Dive Brief:
- Wawa is looking to add South Carolina to its list of expansion targets, according to a representative for a development, who spoke at a Horry County Planning Commission meeting last week.
- The commission approved rezoning a 3.14-acre site at Water Grande Boulevard and Highway 9 East in Little River to allow for fuel pumps and a car wash. The proposed c-store would be 6,372 square feet, according to documents submitted to the commission.
- A move into South Carolina would be another step in Wawa’s multiyear, multistate expansion plan as the Pennsylvania-based retailer aims for at least 1,800 locations in the next few years.
Dive Insight:
Wawa appears to have multiple sites it’s working on in South Carolina. Franklin Daniels, an attorney with the law firm with Maynard Nexsen, speaking for the project, said that the site would be the first or second Wawa in South Carolina.
The state has been a notable hole in Wawa’s East Coast footprint, which otherwise extends from New Jersey to Florida.
In 2023, the retailer only had stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Florida, along with the District of Columbia. Since then, Wawa has opened stores in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, West Virginia and North Carolina. The company shared plans to open dozens of stores in each of these states over the next few years.
The retailer is also expanding in states where it already had a presence. This has included a 60-store roadmap for the western part of Virginia and 40 locations planned for central Pennsylvania.
