Stoeckel credits a strong focus on value and a concerted effort to make the time a customer spends in the neighborhood Wawa a respite from economic gloom. "People want [image-nocss] to feel good," he told the paper, "even if it's for four or five minutes a day when they're on their way to work."
He added, "If there's anything that we're doing through these challenging times, it's digging deeper into the soul of the brand. We've got to do what we're known for that much better."
In particular, the company has made an effort to move customers in and out in less time than usual, to keep sandwiches and drinks affordable--hence the $3.99 flatbread sandwich rollout, the current 99-cent fountain drinks and the $2.99 Hoagiefest deals--and to foster the loose, friendly in-store vibe that Stoeckel said was Wawa's most durable competitive advantage.
"A lot of people can sell coffee. A lot of people can sell hoagies. A lot of people can sell gas. But no one sells it in the same fashion," he said. "That has sustained us during these difficult times."
He said, "When we ask customers what do they like about Wawa, they say, 'We like your people.' And when we ask them, 'What is it that you like about our people?' it's that our people like each other, and customers get caught up in that experience. That is priceless at a time when people have pangs of anxiety about the economy, about their jobs, about their retirement," he said. "If you can help people feel better, that goes a long way."
Stoeckel said the company gave its general managers carte blanche to fashion a hyper-local "Cheers experience" (referring to the greeting 'Norm' got on TV's Cheers) for each of the company's 569 stores.
The good vibe also comes in part from employee stock ownership, said the report. Together, about 8,000 employees own about 28% of Wawa, currently ranked the 69th-largest private company in the nation by Forbes magazine, with $5 billion in revenue for 2007. "They have an emotional attachment to the brand, but they also have a financial attachment," Stoeckel told the paper. "They want to see this company survive over the long term."
Wawa has stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. The company has considered expanding beyond the Mid-Atlantic region, but "now's not the time to do it," Stoeckel said. Indeed, he said most new Wawas that open in the next few years would be within 100 miles of Philadelphia. "It's not a time to venture far from the homeland and it's not a time to try new and exotic things."
Despite the economy, the company will continue to roll out semiexotic brand extensions, the report said, such as the flatbread sandwiches. It is now test marketing smoothies and frozen cappuccinos.
"If you don't try new concepts, you begin to die," said Stoeckel.
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