Wawa’s Brand Refresh Delivery

Brand growth is driven by incremental customer adoption of your branded products and services according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. There is a convenience store operator that has become know more as a restaurant that also sells gasoline rather than as a Convenience store and that company is Wawa.

Consumer adoption of fresh food options at Wawa has changed just how the retailer looks at it self.  Wawa continued evolution from a legacy convenience store into a grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh meal and meal component supplier is not a surprise to anyone who has visited the chain over the past 11 years according to Johnson.

In the past year, the number of retailers offering same-day delivery tripled, according to the 2017 Digital Marketing Survey from retail management consulting firm BRP, based in Boston. The survey included the top 500 American retailers, with 14 percent representing grocery, food and beverage. When asked about same-day delivery in 2016, only 16 percent of retailers were offering some type of it. In 2017, that number rose to 51 percent — with 65 percent planning to add the option in the next two years.

Wawa began a pilot with Grubhub in September 2017 as regular readers of this blog remember, and then announced it was expanding the service to more locations in January 2018. Participating stores offer delivery through Grubhub for most of the chain’s foodservice items, along with a limited number of beverages, chips, candy and desserts.

We used the word brand refresh in the title of this blog however we want to remind all of you that it comes down to adding incremental customer relevance.  Simply put give customer what they want and what they expect.  Wawa’s delivery does just that.  NO, its not of everyone today according to Johnson but it is increasingly relevant to more and more consumers. 

Brands are dynamic not static and everyone at Foodservice Solutions® commends Wawa on continuing to grow as a brand.  Customers are dynamic not static and without growth, new points of distribution, and new customer touchpoints brands fade away.  Are you selling more fresh food in more locations?

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or twitter.com/grocerant