Culture of Convienience

I don't know about gas stations in other parts of the country, but in Southeastern Pa and South Jersey, there is something of a revolution going on.

Wawa.

Whenever people talk about the success of the fast-rising Wawa chain, now spread across every nook of Berks County, they often talk about the low price of gas and the fresh food, or the ATMs and vast selection of soft drinks.

But there's another force at work as I pass by three of them on my way to work. It starts with signage that is the same color and shape as a sunny side up egg, and ends with a $1.25 cup of coffee I could have easily made at home for 10 cents.

Today's gas stations are basically fastfood restaurants and convenience stores that also happen to sell fuel, a trend over half a century in the making. But the newest hybrids, like Wawa and Sheetz, have injected an atmosphere not unlike that of Barnes & Noble or Pier One. Getting gas is actually pleasant.

Wawa (which is as Lenni Lennape word for Canadian Goose, a common bird here) used to be just a Philadelphia-area convienience store. But they always had fresh fruit and lots fresh coffee.

Sheetz is their direct competitor in the more rural parts of the area, generally Lancaster and Berks counties. I believe the were a central Pa - central Maryland based company.

But where they overlap, you get these mega gas stations. That are pretty awesome.

And who wins? We do.

Somehow, through a combination of food and atmosphere, Wawa has figured out the ultimate formula to make customers take the extra step and come inside, or better, stop in when they don't even need gas. At any given time of day, there are just as many people getting gas as there are getting something else. Here at the Eagle, I work next to someone who specifically makes a three-mile trek at lunch just to order Wawa's grilled chicken sandwich twice a week.

True story, on nearly any road trip we take, I gas up at the pumps and my wife runs in and gets stuff.

They have it figured out. The low gas prices gets people in. The store makes them spend.

Economics and Markets Posted by AlexC at March 5, 2006 5:02 PM