By Edward Master
Recently, I have been reading on the internet that Sheetz will no longer be the only game in town as far as convenience stores and food stuffs extravaganzas which exist all by its lonesome.
Welcome to the world of Wawa!
Originally, Wawa began as a dairy in Delaware County around 1910. The dairy store expanded as convenience stores to Delaware and New Jersey, then south to Florida, and now to the Harrisburg-Williamsport corridor in central Pennsylvania. It seems to me it is only a matter of time before even more western expansion occurs.
I witnessed Wawa expansion first hand in Glassboro, NJ. First, Wawa pushed out two Glassboro-local businesses in Cumberland Farms and Heritage Dairy. The Cumberland Farms stores were the convenience-type, whereas Heritage operated a restaurant/ice cream parlor just north of Glassboro. At one time, Heritage was a South Jersey dairy business, too. I recall only a few instances of partaking at the nearby Heritage restaurant. Heritage made a great chocolate milkshake to its credit though.
Our first Wawa in Glassboro sat on route 322 that split Glassboro (yes, the same 322 that runs lakes to sea, Erie to Atlantic City) and Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) in two. Later, a second Wawa appeared at a site that was once home to the Olympic Diner. Actually, the Wawas were each convenient to a blooming college student population, plus the normal local population. My wife and I each loved the coffee and the subs, plus the cheese steaks and Philly-baked Tastykake treats.
Wawa along with a plethora of local sandwich establishments, allowed some time to pass before Subway became a presence in South Jersey. The Joe’s subs and Mike-and-Jims places still persisted.
In South Jersey, Wawa was, and still is, an institution, much as Sheetz is in our part of the state. How the Altoona-based Sheetz will handle Wawa’s inclusion remains to be seen.
Sheetz seems to be everywhere without a slow down. In my home port, Clarion, we lost a popular watering hole (Klingy’s), along with a next-door restaurant/ice cream parlor (Emerson’s) to Sheetz.
I lived in an apartment for two years on East Main Street in Clarion. A short walk from 1074 East Main Street took us past Klingy’s (watered down from Klingensmith), Emerson’s, and then to the Riverside market. Across from my apartment the houses became parking lot for Seidle Chevrolet; then came Sheetz; then Riverside pulled up stakes. That walk from a grocery trip to Riverside and a side stop for a refreshment at Klingy’s, once common, became a thing of the past. I guess those were truly the days my friend.
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