You wanted Wawa, and you're about to get a lot of it.
The popular convenience store chain announced Monday that it plans 120 or more stores in South Florida between 2017 and 2022. The first ones will open in Palm Beach and Broward counties, with Miami-Dade County to follow in 2018.
"Our plan was always to have a presence across most of the state," Chris Gheysens, Wawa's president and chief executive, told about 100 civic leaders Monday during an announcement at the Perez Art Museum Miami.
Wawa's loyal customers stop by for coffee, breakfast sandwiches, hoagies and gas. At the South Florida stores, customers will use a touch screen to create their meals and coffee — from what ingredients to add to their sandwiches to the type of milk they want in their coffee.
Florida's first Wawa opened in 2012 in Orlando. Seventy-nine have opened in the state since then, but the closest to South Florida is in Fort Myers.
South Florida is appealing because of its dense population and transplants who know the brand from up north, Gheysens said.
The chain, based in Wawa, Pa., has attracted an almost cult-like following across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.
Some devotees sport Wawa tattoos. Others have married at the store.
"Yes, we have wedding receptions," Gheysens said Monday as he presented a slide show of smiling bridges and grooms at Wawa.
Gheysens emphasized Wawa's commitment to the regions it serves. Each store is expected to hire about 40 part-time and full-time employees, offering them health benefits and a chance to participate in the private company's stock ownership plan. (Forty-one percent of the company is owned by associates, 50.2 by the George Wood founding family and the rest by other shareholders, according to Wawa.)
One reason Wawa is so popular among consumers is its fresh food, said Don Longo, editorial director for New Jersey-based trade publication Convenience Store News.
"Fresh food is what drives repeat business to them as opposed to other convenience stores which use fuel and cigarettes and other things like that to drive repeat business," Longo said. "The food experience at Wawa is what separates them from the rest."
Convenience Store News recently honored Wawa with its Retail Innovator of the Year award because of its adoption of technology in stores, online ordering and app features, Longo said.
Wawa's arrival in South Florida is good for consumers because it will force other retailers to step it up, Longo said. "Other retailers are upping their game," he said. "Wawa is forcing them to get better."
mvalverde@tribune.com, 954-356-4526
About Wawa
Name: "Wawa" is a Native American word for a Canada goose, the Lenni-Lenape tribe's favored game.
History: Wawa Inc. began as an iron foundry in 1803 in New Jersey. Company founder George Wood opened a dairy farm in Wawa, Pa., in 1902. The first Wawa store opened in 1964 in Folsom, Penn.
Stores: Wawa has more than 700 stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Florida. At least 435 of them sell gasoline.
Employees: More than 23,000 employees.
Customers: More than 400 million customers annually.
Hoagies: More than 80 million sold each year, enough to stretch 10 and a half times from Wawa's Pennsylvania headquarters to Miami.
Coffee: 190 million cups of coffee sold each year, enough to fill 26 Olympic-sized swimming pools
Ice: 4,000 tons of ice used in frozen blended drinks each year.
Source: Wawa
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