In the land of convenience store giants, Central and Northeast Pennsylvania used to be the domain of Sheetz, the family-owned c-store chain based in Altoona, PA. Of course, other regional convenience store retailers such as Rutter’s, Turkey Hill and national share of market leader 7-Eleven also populated the area west of the Susquehanna River.
Absent from those markets was Wawa, the privately-held largest convenience store merchant in the Keystone State. That changed in August 2024 when the Delaware County-based retailer cut the ribbon on its first Central PA unit in Middletown.
What’s followed over the past 14 months has been an incredibly fast expansion as Wawa hopes to reach as many as 50 stores in the region by 2035.
Last month, a new Wawa opened in Coal Township, PA (Northumberland County) and later this month another new store will open in Sunbury, PA, also in Northumberland County.
Since the Middletown opening, Wawa has opened new stores Chambersburg, Dover, Enola, Hanover, Lewisburg, Williamsport. and York. And recently, Wawa said it would open six stores in the State College are area including locations in Bellefonte, Centre Hall, Mill Hall, Yeagertown and two in State College itself.
The Central and Northeast PA expansion is part of an accelerated corporate expansion program which includes areas where the company already operates stores such as Virginia as well as Wawa units that have opened in new states such as Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina,, Ohio and West Virginia in the last two years.
Wawa currently operates almost 1,200 convenience stores with a reported goal of 1,800 units by 2035. The company’s first major expansion effort (outside its core marketing area) occurred in 2012 when it opened its first Florida store in Orlando. Today, Florida houses more Wawas than any other state with slightly more than 300 c-stores.
