6 Things Wawa Does in New Jersey That Other Gas Stations Never Bother With
Stopping for gas and stopping at Wawa are two very different errands in New Jersey.
One fills the tank. The other has regulars walking inside with expectations no ordinary gas station could meet.
These are the things Wawa does in New Jersey that other gas stations never bother with.
Builds Hoagies by Touchscreen
Wawa’s touchscreen ordering counters have nothing to do with the pumps out front.
A 1949 law still requires an attendant to handle the nozzle at every gas station in the state.
New Jersey is now the last state in the country that still enforces a law like it.
Once a customer steps inside, Wawa hands the wheel back to them.
The chain put touchscreen kiosks in every store in 2002.
A customer can build a hoagie exactly the way they want it, from the sub roll down to the hot peppers.
Nobody has to describe a single topping out loud to a stranger behind the counter.
Many gas stations in New Jersey still work the old way, with a clerk behind the counter taking a spoken order by hand.
Not this one.
Wawa’s kiosks send the order straight to the kitchen, print a ticket, and call a customer’s number once the sandwich is ready.
Order mix-ups drop when nobody has to guess what a mumbled order meant.
A Worker-Owned Stake
Wawa doesn’t answer to Wall Street.
It doesn’t franchise a single New Jersey location either.
Wawa says it keeps every store in the state company-owned, staffed by employees who can also hold a piece of the company.
Wawa built that path through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) it started in 1992.
The Wood family, descendants of Wawa’s founders, still holds the majority of shares.
Employees hold the rest.
A cashier who spends years behind the register at a Woodbridge or a Vineland Wawa isn’t just clocking in for a paycheck.
They’re building equity in the company that pays them.
No outside investors sit on Wawa’s board pushing for a faster path to profit.
Many big gas station and convenience store chains lean on franchisees or outside investors to grow instead, and 7-Eleven, the industry’s largest chain, franchises most of its U.S. stores.
What Wawa’s Employee Ownership Means for a Cashier
Wawa’s ESOP doesn’t hand employees a certificate and call it a day.
Wawa grants stock to associates every year based on how long they’ve worked there, as long as they clock at least 1,000 hours annually.
Stay fifteen or twenty years behind a Wawa counter, and that stock can add up to a seven-figure balance by retirement.
The worker never has to buy a single share to get there.
Turns Summer Into Hoagiefest
Wawa turns the middle of every summer into Hoagiefest, a multi-week promotion that has run since 2008 across every one of its 1,200-plus stores, New Jersey included.
This year’s run stretched from late June through late July, with meal deals pairing a hoagie, a small bag of chips, and a fountain drink for a set price.
Store windows fill with retro decorations.
A cartoon hoagie mascot shows up on signage and merchandise.
Wawa gives away tie-dyed T-shirts and beach blankets to go with it.
Every store, every summer.
No other gas station chain in New Jersey builds an entire branded season around a sandwich.
Wawa does, every single year, and regulars plan around it the way some people plan around a favorite restaurant’s specials.
Still Bottles Its Milk
Wawa’s convenience stores grew out of a dairy that first opened in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, in 1902.
The company still processes milk today, more than a century later.
That plant still bottles the milk sold in Wawa’s convenience stores, New Jersey locations included.
A recall notice earlier this year confirmed the plant was still filling bottles of Wawa-brand milk for stores in New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
It also supplies restaurants, schools, and other institutional customers across the region.
Not many gas stations can say the milk in their cooler came from a plant the company itself runs.
Wawa can.
The dairy business is what the whole chain grew out of.
Wawa still runs it.
Keeps a Warehouse to Itself
Wawa’s food and grocery products move through a 220,000-square-foot warehouse in Carneys Point, New Jersey, built in 2004.
McLane Company, a distributor owned by Berkshire Hathaway, operates the building under a contract with Wawa.
Out of McLane’s dozens of distribution centers nationwide, Carneys Point was built to stock one company alone.
Many convenience store chains share a distributor’s warehouse with several other retail brands under the same roof.
Wawa doesn’t.
Refrigerated and frozen zones cover more than 60% of the Carneys Point building.
So much of what Wawa sells has to stay cold on the trip to a store shelf.
Wawa has since outgrown what one New Jersey warehouse can cover.
McLane also ships to Wawa stores out of distribution centers in Kentucky and Virginia now, as Wawa’s footprint has grown well beyond New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
New Jersey counted 293 Wawa stores as of spring 2025.
That’s part of why Wawa and McLane built the original hub in Carneys Point instead of somewhere else.
Psst! How much do you know about Wawa’s history in New Jersey? Take our quiz and see how many you can get right.
Quiz
Wawa History IQ
Answer these questions on Wawa’s history in New Jersey and beyond. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
Which state now has more Wawa locations than New Jersey, according to 2025 location data?
Gives You a Birthday Drink
Wawa Rewards members get a free drink of any size on their birthday, no purchase necessary, once their birthday is saved in the app.
Coffee, a fountain drink, an Icee, whatever a customer wants that day.
Signing up costs nothing.
New members earn enough points on their very first purchase to redeem a free coffee or a hash brown before they've even left the parking lot.
Points also build up on every food and fuel purchase a customer makes.
They trade in later for hoagies, snacks, and other menu items.
Not a bad deal.
Many gas stations run some kind of loyalty app now.
Few hand a customer a free drink just for showing up on their birthday, with nothing to buy first.
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