Former Wawas V: Wawa No. 5

A 24-7 Food Mart has opened at Christian Street and Moyamensing Avenue, the fifth former Wawa location in my survey. The neighborhood, Queen Village, is not Center City but it is contiguous to it, and is nice enough for me to count.

Wawa signage directs customers to the soda fountain.

All but one the five Wawas that have closed in Center City since 2002, are home to convenience stores with deli counters (the Dorchester store off Rittenhouse Square which had been vacant is now home to a new 7-11). This would seem to suggest that these Wawas were not closed because they were unprofitable concerns, but because they were not profitable enough. Wawa has apparently decided to focus instead on expansion into Maryland and Virginia and suburban Mega-Wawas replete with gasoline pumps. The irony of this business decision is that it is many of Wawa's neighbors and some of their earliest customers - urban Philadelphians residents - who are left with no Wawa stores.

Former Wawas IV: Wawa Goes Forth

A Cole Haan store opened on Walnut at 16th in the space previously occupied by a Wawa Express, the (circa 2005) closure of which surprised anyone who had queued there for a Shortie. Midday lines inside typically stretched the length of the small store. With the subsequent closure of the Wawa at 20th and Locust, those in search of an affordable lunch in the Rittenhouse Square vicinity are left no alternative but the hot dog cart.

Franklin's nominee for national bird

Former Wawas III: From Wawa to Nada

The space formerly occupied by a Wawa store in the Dorchester at 20th and Locust Streets, is now vacant.

Former Wawas II: 20th & Chestnut

Long a favorite of area hipsters attending indie rock shows in the basement of the nearby First Unitarian Church, the Wawa in the 2000 block of Chestnut Street has been replaced by an Old Nelson Food Market. Note: not only has one been upset, but for some reason, there are two PW boxes on the sidewalk out front.

Former Wawas: First in a Series

Wawa is well-known in the Mid-Atlantic states for their convenience stores which are generally clean, well-stocked and open 24 hours. Despite expansion into the ever-farther-flung suburbs of Philadelphia and beyond (as far even as Virginia) the number of locations in central Philadelphia has declined. By my reckoning, just four remain in Center City where five years ago there was at least twice that number. This former Bella Vista location (pictured) on S. 8th Street at Bainbridge, while not technically in Center City is close enough for me to count.

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