If you lived in New Jersey in the 1990s, you’re likely aware that almost every set of driving directions eventually involved the phrase, “Make a left at the Wawa.” Then, suddenly, the ubiquitous convenience store chain seemed to vanish.
And word last year that Wawa Inc. would be closing its original store in Philadelphia didn’t help. Neither has a strangely omnipresent rumor flitting around on Facebook — so it just has to be true — that Wawa will close all stores by January 2016.
That last thing turned out to be a prank generated by a hoax website, in case you were concerned. Not only is Wawa not closing all its stores, it’s coming back to Mercer County with as much vengeance as a convenience store can muster and still be a good neighbor.
By this time next year, the Ewing will be host to one of the county’s latest “super” Wawas, to be located on the corner of Parkway Avenue and Silvia Street.
The store, which is the chain’s first in Ewing, joins a “super” Wawa that opened earlier this year in Lawrence and three that will be constructed over the next year in Hamilton.
Charles Latini, a planner with the Ewing Township Redevelopment Agency, said that the new Wawa will be a 5,600-square-foot store that also will include a bank of gas pumps. The store will sit on a 4.65-acre site at Parkway and Silvia and will also feature 12,000 square feet of additional space that Latini said should host “four or five” retail storefronts.
Township officials do not yet know what the new stores will be, other than the Wawa itself. Approval for the project just happened on Oct. 1. Latini said, however, that the township will likely try to attract at least one restaurant, perhaps a deli or pizza place, and some other sought-after retail establishments.
The retail storefronts will run down Parkway Avenue, and the site work, performed by developer The Dreher Group of Princeton, will feature some roadway improvements on Silvia Street and easy access into the new retail complex as a whole.
Latini said that the complex will also feature a 1-acre area designed in concert with the existing office and daycare businesses there and that access to all the businesses there should be improved.
The site will also be across from the Credit Union of New Jersey and just down the road about a quarter-mile from the planned Parkway Town Center development, which should provide a significant customer base for the new stores.
Mayor Bert Steinmann is, of course, happy to see the 24-hour store come to Ewing; not just for the convenience aspect but also because the new store and its accompanying businesses will bring some new jobs to the township. This, he said, is part of a welcome trend of businesses locating in Ewing and bringing work, such as the Home Depot on North Olden Avenue that employs between 340 and 500 people, full- and part-time.
The coming presence of a revamped and bigger Wawa is also part of a trend in 24-hour convenience stores updating their images to attract new business.
In the past eight or 10 years, QuickChek has greatly overhauled its image, capitalizing on its sharper Q logo and focusing on fresh-made sandwiches. Likewise, 7-Eleven has been upgrading its Ewing locations, and Steinmann believes the competition Wawa will bring with a brand new super store will only encourage rivals to one-up each other for the better.
The push to contemporize is also part of Ewing’s big plans for itself. “When I moved here in 1959, there were still a few farms in Ewing Township,” Steinmann said. For anyone moving to the area then, “Ewing was an afterthought.”
Today, the township is becoming a suburb of choice, down the road from Princeton — and a large sight more affordable — and has been slowly building its professional and commercial base. Now, Steinmann said, food and restaurants are increasingly choosing Ewing as an outpost.
Sonic, for example, recently opened its first Mercer County location in Ewing on North Olden Avenue. So far, Steinmann said, Sonic is hopping. And the township is actively courting larger restaurant chains, the size of, say, Outback Steakhouse, to bolster its dining establishments.
“There are some very fine restaurants here already,” Steinmann said. “But there’s a lot of Italian cuisine. We’d like to mix it up a little.”
Steinmann also mentioned that Walgreens pharmacy is also on the building block, on North Olden Avenue, another example of growth and interest from national, blue-chip chains wanting to be in the township.
“When we started out, we were taking baby steps,” the mayor said of the township’s push to grow. “But we’re being a little more aggressive now and we’re moving Ewing in the right direction.”
The coming Wawa is the latest in a string of “super” Wawas being built in Mercer County. The chain just opened a Wawa on Route 1 in Lawrence Township.
Two others, despite some controversy, are currently under construction on Rt. 33 in Hamilton, on the site of the long-vacant Patterson Chevrolet dealership and on Rt. 130 on the former Harry’s Army and Navy property. Another is being proposed in Hamilton and at the intersection of Sloan Avenue and Quakerbridge Road.
Representatives from Wawa Inc. did not respond to inquiries as to why there is such an interest in its rather assertive re-expansion into Mercer County and why it chose Ewing for its latest Mercer County location.
But the company itself is no stranger to New Jersey, having started here as, of all things, an iron foundry in 1803. The company became associated with food at the end of the 19th century, when its owner, George Wood, got into dairy farming and opened a small processing plant in Wawa, Penn., in 1902.
The company delivered milk to homes until that business faded away in the mid-20th century, when it repurposed itself in 1964 as a food market featuring fresh dairy products.
Throughout the 1980s the chain exploded in the Greater Philadelphia and New Jersey area, and even expanded to Delaware, Maryland, Florida, and the New York/Connecticut metro region.
The chain abandoned the New York regional market in the late 1990s, taking many new Jersey stores with it and leaving many residents bewildered as to what had become of the chain that once seemed to have a location in just about every town between Trenton and Baltimore.
What happened to Wawa was that it was giving itself a facelift and planning its next phase. Enter the “super” Wawa, the chain’s latest trend, featuring convenience stores, associate businesses, and fuel pumps.
In 2010, there were about 570 Wawas; today, the company operates a chain of more than 700 convenience retail stores, with more than 430 offering gasoline throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Florida. In July, Market Force name Wawa “America’s Most Beloved Convenience Store” based on a survey of 7,000 consumers.
“We’re thrilled Wawa chose Ewing Township,” Steinmann said. “This is a good thing.”
Latini echoed the mayor’s sentiments. “At the end of the day, I think it’ll be a nice project,” he said.
A conceptual drawing of the new Wawa planned for the corner of Parkway Avenue and Silvia Street. The project was approved by the planning board last month, and the store is expected to be completed by next year.,
