Wawa Enters the Truck Stop Game With New Travel Center Format

Wawa is making a strategic play for the highway travel market, opening its first-ever travel center in North Carolina. The move debuts a new, larger store format designed to serve professional drivers and marks a new front in the company’s national expansion.

• Hoagies and horsepower: The 8,000-square-foot Hope Mills location dwarfs a standard Wawa, featuring a forecourt with six high-speed diesel lanes for trucks and 20 pumps for passenger cars. The site includes trucking-specific amenities like a CAT weigh station and free parking, alongside its signature food and beverage offerings.

• Not just a test: This isn't a one-off experiment, as Wawa is already building two more travel centers in Ohio and Indiana. "This historic milestone kicks off the next chapter of our growth as we debut a new store format," said Brian Schaller, Wawa's president. The initiative is a key piece of Wawa's ambition to grow from over 1,100 to 1,800 stores by 2028.

• A lane of its own: Wawa appears to be carving out a specific niche in the crowded travel center market. The locations are designed primarily for shorter stops and, for now, do not include amenities like showers, a standard feature at traditional long-haul truck stops.

Wawa is betting that its brand loyalty and fresh food offerings can attract a slice of the lucrative trucker and traveler market, even without competing directly on all the amenities offered by established travel center giants.

• Also on our radar: Wawa's expansion isn't limited to the new format; the company is also pushing into new territory in Tennessee with plans for dozens of stores. The decision to launch the first travel center outside of its traditional strongholds has some wondering when, or if, the new concept will arrive in New Jersey, the state with the second-highest number of its stores.