The Wawa Way: How a Funny Name and Six Core Values Revolutionized Convenience

Wawa, a family business with a history in dairy and manufacturing, expanded into retail in 1964, offering a friendly, personal alternative to supermarkets. Since then, the convenience store grew into a well-known company that competes against the biggest industry players in the world in three areas—fuel, convenience, and food—all while maintaining their personal approach and small business mentality. Now, almost 50 years later, Wawa has opened its first store in Florida and has begun to play on the national field. How did it happen? What are the reasons for their success? Why have they been able to go up against the big guys with nothing more than homegrown talent?
With a mixture of personal history and business advice, Howard Stoeckel discusses the last 50 years of Wawa's growth, development, and expansion. It's the story of how a small company with a funny name made a big difference, and all it took was a little goose sense.

Howard Stoeckel began his career with Wawa in 1987. He held many positions throughout the company before taking the role of Chief Executive Officer from January 2005 to December 2013. Along with sitting on the Board of Directors of Amerigas Propane, Inc. and Rider University Board of Trustees, he is a frequent guest speaker at business conferences.

Bob Andelman is the author or co-author of sixteen biographical, business, management, self-help, and sports books. He has been a regular correspondent for Business Week, Newsweek, and the St. Petersburg Times at different times in his career. Since February 2007 he has also produced and hosted the extremely popular Mr. Media® online TV/radio interview show.