Wawa’s Experimental ‘Store of the Future’ Didn’t Last Long

Wawa announced this week that it is giving up on its shelfless experimental store model.

The store, at 3300 Market Street in Philadelphia, on the campus of Drexel University, was an attempt to do away with all in-store merchandise and have the staff prepare all the orders and leave them at a customer pick-up counter.

In August 2023, when Wawa unveiled this idea, I wrote about this store being the future of the Wawa experience.

This isn't your parents' Wawa. This isn't even your Wawa. You may be about to experience the customer experience of the Wawa of the future.

 

And the future is now at one Wawa location in Philadelphia.

 

The newly designed Wawa has done away with all the shelves. They have been replaced with open spaces and computer terminals.

 

Rather than shopping and choosing your lunch snacks or late-night munchies from rows of goodies, you will now do your shopping virtually, using either Wawa’s mobile app or in-store kiosks, and then have your orders fulfilled by associates working at the store.

 

For a guy old enough to remember when you just asked the woman behind the Wawa lunchmeat counter to make you a ham sandwich and go light on the mustard, this may be one step too far into the future for me with Wawa.

 

Wawa Closes Another Philadelphia Store

This week, Wawa announced it plans to close the location on January 21, saying it was 'purely a business decision'.

 Unfortunately, this test did not adequately improve performance or deliver an enhanced customer experience."

Wawa has closed a dozen locations in Philly since 2020, pointing to shoplifting and panhandling issues.

The idea behind the virtual store was to restore a presence in Center City by thinking outside the box while keeping all the actual boxes tucked away safely behind the counter.

Wawa is growing like a weed, expanding its footprint to more than 1,100 stores across 14 states and Washington, D.C. Most of the company's newer stores are in suburban areas that have space to build gas stations.

It may be that at some time in the future, Wawa may again experiment with virtual stores stripped clean of shelving and products and replaced with more in-store kiosks and fulfillment attendants.
It just won't be happening at this time at that store.

I'm fairly sure they are never going back to the model where you simply ask the woman behind the cold cuts counter to make you a sandwich.