Wawa's new boss pledges a bread oven in every store: Update
CEO Chris Gheysens is even making room to sit down, in some stores
Wawa's new boss pledges a bread oven in every store: Update
Joseph N. DiStefano
UPDATE: After readers asked about changes to Wawa's cold-cuts prep, spokeswoman Lori Bruce says: "We have been phasing out slicers for a few years now; we currently have them in about 100 stores." Most stores now use pre-sliced meats and cheeses "received fresh... on a daily basis" through Wawa's South Jersey-based supplpy chain (there's a different chain for Florida stores) from Berks, Giordano's, and other cold-cut houses; Dietz and Watson has not been a supplier. EARLIER:
So he doesn't get downtown much, Gheysens admitted to the Irish American Business Chamber & Network (corrected) at its Pyramid Club luncheon today. "You know how it is. I've got four kids. So not a dollar on me" when he had to feed a meter this morning, he said. "So I stopped at the ATM. There was a three-dollar surcharge. What's Wawa's surcharge?" Wawa friends in the crowd yelled back, "Zero!" and applauded. "Right. So I went in Starbucks. They charged me $2.25 for a cup of coffee. What's Wawa's coffee price?" The shout came back: "A dollar." "And Wawa's coffee is better." Pause. "This is not an advertisement by any sense." That got the laugh line too.
He was story-telling: Center City has converted to card-operated parking meters. No matter; the crowd went right along as he sketched a "Blue Ocean" business strategy -- "Couple gas, with food service, in good locations, with great customer service... No one else is doing that" in Wawa's markets.
Wawa, Gheysens says, now wants to be seen, not as fast food, but as "Fast Casual," in a league with fresh-food but no-waitress-to-tip Five Guys, Chipotle, or Panera, only without all the seating. Except in Florida, and at some new stores, which are adding chairs outside, and seem more like the Sheetz I visited in Carlisle the other day, than the classic move-you-along Wawa way.
"In Florida, we're using the same feel, but a different store model," with glass walls, "and seating outside," Gheysens affirmed. "Go around Philadelphia, you don't see those stores." A majority of Wawas now sell gas, but he's still planning to upgrade smaller no-gas outlets, especially in Center City, and the popular but worn outpost at Penn: "That needs to be a landmark." Gheysens also said Wawa has made a decision on its store-baked bread experiment in partnership with Amoroso's, Wawa's bread supplier: "Fresh baked rolls. By the end of the year you will have an oven in every Wawa." Which means more bread baked on site (and maybe less from Amoroso's South Jersey industrial bakery).
There'll also be employees in "mock chef coats." "Less clutter. Brighter colors. More consistent," Gheysens says, "with what you find in a Panera or a Starbucks."
Please bring Wawa to Vegas. We have the most god awful stores out here. One is actually called "Terribles"...— dave202- Here is what I hate about WAWA- It's the attitude. The attitude of the workers and the customers those stores attract. The disposable mentality the tobacco user, the stuff it in your mouth and drive obese set. Okay, ovens fine. But why not embrace a strategy of BETTER SERVICE, and more green thinking. Start distancing the store from tobacco. Make WAWA a more pleasant more socially responsible place to shop.
— D.C. Stinkley - Goodness. I hate to defend something like a Wawa but what Wawa are you going to? Everyone I go to, I absolutely love. Well except the crappy one at the convention center. — jonline
- i love wawa hot sandwiches, particularly the meatball. however, i gave up on wawa cold hoagies years back. there is barely any meat on the them as they simply pile on the lettuce basically making it a lettuce hoagie. so, if i crave a hoagie, i go to heritages or a local deli because wawa cold hoagies are a simply a ripoff anymore. — theeducator
- I LOVE WaWa.
Between I-80 and 476 there's one...It's a routine stop for me and often more crowded than any other rest area.
They're doing something right.— Cuddles - They have been removing the meat slicers from the stores and using pre-cut meats and cheeses for some time. Deli meats wrapped in plastic don't taste as good as fresh cut. Forget about the bread and concentrate on the meat and cheese, then I will return to your stores for the occasional midnight hoagie.— Sportyrider71
- Joe~
Any idea who will suppply the ovens? I'd like to take a small position if it's a publicly held stock.— Wilhelm Von Humboldt - Yummy! I LOVE Wawa!!— dundermifflin
- Fresh bread, awesome, now if you use quality lunch meat I'm there everyday for lunch.— main liner
- The seating is a good idea.They actually need more seating in Florida stores where people can eat outside most of the year.— youwish
- Latest News
•Wawa Launches 2013 Florida Expansion Efforts with Grand Opening of 7th Sunshine State Store
•Wawa Teams Up With University of Central Florida Students to aid in Student Organized Hurricane Sandy Relief Effort
•Wawa Completes 2012 Sunshine State Entrance with Grand Opening of Sixth ORLANDO Store.....
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Orlando, as opposed to Fredricksburg.
Interesting.....
— Cuddles - We have plenty of independent bread bakers in the Philadelphia area that make delicious bread. There is no reason for WAWA to try and [put] more people out of work by baking their own bread. I can see them making their own bread in states like Florida, that don't know what a real roll tastes like.— Busta Nutter
- ...A company baking their own bread isn't trying to put people out of business. Based on that logic, they should just buy hoagies from independent delis and re-sell them at Wawa locations. I mean, otherwise, they're trying to put those local deli workers out of work too, right? — mitchesm7
- How about putting some meat on those sandwiches? That would be good...— Steffi1
