Preston & Steve® | 6am – 10:30am

Preston & Steve® | 6am – 10:30am

Preston & Steve® | 6am – 10:30am

From retired Wawa menu items, to Cardboard Classic Sleds and a very interesting fact about Wawa pizza, this conversation covers a lot about your favorite store.   

“That makes me not be able to sleep at night, because that’s a big responsibility.” 

Wawa CEO Chris Gheysens isn’t talking about bumping up stock numbers, negotiating corporate contracts, or any other boring old boardroom agenda points. He’s talking about the vast number of transactions per day across all Wawa locations, and the commitment to customers. 

Yes, on this blessed Wawa Day, in the year of our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty-Four, The Preston & Steve Show hosted the big cheese himself, Wawa CEO Chris Gheysens. 

Wawa has been around in its retail store form for sixty years now, and in those sixty years, culture has been the commitment. 

One person may just be in the store for 3-5 minutes, but that 3-5 minutes will end up being the best 3-5 minutes of their day. It’s a casual, warm environment, and store associates will treat you like family. 

We all somehow end up at Wawa so many times a week. Everyone has a favorite Wawa associate, that one employee in the store that manages to brighten your day. For for 93.3 WMMR morning show members, Preston Elliot and Casey Foster, their friend Francisco from a Wawa in Wildwood comes to mind.

But did you know that Wawa associates also have their own favorite customers. The company refers to them as “day brighteners?” In addition to the free coffee in a throwback cup and $0.60 items, every store is going to recognize and celebrate that day’s best “day brightener” on Wawa Day.

The Wawa founders recognized decades ago that associates have great value when it comes to building customers. That recognition continues today, as Wawa is one of the largest employee-owned companies!

  • To the hard hitting questions.

    The Preston & Steve Show likes to consider Wawa CEO Chris Gheysens a friend. And friends can ask friends the tough questions.

  • The [1st Place] Wawa Sled

    First off, we needed to know if Chris saw the Wawa Sled that took home First Place at this year’s Cardboard Classic? “Yes, I had that sent to me a million times and I was shocked at how good it looked!

    What were the Wawa Team’s reactions? “I thought for sure that was somehow people related to Wawa because it was spot on!” He slyly added, “I need to hire them in our architecture [department].”

    The creativity, hard work  and passion that the team put into the sled really showed. showed. “It’s a part of people’s daily lives. And it really does start to influence people in unique ways like that! Well done! They just really nailed it. I was impressed!”

  • Bring Back ______ !

    After that warm reaction, we were able to dig into the topic at hand. The discontinued items list. How often does Chris himself get asked to bring back and old favorite? “It definitely happens.”

    The first that comes to mind? Hazelnut coffee. “there’s apparently a pretty rabid hazelnut coffee fanbase… I may have received a death threat or two.”

    Other random requests he has heard include Homestyle Roast Beef and Mac‘n’Beef. “It’s just not a good seller usually.” When that happens, it’s hard to keep them on the menu.

    That bring said, if you see Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese in your store soon, thank Nick McIlwain.

  • We Know Wawa Has Pizza, But Did You Know This?

    Oh yeah, don’t know if you heard this, but Wawa also has pizza. Chris had to use the platform to inform pizza lovers that the item is only $7.99 right now when it’s ordered in the app. But he also added an interesting fact.

    Pizza is the first product that the company has ever produced that is for more than one person. Everything else they specialize in is an induvial portion.

    Anyway, all of this is just one big, complicated way of saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY WAWA!!! You can celebrate today by heading to your local neighborhood store, greeting your favorite associate, and scoring yourself some free coffee and/or various $0.60 items. Celebrations were also happening all day at the National Constitution Center, where they were giving away free Wawa swag and hosting UPenn professors that are teaching all about Wawa history. Sixty years down, thousands more to go! 

     

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