Wawa Evolving with Customer Relevance

Wawa today describes itself as a “Fast Casual Restaurant To-Go” that just so happens to sell gasoline at many of its stores. Success does leave clues and Wawa President and CEO Christopher Gheysens has spent a life time picking them up, many from Wawa itself. 

Wawa found the food sector sweet spot according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru™.  In a new study from The NPD Group titled, Growing in a Fragmented Market found that two industry sectors have “made inroads at all meal occasions.” 

Those two sectors are C-stores and Fast Casual restaurants according to the NPD report.  The report noted that the C-store sector since 2009 had 454 million increase in customer visits, and the Fast Casual sector was up 842 million since 2009. 

While speaking at the NACS Leadership Forum, Gheysens detailed how Wawa has evolved, “from its founding more than 200 years ago first as an iron foundry, then textile factory, dairy farm and milk delivery, and eventually a convenience store in 1954.” Today, focusing on Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food Wawa is a “fast casual restaurant to-go”.  Now as regular readers of this blog know that is the center of the grocerant niche. 

Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru™ often states that “customers are dynamic not static and companies should be as well”. Wawa is a great example on how to thrive in an ever evolving world. 

Millennials are in search of discovery and Wawa has provided a platform for customer discovery leveraging Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food.  Wawa is not your parents C-store.  Millennials have the spending power to help drive Wawa’s growth. 

Today the brands including Wawa, Sheetz, HelloFresh, Platted, and Blue Apron all are expanding with outstanding success into the Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared grocerant niche. Consumers are finding new non-traditional points of fresh food distribution exciting, satisfying, and tasty!  Is your company ready to grow? 

How can you work grocerant niche products into your establishment to grow profits and capture customers while they are in your store? Call 253-759-7869 as for the Grocerant Guru™

visit  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us or Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us