Wawa All Digital Store With No Shelves

[Alpha8472]

A Wawa has converted to an all digital format with no shelves. You order from a kiosk or app and employees behind the counter will fulfill your purchases. It is almost like a full service store.

Coffee is still self serve.

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/bu ... p/3617619/

[storewanderer]

I am not seeing what appears to be a full store mix.

[mbz321]

Many Wawa locations have closed in Philly due to declining foot traffic after the 2020 Covid wave combined with a drastic increase in crime, some after only being open a few years. Sounds like this is the last-ditch effort to keep a store open and to avoid further criticism.

[storewanderer]

Many Wawa locations have closed in Philly due to declining foot traffic after the 2020 Covid wave combined with a drastic increase in crime, some after only being open a few years. Sounds like this is the last-ditch effort to keep a store open and to avoid further criticism.

I think Wawa played its cards wrong over-expanding in inner city areas. These sites lacked fuel, did not really make sense as 24 hour operations, they are difficult to staff, difficult to deliver to, and are prone to issues like COVID and crime increases that cause sudden, rapid decreases in traffic. Wawa needs quite a few employees to execute correctly and traffic to support that amount of staffing.

I would also argue there are a lot of better options for quick food in these inner city type of locations, than Wawa...

7-Eleven seems to be the primary major chain c-store that works in large city locations like this due to how their model is set up- one employee on duty, limited fresh food, no restrooms, etc.

[mbz321]

I think Wawa played its cards wrong over-expanding in inner city areas.

I think they had good intentions anyway, but a myriad of factors hasn't helped.

And an oddity, Wawa is actually opening a new location in my area (suburbs) in an old, established strip center, and it won't have gas pumps. They evicted a restaurant and a few other tenants for Wawa to move in. I can't quite understand why, but I guess Wawa really wanted a location in town.

[mjhale]

Wawa opened a non-fuel store on VA Route 123 in Vienna, VA. They took over the building of a long time upscale diner type place that closed in 2020. The store is everything a normal Wawa would be except without fuel. They actually get decent business especially on Friday and Saturday nights. The store is close to the local high school which probably provides a good flow of after school and after sports games traffic. Plus the 15 or so Tesla chargers are a huge hit. They are almost always all in use. I wonder how many of those people have purchased something in store to eat while they charge their vehicle.

[mbz321]

Wawa opened a non-fuel store on VA Route 123 in Vienna, VA. They took over the building of a long time upscale diner type place that closed in 2020.

Well that's definitely unique location (although Google shows Wawa as some kind of office building in the 2019 view, before construction. There looks like there was a pizza restaurant next door and another across the road that was demolished in that same timeframe.)

[storewanderer]

It is interesting they seem to be trying for more non-fuel locations in general.

This is a chain that I've tried to like but I feel pretty indifferent about them. Certainly multiple levels above a 7-Eleven... but that isn't saying much.

[buckguy]

Wawa opened a non-fuel store on VA Route 123 in Vienna, VA. They took over the building of a long time upscale diner type place that closed in 2020. The store is everything a normal Wawa would be except without fuel. They actually get decent business especially on Friday and Saturday nights. The store is close to the local high school which probably provides a good flow of after school and after sports games traffic. Plus the 15 or so Tesla chargers are a huge hit. They are almost always all in use. I wonder how many of those people have purchased something in store to eat while they charge their vehicle.

In some ways not surprising--the continuing increase in EV ownership and the very low margins in gas, not to mention the issues with leaking tanks, fire hazards, etc. makes it worthwhile to consider alternatives to their typical suburban location. EV charging, especially during less than mild weather, will drive people into the store and generate impulse purchases. They also have decades of experience in urban areas that probably can be translated in different ways to suburban locations, like capitalizing on nearby sources of volume.

[Romr123]

There was an interesting article in the Detroit Free Press late last year by their main auto writer taking a road trip in an electric vehicle from Detroit to Nashville, and the (minor but irritating) challenges of re-charging---to summarize when he left he was expecting to do two big (45 minute) charges but the vehicle re-calculated on the fly (a good thing) and he ended up having 2 shorter and 1 long charge, but one of the shorter charges was in a deserted community college parking lot 5 miles off the interstate. He said it was unpleasantly spooky. Stores without gasoline will be a coming thing...