Featured ‘Wawa On Steroids': CEO Reveals New Details for Planned Travel Centers

Gotta keep up with the Jones.
Think Buc-ees.

 

I've stopped at a Wawa along the I95 corridor that had Superchargers, and another installing them.

 

Orlando Wawa: nothing in the parking lot but Leadfoot J. McCoalrollers

 

^ Looks just like the (massive) pay park-n-ride at the skytrain station here.

It's like a ghost town, any weekday. For a while they converted it to a drive-thru* COVID vaccination tent encampment.

* walk-ins tolerated

 

Nothing like people heavily investing in new gas stations... Kinda like wondering if they can hire more musicians to play music as the Titanic is sinking.

 

People aren't going to stop driving cars anytime soon. Going electric doesn't negate the need for food or biobreaks.

"Planning for the travel centers comes as the company is also looking to expand its electric vehicle charging. Gheysens said he believes that the adoption of electric vehicles will take longer than originally projected, but that Wawa is making preparations to be able to pivot to a greater electric vehicle focus when the demand arises.

Wawa is Tesla's No. 1 partner in North America, with 115 locations offering Tesla charging stations and other "open-architecture charging," according to Gheysens. He added that the company's travel centers will also provide an opportunity to shift further into that market to accommodate long-haul travelers with electric vehicles. "
https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2023/01/17/wawa-opening-travel-centers-across-markets.html

 

The point being is that the long term investment/borrowing of tens of millions of dollars to build new gas stations to capture market share is not going to be a wise investment when you look back on it 2 or 3 decades from now. Just because fossil fool misinformation & climate denialism is thriving right now and the people running international climate forums are oil companies who think they've finally solved global warming with brute force aggression, criminally dishonest advertising and bribery it doesn't mean that all their plans for massive growth are going to thrive. The consequences for all of us, especially younger generations is going to eventually lead to massive blowback on fossil fool investments! When it comes to billions of people carrying torches and pitchforks, every leader at the top of the fossil fool mafia is going to be seen as more evil than any mass murdering genocidal leader has ever been seen as.

 

So the people buying EVs now aren't taking road trips?

Wawa started as a dairy that expanded into convenience stores. Many of those stores don't have gas pumps to this day; those came later.

People that grew up with Wawa retired and moved South. Demand down there eventually got Wawa to open stores. The people weren't clamoring for Wawa gas, but their milk and subs.

These travel centers are for the Wawa fans traveling between the companies two market areas. Yes, they'll have gas pumps. While Wawa leadership has expressed doubts about EV adoption rates, they are planning on charging stalls being needed at these travel centers.

Unless Americans start giving up their cars, and the air and rail travel options can support this movement, there is going to be a demand for these travel centers in the future. Whether they have gas pumps or charger stalls.

 

Lol... The whole point of OP was wondering what their charging station investments were going to be because they weren't clearly stated... But that makes sense if you're trying to leverage the village idiots selling you fossil fools storage facilities/pumps because your long term plan based on data & logic doesn't include them. And if there's ever an industry more worthy of being sucker punched right now, it's fossil fools industry. Of course in reality it's the exact opposite of that right now! Which also explains how upset and kneejerk I am about it all...

 

In Dixie, we have a new comer: Home - Buc-ees


I've visited three and the first two had Tesla Superchargers and the third is open but still under construction.

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Bob Wilson

 

The OP article was a copy and paste of the first few paragraphs of another article. It simply left out what the charger plan was. Granted, they didn't announce specifics, but Wawa started putting in chargers over 5 years ago.
Allentown Wawa becomes 100th store to open EV charging station | Lehigh Valley Regional News | wfmz.com

As for the foolishness of building gas stations, how do you expect a person with a Prius Prime to get from New York to Florida? The new ones sold this year will likely still be on the road in 2033.

I know 7-11 didn't start with gas. Gas stations with a store that was more than a kiosk, with restrooms entered from the inside, were rare when I was a child.

 

Have at least new 3 gas stations going up in my small (30k) but expanding town. Circle-K among them. Smaller stations that were gas only closing. Land to expensive.