Scott Gaddis and Cindy Richardson, who in 2008 got married at the Wawa store in Abingdon, Maryland. (They conveniently had the reception there, too.)"
Wawa's cult status became official with a 2006 article about the company called "Convenience Cult?" in the New York Times Magazine, which attributed the chain's unlikely rock-star appeal to its "yummy" house-brand foods and friendly staff. ... The Times piece was inspired by a Harvard Business Review article that put Wawa's customer service in the league of Nordstrom and the Ritz-Carlton.
Some highlights featured in the report:
It's now the No. 8 seller of cups of coffee in the whole country. The only folks selling more cups every day, according to research firm Studylogic, are almost all national chains, like Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, McDonald's, Burger King and 7-Eleven. 7-Eleven has more than 6,000 stores across America. Wawa has 587 now, limited to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.
Wawa sells one of every five cups of coffee sold in this region. In 2008, it celebrated selling its one billionth cup of coffee in the 21st century alone. Wawa sells 80 million hoagies a year, the most in the region.
In the 15-county Delaware Valley area, Wawa ranks third in overall grocery sales, topped only by ShopRite and Acme ... there's no other region in the country where a convenience-store chain ranks as high as third.
Overall, Wawa did $5.89 billion in sales in 2009, making it the country's 50th largest private company, according to Forbes.
Wawa began pumping gasoline in 1996 and now sells close to 1.4 billion gallons a year, from 297 locations. That's about 1% of all gasoline sold in the country. The Oil Price Information Service ranks Wawa first among all U.S. gas stations in "market efficiency," which is market share relative to the number of outlets.
As it's grown, Wawa has hoisted a handful of regional brands along with it. It's the No. 1 convenience-store seller of Herr's chips and a top account for Amoroso's hoagie rolls and Tastykake.
There's barely a square inch in a Wawa store that isn't exactly the way it is for a reason, said the report. The main goal: cutting a few seconds off the time you spend there. Starbucks built its cult following by making its stores inviting places to linger for an hour; Wawa stays popular by getting everyone the hell out.
"But we want 'em back two more times that day," David Johnston, Wawa's COO, told the magazine.
Everything is designed for speed, which translates to turnover, customer contentment and, essentially, profit, the report added. The touch screens at deli counters let customers speedily handpick ingredients for their hoagie or prime-rib-in-a-bowl and also enable "upselling" of addons like cookies, chips and mashed potatoes. The placement of coffee stirrers, the "on ramp" space at checkout counters--it's all engineered. Ray Cavanaugh, Wawa's director of operations engineering, told the magazine that over the past few years, the company has shaved one and a half seconds from the typical cash transaction and five seconds from the average credit buy.
Not every experiment works, said the report. Wawa abandoned a drive-through trial in Virginia and ditched online ordering. Though many of its private-label products--notably its bottled water--have crushed name-brand competitors, others, like the Mach W energy drink, came and went.
"We will test in one store, work out the bugs. Then 15 stores, to test consumer interest. Then 50 stores, and then we hit the gas," Johnston said. "Once we get confident, we hit it hard."
Traditional Wawas were 2,000 to 3,000 square feet; new Wawas with gasoline pumps, the only kind the company builds now, are between 5,500 and 7,400 square feet, on three acres or more. Half of all Wawas now sell gasoline. Some communities have pushed back and said no to the bigger footprint. In Berwyn, Pa., Wawa abandoned plans after being met with local resistance over traffic and development concerns. In Conshohocken, Pa., where Wawa considered adding a location, opponents started a "Stop Wawa" campaign on Facebook.
Stoeckel makes no apologies for the company's growth. "We compete with everyone," he told the magazine. "McDonald's is a competitor, Subway. For things like coffee, our competitors are the big national chains--Starbucks. Competition's good for the consumer."
"I have to say that this feature displayed our true essence in a way that few have ever captured in the printed word," Stockel said in his most recent "Bird's Eye View" blog posting. "To truly know and love Wawa is to understand what a unique and magical place it is--a place that has transcended the boundaries of a typical convenience store.
He added, "The article boasts dozens of Wawa successes, such as the continuous in-store improvement to maximize speed and customer experience, our striking sales statistics, our positive impact on local economies and community organizations, our growing list of store locations and the unparalleled customer service provided by our associates.
"Drilling down to heart of our company, what really makes the 'Wawa World' go round is our people. It's our 17,000 incredible associates who make up the Wawa family and embrace our core value, and it's our wonderful customers, more than 400 million annually, who brighten up our stores and honor us with their faithful patronage. I would be remised if I didn't thank our customers and associates alike for loyalty and friendship."
Wawa, Pa.-based Wawa operates a chain of nearly 600 convenience stores throughout the five-state area of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.
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