Philly special: Wawa celebrates first of many locations in Indiana
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Grand opening of the Wawa gas station and convenience store in Daleville on May 14, 2025. The store is Wawa’s first in Indiana. (Marek Mazurek, IIB)
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Grand opening of the Wawa gas station and convenience store in Daleville on May 14, 2025. The store is Wawa’s first in Indiana. (Marek Mazurek, IIB)
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Grand opening of the Wawa gas station and convenience store in Daleville on May 14, 2025. The store is Wawa’s first in Indiana. (Marek Mazurek, IIB)
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Grand opening of the Wawa gas station and convenience store in Daleville on May 14, 2025. The store is Wawa’s first in Indiana. (Marek Mazurek, IIB)
Tenderloin: meet hoagie.
The two culinary cultures collided in Daleville on Wednesday as the popular, Pennsylvania-based gas station/fast food/convenience store chain Wawa officially prepared to open in Indiana.
A grand opening event saw the store off of Interstate 69 and State Road 67 filled nearly to capacity with company officials and Wawa super-fans. The convenience store felt more like a cocktail party as staff members walked around with samples of the store’s extensive menu while music blared and the company’s mascot Wally the Goose mingled and took pictures.
“Indiana’s been amazing both in terms of the business community and the local officials, community partners. And of course our customers have put their arms around us and welcomed us here,” said John Poplawski, Wawa’s chief real estate officer.
The opening festivities appear to mirror the company’s ambitions for the Hoosier State.
The Daleville location will open its doors at 8 a.m. Thursday. Then in quick succession the Pennsylvania-based company will open stores in Noblesville next week and Clarksville the week after that.
By the end of 2025, Wawa plans to have eight locations in Indiana, almost all of them in suburbs surrounding Indianapolis. But that’s just the start. Poplawski said Wawa wants to open 8-12 stores a year in Indiana for each of the next five years, making for close to 60 stores by 2030.
“We think it’s important to plant our flag in communities across the interstates,” Poplawski said. “We think it’s also important to bring our brand and spread it out so a lot of folks get to experience it. We’ll eventually be in Indianapolis proper. But we think the small towns are really so much more important to be near where folks live, work, play, go to church that their Wawa will be close by and convenient to them.”
Poplawski said Wawa’s Brownsburg location will also open this year, though a recent fire will set back the schedule by about a month.
Wawa representatives say each location costs around $7.5 million to get online and hires between 35-40 employees. All Wawa locations are company-owned and operated.
Taste of home
To many of its patrons, Wawa is a piece of cultural identity as opposed to being just a gas station.
The company has over 1,110 convenience stores, most of which are in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. More recently, the company has expanded to the South and Midwest.
The chain is based in Wawa, Pennsylvania—a small community outside of Philadelphia. Wawa dominates the eastern part of Pennsylvania, while its rival Sheetz dominates in the west.
It was that cultural nostalgia which drew Brandon Jenkins up from Franklin to Daleville on Wednesday to witness the store’s opening. Jenkins sported a Philadelphia Eagles jersey and said he grew up in New Jersey and wanted to experience a taste of home again.
“Wawa is basically home to me. It’s all I grew up on; all I knew was Wawa. When I first moved out here, not having a Wawa—it was a little disheartening,” Jenkins said. “When I heard that one was opening up, my wife and I had to take the trip to, basically, come back home.”
Jenkins added his favorite food offering is the seasonal turkey bowl, which is one offering on Wawa’s vast menu. The store offers burgers, hoagies, wraps, pizza, sweets, coffee, smoothies, shakes and more, essentially functioning as a fast-food restaurant on top of a traditional gas station convenience store.
Others at Wednesday’s gathering were less familiar with Wawa, but nonetheless excited.
Sharon Hummel said she and her husband Brian last went to Wawa 20 or 30 years ago while driving in Pennsylvania. But the couple often travels from Randolph County to Indianapolis to watch their grandchildren play sports and they see themselves stopping at Wawa often.
“I was surprised how great the cheeseburger is. The quesadilla was great,” said Hummel. “It’s all great. I would come here like a fast food restaurant.”
When asked how he would describe Wawa to new Hoosier customers, Poplawski didn’t want to get bogged down with labels, saying he just hopes people see the quality of service.
“People say ‘Well you’re a coffee shop.’ And we do sell a ton of coffee. People like to say ‘Oh you’re like a quick-serve restaurant like McDonalds.’ Well we do sell burgers and amazing, made-to order hoagies. We’re all of those things,” he said. “What we really are is great associates giving great service to their friends and neighbors and making everybody’s day just a little bit better.”