LAKEHURST – There was a costumed character, free T-shirts, a contest, free food and coffee and plenty of smiles. It could have been the grand opening of Disneyland but for area customers, it was the first day of the much-anticipated Wawa convenience store.
For months it was simply known as Wawa’s store #8494 but last week, the doors opened and the celebration began as 100 shoppers lined up around the building awaiting their turn to pick up their free limited-edition “Wawa Coffee, Hoagies & Kindness” T -shirts and enter the store for the first time.
That also gave them a chance to get free cup of coffee, look around, meet the staff and also share some time with the chain’s feathered mascot, Wally Goose.
Rich Krause of Pine Lake Park in Manchester Township saw notice of the opening online and he was among those lined up around 7:30 a.m. for the 8 a.m. opening that filled every parking spot the store had.
“Even though there is a closer Wawa to my house I wanted to come here. This is what passes for excitement around here,” Krause said. He’s lived in the area for 33 years “and the area has changed quite a bit. The gas here is as cheap as possible. This is the cheapest around here.”
“I came over here because every time I go to ShopRite I see this place being built and I was curious to see the response of these people,” said Ken Hyman, another Manchester resident. He had some concerns about the traffic flow in the area and how it would work on a regular day of commuting.
“We have a lot of senior citizens including myself but I think I am a bit more alert than many of them and I have some difficulties navigating sometimes. To get in and out of here is a little tricky,” he added.
Hyman said, “I’ve been living around here for 40 something years. I passed one of the other Wawas to get out here. I also wanted the T-shirt.”
The official address is 604 Pine Street but most people know it as the circle. It’s between a strip mall plaza and the borough’s police department headquarters. The only entry point is off Union Avenue.
Mayor Harry Robbins, Councilman Brian DiMeo, their wives and members of their families were present. Council President Steven Oglesby was also there but he was wearing his Lakehurst First Aid Squad hat that morning as a member of the squad’s hoagie building team that competed against the police department and borough fire company.
Wawa’s signature Hoagies for Heroes competition featured members of each of the borough’s emergency response agency. They competed to see who could build the most hoagies in three minutes. The winner was the Lakehurst Fire Company.
Police Chief Matthew Kline had some fun pretending to handcuff the firefighters who were pretty speedy when it came to building hoagies having assembled at least 30 sandwiches.
At the conclusion of the Hoagies for Heroes competition, store representatives presented checks of $1,000 to each department’s charity of choice.
“This is an incredible turnout. I wasn’t expecting this,” Mayor Robbins said as his 2-year-old grandson Grady Ciccio of Bayville enjoyed a Wawa donut with sprinkles. “This has been in the works for years since I joined the governing body in 1999.”
“We’ve been working on this property since then. Al Leiter, a professional baseball player at one time and his brother John bought the property and we got all the property deemed safe by the DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) because it was an old gas station that had leakage,” the mayor added.
Mayor Robbins said the site experienced full reclamation that took “years and years. We finally got a clean bill of health.” The owners have been working with Wawa for at least two years. “It is finally here!”
General Manager Kyle Sommer and his staff greeted people at the door following a countdown for the 8 a.m. opening. Sommer will lead a team of approximately 50 associates, all of which are new positions.
Area Manager Daniel Holland remarked, “I’m delighted to welcome your newest store as we give a ceremonial toast to our associates, customers and our community. When our first convenience store opened in April 1964 in Folsom, Pa. our founder, Grahme Wood envisioned a business built on people, not just profits. Over 1,000 stores later, our 45,000 associates are committed to fulfilling lives, every day.”
The Lakehurst store marks the 31st out of 76 stores within the chain’s six-state operating area of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Florida and Washington, D.C. The chain also announced its future expansion to Florida Panhandle, Alabama, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.
Mayor Robbins said during the ribbon cutting, “This property has been vacant for many years. It used to be an Exxon gas station. I want to welcome Wawa to our community!”
Sommer led customers in a toast during the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Wally Goose provided the mayor an oversized pair of scissors and red ribbon for the event which also included an explosion of confetti.
