I’ve said it before: Wawa coffee is the best you can buy! Better than Starbucks, better than Doughdaddy’s, better than Dunkin’ Donuts. And in Philadelphia, Wawa sponsors the Independence Day fireworks, as though the city can’t produce fireworks on its own. But Josh Kruger is mad at Wawa!
Hey Wawa, we’ll take Center City stores over fireworks, please
The way Wawa has treated us is hardly worth a parade or fireworks or title sponsor recognition.
by Josh Kruger | Independence Day, July 4, 2023 | 6:00 AM EDT
By now, you’ve seen the commercials and swirling, groovy banners for Wawa Hoagiefest. You might’ve even eaten one of the beloved local brand’s sandwiches at a discount as part of this year’s 15th anniversary of “Hoagie Love” — at least that’s what the convenience chain calls it. Or maybe you’re participating in any one of over 40 Wawa Welcome America community events celebrating America’s independence.
That’s all well and good — if you don’t mind fraternizing with a company that sees you as the enemy.
If you’re confused, that’s OK. I, too, was disconcerted when I came to the realization that Wawa is no good anymore.
Really, folks, if we have any respect for ourselves, we’ll stop this charade and simply speak the truth: It’s time that we as a city broke up with the idea that we are into Wawa because Wawa is definitely not into us. Not when it counts, at least.
Good heavens, what has Wawa done that has so upset Mr Kruger? After a paragraph in which he trashes Wawa’s quick foods, he continued:
Bad food is one thing. Bad manners exhibited by a company that scapegoats the community we live, work, and play in is another matter altogether. This, unlike the terrible food, is personal.
You might remember this dastardly move as Wawa announced the closure of some Center City locations, citing public safety concerns. Just recently, it announced the impending July 16 closure of the landmark Second and South Streets location, too, following neighborhood complaints of public disorder and crime.
After news of the first two closures, The Inquirer’s own Editorial Board somberly wept that the action was a “dire statement about public safety in Philadelphia.”
To me, it was more a dire statement about the ethics of the privately held corporation’s executive leadership.
One would hope that this alleged “dire statement about the ethics of the privately held corporation’s executive leadership” is a statement that the corporation’s executive leadership doesn’t want to see its employees assaulted, injured, or even killed. Such would seem to me to be a pretty positive statement about the leadership!
Mr Kruger combitched that, Heaven forfend!, Wawa was moving into more suburban areas, and starting to sell gasoline. As we have previously noted, at least some Wawas are also installing Tesla charging stations. Gosh, moving into areas with less crime, and meeting a potential customer demand? How evil is that!?!
But then the author complained that Wawa was moving into other dangerous areas:
In 2019, Wawa cheerily announced it was expanding into Baltimore, despite Baltimore’s murder rate of 58 homicides per 100,000 residents. Philly’s rate was a comparatively less horrific 22 that year. Likewise, Wawa has moved aggressively into locations in Florida — such as Jacksonville, where the homicide rate is only slightly better than Philly’s. Other Florida cities like Miami Gardens — also home to multiple Wawas — have homicide rates that are nearly identical to Philly’s.Also see: Robert Stacy McCain: Democrats Kill Each Other in Baltimore; Mayor Blames … Texas, Florida, Alabama?
This is hugely oversimplistic. Yes, the homicide rate in ‘Charm City,’ as Baltimore has sometimes been called, is horrible, far, far worse than Philly’s, but it isn’t just the homicide rate. The editorial Mr Kruger cited pointed out:
The closings come just weeks after about 100 teens ransacked a Wawa in Mayfair. In February, a man was stabbed to death outside of a Wawa in South Philadelphia. On Thursday, a Wawa employee in University City was pepper sprayed during a robbery involving five suspects. In 2020, Wawa cited the pandemic as the reason to close its flagship store at Broad and Walnut Streets.
What foul, fetid, fuming, foggy, filthy Philadelphia is seeing is not just a terrible homicide and shooting rate, but stores robbed and simply trashed, and a law enforcement system that just flat doesn’t care. Philadelphia’s District Attorney, Larry Krasner, a police-hating former defense mouthpiece who believes in ‘restorative justice‘ rather than punishing criminals, has aided and abetted the crime, and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw is, put as charitably as possible, overworked and overwhelmed in Philly, though many would say that she’s just plain incompetent and marking time until she can get another job. The Philadelphia Police Department is seriously undermanned, and crimes like ransacking a Wawa just fall far down the ladder in police priorities.
