8 Things Pennsylvania’s Sheetz Fans Refuse to Order at Wawa

Sheetz hasn’t shut its doors in decades. Every Pennsylvania location runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, straight through Christmas.

Wawa runs on a different clock, and Sheetz regulars don’t get what the fuss is about.

These are the things Pennsylvania’s Sheetz fans refuse to order at Wawa.

1. Calling It a Hoagie

Sheetz built its whole food menu around one word: Sub.

Order a “hoagie” at a Sheetz counter, and the person taking it knows what you mean.

But the chain’s menu, packaging, and touchscreen all say sub, never hoagie.

U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle needled Sheetz over exactly this in a 2020 Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed, writing that Sheetz “attaches a negative prefix” to the word hoagie.

A Sheetz regular standing at a Wawa counter hears “hoagie” and orders a sub anyway.

Old habits.

The Wawa cashier understands either way, and the Sheetz loyalist isn’t going to be the one who says it first.

2. Ordering a Shorti

Wawa hands its smallest hoagie an actual name.

Order the 6-inch version at a Wawa touchscreen, and the menu calls it a Shorti, sitting between the 4-inch Junior and the 10-inch Classic.

A Sheetz regular ordering the small size at a Wawa counter still calls it “the six inch,” straight out of old habit.

Muscle memory dies hard.

Sheetz’s own 6-inch sub carries no such nickname on its Made-To-Order (MTO) screen.

Just a size.

The correction comes from whoever’s behind the counter, every single time.

3. Picking a Hoagie off the Menu

Wawa’s touchscreen starts every hoagie order with a name already picked: Tap the Classic Italian or the Turkey Gobbler, and the screen loads a full list of toppings before a customer touches a single button.

Somebody else’s build.

A Sheetz regular refuses to keep it, clearing every default topping off the screen and rebuilding the hoagie item by item instead of leaving Wawa’s suggested combination in place.

Sheetz never hands over a finished recipe to begin with.

The chain’s build-it-yourself food service goes back to 1986, when a manager at a single Sheetz store let a customer build a sub from scratch instead of picking one off a board.

The screens came later, going digital with picture-based touchscreens in the mid-1990s, and Sheetz has long marketed its MTO system as offering more than a million possible combinations, starting from the bread up.

A Sheetz loyalist wants that same blank screen at Wawa, not somebody else’s recipe as the starting point.

4. Grabbing a Pre-Made Sizzli

Wawa keeps a case of ready-made breakfast sandwiches called Sizzli, wrapped and waiting before the morning rush even starts.

Sheetz doesn’t run a case like that.

Every breakfast item at Sheetz, eggs and meat included, gets built after someone taps “order” on the touchscreen, the same as a lunchtime sub.

Nothing sits around.

A Sheetz regular reaching for a Sizzli off a Wawa shelf notices the whole sandwich is already wrapped and waiting, nothing left to choose.

Habit says wait for a screen instead.

5. Pumping Their Own Coffee

Wawa built an entire identity around a self-serve coffee bar, complete with flavor pumps for hazelnut, French vanilla, and whatever seasonal blend is running that month.

Fill a cup and go.

Sheetz took a different route, building out Sheetz Bros Coffeez, a made-to-order counter where lattes, cold brews, and specialty drinks get built one at a time on the same kind of touchscreen that builds the subs.

A Sheetz regular walks past that whole row of pumps without touching one, skipping the carafes on purpose.

Wawa’s kiosk and app do build espresso and lattes to order, so that’s where the order goes instead.

Old habit, new counter.

6. Signing up for Wawa Rewards

Sheetz’s rewards card knocks the price down at the pump the same day a customer signs up.

No waiting required.

Wawa Rewards works on a different clock: A shopper banks points from gas and snacks first, then a fuel discount unlocks once there’s enough saved up.

That’s a head start Sheetz hands over before Wawa’s app has tallied a single point.

A Sheetz loyalist filling up at a Wawa skips downloading yet another app.

Why start over?

Their Sheetz card already does the job back home.

7. Settling for the Wrong Snack

Sheetz’s fried mac and cheese bites have their own following, defended in print by a sitting U.S. senator.

Then-Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, now Pennsylvania’s U.S. senator, name-checked the mac ‘n’ cheeze bites in that same 2020 op-ed while making his case for Team Sheetz.

Wawa’s snack case doesn’t carry a direct match.

No substitute.

A Sheetz regular standing at a Wawa case full of pretzel bites and mozzarella sticks passes on all of it and waits until they’re back at a Sheetz.

Worth the wait.

8. Getting Swept up in Hoagiefest

Wawa turns the whole summer into a promotion with Hoagiefest, a tradition it has run every year since 2008.

This year’s version changed the format.

Wawa sold a $6 Shorti Meal Deal this year: Any Shorti hoagie, wrap, or chicken sandwich paired with a small bag of Herr’s chips and a small fountain drink.

An $8 Classic Meal Deal worked the same way, built around a full-size hoagie instead.

Sheetz has never run anything like it.

The chain’s own sub deals show up through app coupons and MTO combo pricing instead of one branded summer event.

A Sheetz loyalist sees the Hoagiefest signs plastered across a Wawa parking lot and keeps driving.

Not their sale.

Not their hoagie.

The Line That Splits Pennsylvania

Sheetz and Wawa split Pennsylvania almost in half, and everyone in the state can feel it.

Journalists covering the two chains have called it the most heated food rivalry in the country.

Sheetz controls the western half of the state from its Altoona headquarters, with more than 300 stores inside Pennsylvania alone, more than any other state where it operates.

Home turf.

Wawa holds the Philadelphia region and the southeastern counties instead, ground it’s occupied since opening its first Food Market in Folsom back in 1964.

The two sides meet somewhere around Bethlehem, Allentown, Reading, and Millersville.

Berks County has become the battleground, with more than 10 each crammed into one county.

Cross that line, and a Sheetz regular’s whole ordering routine stops making sense.

Loyalty Even Politicians Catch

Sheetz and Wawa loyalty runs well past the counter, all the way into Pennsylvania politics.

Then-Lt. Gov. Fetterman and Rep. Boyle didn’t stop at one op-ed.

They took the fight to a live, public debate in 2021, each still defending their own side of the state.

Boyle closed out their print exchange by declaring Wawa “the undisputed champion,” a line Fetterman never let him forget.

Not exactly humble.

The loyalty spreads outside Pennsylvania politics too.