WaPo Devotes Five Pages To Wawa/Sheetz Epic
We thought our love for Wawa was deep and true, then we read this lengthy column in the Washington Post about people getting married at a Wawa or flocking to the stores on 9/11 to regain a sense of community and normalcy.
For those of you who have never visited or lived along the mid-Atlantic or eastern Rust Belt, Wawa and Sheetz are two very similar gas station/convenience stores that are just light years ahead of 7-Eleven, Cumberland Farms, etc. in terms of food and drink selection, clean bathrooms, and the amount of Prince and Genesis that is regularly played over their speakers.
We lived across the street from a Wawa our last year of law school and are still paying off the balance on our Wawa Visa. Our last meal will be a pizza cheese steak and a half gallon of diet lemonade iced tea.
Wawa vs. Sheetz [WaPo]
(Photos: mortonfox, hswilkinson)
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Sheetz is the holy grail of convenience stores. The hummus there is better than some restaurants I've been to.
WAWA FOR LIFE. I'm from eastern PA but Penn State is Sheetz country, worst thing about being there for 4 years. All the rest rocked though.
Both Wawa and Sheetz Rule! Wawa is king in my area, grown up with it, couldn't live without them! Remember them before they were Gas Station too!
Here in SWFL, neither. I would kill for a Sheetz meatball sandwich and a gallon of that iced tea with lime from the cooler.
I seriously doubt they are anywhere near as awesome as QuikTrip (QT). Especially in terms of size, drink selection, and size. Also, QT's staff are trained to do some serious multi-tasking. I love QT, can you tell?
@pattiesmart: Minues one size! I meant "cleanliness" because their stores and bathrooms are always SPOTLESS.
I miss my Wawa!!!! I miss the center island fresh food and the no fee ATMs and cheap gas and open restrooms and... oh, just everything. You can never really love a White Hen after leaving Wawa behind.
fffffffff
I wish these companies would stop avoiding the NYC metro area. It's frustrating to see so many companies stop and refuse to expand into the metro area (Wegmans, I'm talking to you too). I know why, but it's still annoying.
So it's owned by Baba Wawa?
@pattiesmart: I have to concur on this issue. I will go way out of my way to get to QT if I need to fill up and grab a snack. They are on top of their game for sure.
For anyone who knows G Love (a Philly boy), he has a song "Cold Beverage". One of the lines references Wawa.
"Caught a chill vibe, orange juice in my ride
Wawa's to the right, they got beverage inside
Dig me a hot coffee, fill it up with ice
Watermelon's like a drink, please fix me a large slice"
I love Sheetz simply because of the Pretzel sandwiches, sadly I moved away from VA when they started getting there. Thankfully when I visit family in PA the fiancee and I hit one up almost every visit. There were WaWa's near where I lived in VA but for whatever reason I never went into one getting any of their subs, guess I should try it next time I visit home.
We moved to Florida a year and a half ago and I still miss Wawa. I miss it less than I did initially, but, yeah, I'd love it if they expanded south. There's just nothing comparable down here.
They both rock pretty hard compared to regular gas stations or convenience stores...
I'd have to give Sheetz the nod on most sandwiches and the like, Wawa wins on the fresh fruit/salad/etc. selection.
Sheetz FTW. they had FRIED MACARONI CHEESE!!!11!!!!1!!
@pattiesmart: I knew I clicked that "Follow Me" heart for a reason.
QT is my religion.
Exit 306 on I-24 in Adairsville, Georgia...do it.
@PackerX:
Yo when i'm fishin', Let's keep one thing clear:
The bait's over there, The brew's right here.
Two six packs an'a big bagga ice,
didn't even catch a bite, but the brew tasted nice.
@pattiesmart: QT has some awesome sandwiches! Me and the hubby like the cherry adding thing and we always made cherry sprite. Thank you QT for taking food stamps >.>
I grew up in the Philly Metro area. In fact, within an easy bike ride from Wawa #1 in Holmes, PA. I've seen the chain grow from a little tiny convenience store to the big gas giant that it is now.
-They still call them Hoagies, not subs or grinders or whatever, no matter where you go.
-Wawa Iced Tea defeats all.
-TastyKake. (yes you can get that in supermarkets too, i know)
-Wawa coffee is the truth, the light and the way. The Alpha and the Omega.
@DerangedRoleModel: I concur. I know Wawa would do land office business in a couple of Midtown and Downtown locations. Really, it would be much more useful than yet another Duane Reade.
Although, when Wawas start appearing in New Jersey it is always a good indication you have left the normal part of New Jersey.
@DeeJayQueue: What is the deal with these Tastykakes? I tried a couple of I picked up at Duane Reade and they aren't that good.
@pattiesmart:
Quick Trips aren't bad. I hit them when I'm in the Phx area. I don't think we have any here in Tucson. But they're not as good as Wawas, in my opinion.
Sheetz was instrumental in my late night nutritional program while in college. I've hit a few Wawa stores on occasion when geographically appropriate. I now live in a part of the country with neither, but that's OK...I've got Quik Trip!
@DerangedRoleModel: Yes, Wegman's is one fantastic place to get your groceries. Agreed their geographical market area is way too small.
All I know is now I'm hungry as hell.
I've lived in the Midwest and East coast - and QT and WaWa are really about the same in size, drink selection, etc. Except WaWa has better coffee. And no fee ATM's. Other than that, its just the name.
