Wawa Plans Replacement For Its Original 'Store #1,' in Folsom, Pa.
By Steve Tawa
FOLSOM, Pa. (CBS) -- The first Wawa store, which opened for business in 1964, in Delaware County, will be closing to make way for a new one, just up the road.
The Wawa convenience store at MacDade Boulevard and Swarthmore Avenue, designated "#1" by the company, figured into celebrations this past April when the privately owned company marked its 50th anniversary.
That original store will remain open until the doors open to a new, larger Wawa, planned for a third of a mile up MacDade, at Kedron Avenue.
Wawa leases the current site, and doesn't know what the owners' plans are for the building that housed the first Wawa store, since 1964.
Construction is expected to begin next year on the new store, which will acquire the "Store #1" designation when it opens, now set for the spring of 2016. At that time, the company says, the same Wawa associates will serve at the new store, which will also sell gasoline.
Although Wawa is based locally, its concentration now includes central Florida, where a spokeswoman says they're opening up a new store "every other week this year," mostly between Orlando and Tampa.
Its first Florida location, in Orlando, across from Sea World, opened in 2012. The chain should have nearly 60 stores opened in Florida by the end of this year. It has also begun construction on three stores in southwest Florida, including at least one in Fort Myers.
Here in the mid-Atlantic region, which comprises Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, more than 20 new Wawas are opening this year.