The outside of a Wawa store
Everything You Need To Know About Wawa,
The Beloved Convenience Store

NEWS

By BUFFY NAILLON
The Wawa goose on a red roof
The Name
The company’s name comes from Wawa, Pennsylvania, which is still home to its headquarters and where Wawa Dairy began. Wawa comes from French and Ojibwe for the word goose.
Different kinds of textiles and fabrics
Beginnings
The Wawa company predates convenience stores by about 100 years, getting its start at the turn of the 19th century as an iron foundry. Wawa also dealt with textiles.
The outside of a Wawa store
In its pre-convenience-store days, Wawa operated as a textile company exclusively until 1890, at which time owner George Wood branched out into other businesses.
Black and white photo of Abraham Lincoln
Business Ventures
The business ventures morphed, depending on the interests and the opportunities. They ventured into hospitals, banks, dry goods, and a collections company.
The outside of a Wawa
The last venture crossed the Wood family’s paths with Abraham Lincoln, who, in his lawyer days, worked the collections aspect of their business as an independent contractor.
A farmer pouring milk into another canister
Milk Business
George Wood, the original founder of the textile company, followed up on his interest in dairy farming by opening the Wawa Dairy Farm in 1902.
Milk bring poured into a glass next to a full glass of milk
Milk pasteurization hadn’t enjoyed widespread adoption, so people were wary of it. The Rocky Run Dairy Farm milk was “doctor certified” and had a great reputation.
A smiling woman choosing a bottle of milk at a grocery store
First Market
In the mid-1960s, Wawa opened its first convenience store in Folsom, Pennsylvania. The store’s seven-to-eleven hours gave way to
around the clock service.