Wawa moves into West Virginia

Wawa is expanding into West Virginia — a state that already hosts competitor Sheetz locations. The convenience store chain broke ground on its first location in the state Wednesday.

“We are excited to start construction on our first West Virginia store and look forward to our first grand openings in early 2025 when we can begin serving this wonderful community,” vice president of real estate for Wawa John Poplawski said in a statement.

The company’s first store in West Virginia is in Inwood, and initial expansion plans in the state include opening three to five new stores in Berkeley and Jefferson Counties in the next five years. The new stores are expected to employ about 35 at each location.

The move into West Virginia comes as Wawa is in the midst of an expansion. This year, the company is celebrating 60 years in business and has said it will open over 70 stores in 2024. Some of those stores are planned for Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina, new states for the company. Wawa is also pursuing growth in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, and plans to have 160 stores in those states in eight to 10 years, the company announced in 2023.

Wawa has also been diversifying its store offerings, including opening its first drive-through during the pandemic. Last year, the company also began testing a digitally focused store at its Drexel University location. It launched with no products on shelves to choose from, and customers needing to order items from a touch screen.

While Wawa pursues expansion beyond Pennsylvania, several stores in Philadelphia have shuttered in recent years. Since 2020, six locations have closed in Center City, with safety and security challenges cited in 2022 for two of the closures. In March, The Inquirer reported that another Wawa location was closing near the Rodin Museum, and a spokesperson for the company said they had not been offered a lease renewal at the site.

Wawa got its start in 1964 selling dairy products as “Wawa Food Market,” and today has more than 1,060 stores operating in eight states and Washington, D.C. The company aims to have nearly 2,000 stores by 2030, and an employee of the company has also said Wawa wants to eventually have a store in every state.