Wawa, a family business with a history in dairy and manufacturing, expanded into retail in 1964, offering a friendly, personal alternative to supermarkets. Since then, the convenience store grew into a well-known company that competes against the biggest industry players in the world in three areas -- fuel, convenience, and food -- all while maintaining their personal approach and small business mentality. Now, almost 50 years later, Wawa has opened its first store in Florida and has begun to play on the national field. How did it happen? What are the reasons for their success? Why have they been able to go up against the big guys with nothing more than homegrown talent? With a mixture of personal history and business advice, Howard Stoeckel discusses the last 50 years of Wawa's growth, development, and expansion. It's the story of how a small company with a funny name made a big difference, and all it took was a little goose sense.

Wawa has more than two hundred years of history in American business. Founded in 1803 and incorporated in 1865, Wawa has roots in the manufacture of cast-iron water pipes and decorative lampposts. Using the resources and surplus water power from the iron business, the family opened a cotton mill and began producing cotton piece goods, including Red Star diapers. The first Wawa milk plant opened in 1902; by the late 1950s, the Wawa Dairy had expanded its home delivery business to include over one hundred forty-five routes. The first Wawa Food Market opened on April 16, 1964. Today, the company is familiar to many as a chain of five hundred forty convenience stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia that offers a wide selection of fresh foods, coffee, and gasoline. Wawa contains vintage images documenting the evolution of the company as it adapted to changing economic and social conditions. From the early days of iron manufacture to the opening of the first store in Folsom, Pennsylvania, Wawa brings to life the many facets of one of America's top privately owned companies.

This book is an exciting adventurous story for young readers and old that traces the humorous tales of living in many cultures and societies and eventually coming of age. Once the reader learns what a WaWa is they will find it in the story along the way and eventually apply it to their lives. Once you pick up this book you will not want to put it down until it is finished and you will want to read your favorite stories again and again. In WaWa West Africa William Coughlan weaves a poetic tapestry of memory and wonder. Here the eyes of a young American boy are opened wide by the cultural complexities of a foreign land that soon becomes his second home. Mixing astute observation with irony, warmth, and humor, WaWa West Africa invites its readers to embark on global journey from one station of the heart to another. In a time of unprecedented globalization, Coughlans moving memoir imaginatively traverses the planet in search of compassion, connection, and a reverence for difference. Stephen Pfohl Professor of Sociology, Boston College

The Divine Comedy That Is Our Most Beloved Store

"Indispensable insights into creating and maintaining a good corporate reputation. The writing is straightforward and refreshingly free of jargon, and the company examples are timely, relevant, and revealing." Paul Danos, Dean, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth."Every executive will benefit from reading this expertly written guide" - Ronald Sargent, President and CEO, Staples, Inc."A unique combination of expert journalistic insight and knowledge gained from quantitative research into how people perceive corporations." Joy Marie Sever, Senior VP, The Reputation Practice at Harris InteractiveIn this topical and up-to-date book, Wall Street Journal news editor Ron Alsop provides 18 lessons based on years of experience covering every aspect of corporate reputation. He shows the benefits of a good reputation, the consequences of a bad one, how to measure reputation and nurture a good one. There's advice on how to identify the most likely dangers to a company's reputation, how to use the Internet to control perception of an organization, and how to present good deeds in the right way. Punchy and informative, it draws on real life examples from major corporations, including FedEx, BP, McDonalds, DuPont, Calvin Klein, Coca-Cola, Levi Strauss and Co. and Enron.