Dive Brief:
- Wawa obtained approval for its first convenience store in Kentucky, according to the city of Elizabethtown’s latest Planning Commission meeting.
- The store will be located at 2500 Ring Road in Elizabethtown, about 44 miles south of Louisville, according to the Planning Commission. It will be nearly 6,000 square feet and feature eight dual-sided fuel pumps, and may add electric vehicle charging stations down the road, according to a local report by The News-Enterprise.
- These details come about eight months after Wawa first shared plans to enter Kentucky as part of its larger goal to reach 1,800 locations by 2030.
Dive Insight:
Since the start of 2022, Wawa has announced a flurry of expansion plans that would bring it to several new states and build on its existing territories over the next few years.
Besides Kentucky, those expansion plans included entering North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee. Recently, Wawa’s plans for Ohio, Indiana and Tennessee have begun to take shape.
Beyond the fuel pumps and EV charging, Wawa’s first store in Kentucky will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and will have two entrances — one on Ring Road and another on Shepherdsville Road — according to The News-Enterprise. The store required no waivers from the city, the newspaper noted.
While the development plan and commercial design have been approved, the final proposal is still being approved, according to The News-Enterprise.
In addition to several independent and local c-stores, Elizabethtown’s newest Wawa will compete with multiple FiveStar Food Store locations in the area, as well as Circle K, Shell and BP stores.
Wawa operates more than 1,000 stores across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Florida and Washington, D.C.