Then there’s Mayor Jim Kenney, who has just plain checked out, marking time until he’s no longer in the job. Mr Kenney says stuff, but doesn’t actually do anything.
With all that money coming in, you’re telling me the company had no more resources to devote to safety in Philly? Was it even efficiently protecting Philly stores?
Can we tell the truth here? The out-of-control teens who have been trashing the Center City stores have been primarily out-of-control black teens, and any resources that Wawa put into “efficiently protecting (its) Philly stores” would quickly be characterized as racist attempts to keep black teens out of the stores, and the Inquirer, the Editorial Board of which so lamented the closing of Center City Wawas, would be among the first to point that out. A committed leftist — or so I judge from his Twitter feed — Mr Kruger probably would as well.
You know, I get it: Mr Kruger, who has admitted that he “used to do a lot of meth,” loves his Wawa coffee — I do, too, and was heartened by the news that Wawa is expanding into the Bluegrass State — but he’s blaming Wawa and its corporate executives for abandoning Center City, when the truth is that Philadelphians, the out-of-control teens and the rotten parents who reared them, have actually run Wawa off.
It is an attempt to hide the realities. Wawa is the tip of the iceburg. Heavy “defenses” cut down traffic, leading to decreaswd profits, causing higher prices and eventually shop closures. I don’t know of any Wawas out here, but many “wide open” store fronts are rearranging products behind locked shields/doors,and jecking up prices far beyond inflation. That is the cost of theft. Modern display and sales can not survive with ghetto levels of theft. Cities like Chicago are closing down. The stores are moving to the surround where they can make a profit. There is no profit in thenghetto except in hostile, low volume, high price operations.
Your author wants to blame business (Capitalism, or Racism) for the obvious consequencws for ghetto theft. I guess that it is easier to blame the “other guy” for your team’s failings.
“Wawa was moving into more suburban areas, and starting to sell gasoline.”
Starting to sell gasoline? Around here, Wawas are basically considered gas stations with really good convenience stores attached. Of course they really only started moving into this area maybe 10 years ago or so, so I guess this could be considered part of their “starting” to sell gasoline.
“Was it even efficiently protecting Philly stores?”
What, specifically, is a commercial enterprise supposed to do to “protect” its stores? Armed guards? but then if they actually take action to protect the store, who wants to bet that Mr. Kruger would be the first to condemn them for harming those poor misunderstood yoots?
Anyway, the main reason I’m commenting is for this: I’ve sworn off Wawa, good coffee or no. In this area, we are starting to see more and more vagrants and beggars. The city officially discourages the practice, but realistically does little to stop it. Wawa has, over the past year or so, become a favorite place for them to hang out near the doors, asking for money.
I started out complaining at the stores themselves, but got nothing but platitudes, they wouldn’t do anything about it. I eventually e-mailed corporate about the store nearest my home, I got a response implying that beggars weren’t supposed to be allowed and that they’d contact the store about it.
Nothing changed. Shortly after that, the Wawa near where I work seems to have welcomed a permanent vagrant to live on their front porch. He’s there every day. He goes into the store to use the bathroom, he even has a little “nest” set up in the corner on the front walk and they let him leave his meager belongings there when he wanders off somewhere else (probably to meet his drug dealer). Again, I complained to the store manager and nothing was done. Again I e-mailed corporate…this time they just ignored me.
Personally, I don’t need to patronize homeless shelters to get my coffee and hoagies, so if that’s what Wawa wants to be, fine for them, they can do it without my business.
Which, by the way, tells me a lot about their problems in other cities. Allowing that sort of neer-do-wells to hang out at their stores in our relatively low crime area might not seem like a big deal, but I’d imagine that in the higher crime areas, that policy probably wouldn’t work out well for them.
I don’t like it because enabling that sort of behavior only encourages more of it. Personally, I’d like them to be pestered, harassed and arrested so many times that they leave our area for greener pastures. I hear they’d be welcome in California. Maybe someone could start a “gofundme” to raise money for their bus fare.
I think the author was wearing a dress with lace while reading to the kiddies at the library at Fairfax Station. Good to know he loves kiddies as much as he loves Wawa coffee and his meth.
Of such I have absolutely no evidence.