Plenty of convenience retailers have expanded their footprint in the last couple of weeks.
Florida welcomed its first drive-thru only Wawa, the third of its kind in the United States, reported Fox 35. The 2,200 square foot store is in Largo, Florida, about five miles southeast of Clearwater.
The drive-thru Wawa will be open daily from 5:30 a.m. to midnight and will serve many Wawa classics, including hoagies.
"Wawa has a long history of testing and innovating new store formats to provide the greatest level of convenience for our customers," said Senior Director of Store Operations Robert Yeatts. "With our new Largo store, we will continue to learn from this new format while gathering feedback from our customers and associates."
In Luling, Texas, the latest world’s largest convenience store opened with the opening of a new Buc-ee’s, reported USA Today. At over 75,000 square feet, it’s "the largest Buc-ee’s location in the country, bringing the largest Buc-ee’s back (to) where the legend began," the company said in a news release in May. The new location replaced the city’s current Buc-ee’s store, which was the first Buc-ee’s family travel center and was built in 2003.
RaceTrac opened its second Indiana store, and its second store in the state, last week. According to the company, this new store in Indianapolis “represents the company’s impressive growth plans and mission to expand outside of the Southeast.”
Similar to other RaceTracs, the location features a clean, well-lit parking lot, has 5,500 square feet of store space, a large outdoor patio, front canopy fueling stations, an extended canopy with additional lanes for high flow diesel, a large seating area and a wide selection of on-the-go food and beverage options.
This month, Love’s opened two new travel centers: One in Rural Hall, North Carolina, and one in Baker City, Oregon. Both locations are open 24/7 and offer fresh food and drinks, Love’s-branded snacks and a QSR in each store.
Parker’s Kitchen opened the company's first Augusta, Georgia, area store with a grand opening on June 13. The new store features Parker’s Kitchen food for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as indoor dining, grab-and-go food options and a hot bar with electronic kiosk ordering.
“Augusta is on the rise and is an exciting place to be,” said Parker’s Kitchen founder and CEO Greg Parker, who officially cut the ribbon at the company’s new store in Augusta, Georgia. “We’re incredibly honored to be part of the community and have received an incredible response from customers in the Augusta area.”
Parker’s Kitchen currently operates 88 retail stores in Georgia and South Carolina and said it plans to double the number of stores across the Southeast in the next four years.
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