Am I the only one who doesn't understand why a pair of convenience store chains merit 5 pages' worth of news, in a major newspaper like the Post?
@Vandelay Import Export: Wawa is opening in Northern NJ, so I guess the whole state isn't normal (A FACT that I already knew)
@pattiesmart:
Here in Wichita, I will only buy gas at QuickTrip. Their drink selection is awesome, too. QT rocks!
"...and the amount of Prince and Genesis that is regularly played over their speakers."
Acquired taste, perhaps. Genesis especially because, come on.
@pattiesmart: Apparently other people do too, 24/7/365, I have never seen an empty QT: there's always somebody there, buying something.
4 a.m. Sunday morning? 12:30 a.m. Christmas Eve? Somebody's there, buying something.
And those 32 oz. sodas for 49 cents? guzzleguzzleguzzle. There are 7-11s around, but they can't touch QT with a ten foot pole.
I was in college in Indiana on 9/11, so I flocked to the local Handy Andy and got my usual Tuesday lunch of $.99 Noble Roman's breadsticks.
It's great to be back in NJ though - I love Wawa hoagies and Tastycakes.
WaWa has cookie dough Eggnog. All others are meaningless.
@Vandelay Import Export: Philly has a rabid affection for anything local, particularly if someone without a local Philly bias wouldn't like it. There's also a bias towards being the underdog (as far as I can tell, because they're happiest when they can kvetch about not winning or gloat about winning after being under-appreciated).
Plus Maniac Magee loves butterscotch krimpets, so there.
*sniff* I miss Philly.
"Welcome to Sheetz! Pump Six you're on!" I love Sheetz, but WaWa hoagies RULE.
@DerangedRoleModel: well, i dunno about wawa & sheetz, but wegman's limited expansion is based on their distribution centers: they don't want their drivers to have more than 3-3 1/2 hours on the road one way (so they don't have to put them up in a hotel over nite), so if you notice, their stores are all well within 180 miles of their DCs.
still, i know they have DCs within 3 1/2 hours of the NYC metro, so i can't tell you why they haven't moved in there yet...
Royal Farms > Wawa in every conceivable way possible.
@MarvinwasaLunatic: @DeeJayQueue:
Royal Farms has Butterscotch Krimpet and Peanut Butter Kandy Kake Cappuccinos and they are awesome.
One thing I miss about NJ now that I live in New ENgland is the Wawas. Many a dollar was spent at the Wawa near my dorm in college.
I'm on the Left Coast and didn't know what WaPo, Wawa or Sheetz was.
I puzzled at that headline for a few seconds, brain misfiring, trying to figure out what the hell it meant.
Our Christmas Morning ritual:
My wife, her mother and I pile into my 2001 Police Interceptor. We take a scenic drive (about a hundred miles) on the back roads of central Delaware, enjoying the lack of traffic that enables us to, um, verify the engine's power output in top gear.
Then, we stop at Wawa for coffee and sandwiches.
We can always count on Wawa for a decent cup of coffee and deli sandwiches that wont make us sick (at most convenience stores, you're crazy to eat anything that they touch).
Well, we Wawa associates are glad you like our stores. We work very hard to keep it that way.
Wawa associates treat our customers well because the company treats us well. We get full benefits, a flexible work schedule, and a good team of people to work with. This is one of the reasons we have people who have been with us for years. The company knows how to treat them. Other companies would do well to learn this lesson (I'm looking at you, Wal-Mart). Our coffee is brewed fresh and not allowed to stand on a warmer fermenting for hours, our product offer is rotated and changed frequently to keep us from offering the same old, same old, all the time, but we still offer the core items we know our customers like.
(I'm not a corporate shill, really, just a happy employee)
@mac-phisto: My guess is that Google might say it's 3 or 3 1/2 hours, but in NYC and the immediate environs, you could spend a wonderful amount of time not in motion or moving very, very slowly so that what is supposed to take 3 hours takes 5 hours. Sunday nights during the summer, oh what a feeling!!
The Wawa hoagie ordering system is nothing short of magical. As are their pretzels. Really makes me want to take a roadtrip.
I got my first and only Wawa experience about 2 years ago, in my first trip to the east coast since I was 3.
It reminds me of convenience stores in Japan and Korea, except bigger.
This is a good thing. Wawa is one of only a handful of good things in the American retail landscape, from a consumer perspective.
Wawa blackberry lemonade. I'd buy it by the sixpack, but they don't sell it in six packs, so I just empty their shelf.
Also, vanilla milk.
@pattiesmart: I grew up next door to a 7-11, but QT gets all of my business now (plus, we have no 7-11 here anyway). The gas is good, the food is good, the drink selection is amazing, and the workers are fast.
It's consistent and predictable and always good. No matter where I am, I know walking in exactly what to expect. Love it.
The newest renovated QT at Winters Chapel and PIB is really nice.
Racetrack stores are not bad either though. They actually outdo QT in a couple areas but it's not enough to worry about.
There used to be Wawa in Philly where many students took advantage of credit card system failure. These students used to swipe debit cards as credit cards and it would actually go through. But the problem for Wawa was that the charge never showed up on these customers, so all these customers were freeloading for a while. Wawa found out much later on, but too late to get money back.