The new Wawa on E Garner Road has been met by its recipients with excitement, being awaited since the announcement of the project in 2023. Wawa is known for its custom-ordered food service that offers freshly brewed coffee, fountain drinks and a wide array of prepared food, snacks and beverages.
“I grew up with Wawa, so when I found out we were getting one in Brownsburg, I was like, ‘oh, this is great! I love Wawa and their food,” Wawa employee Mia Abercrombie said. “I really love the drinks, frozen drinks, smoothies, everything.”
Many others were excited about the possible price change factor. “I was excited because I knew that it would bring down gas prices at other places,” senior Wren Danner said. “When a new gas station is built, they want people to come to their place, so they lower their gas prices, and in turn, everyone around them does. It’s like a domino effect; everything is a little bit cheaper for a second there.”
Wawa serves a variety of foods, including the usual convenience store snacks like chips and candy, along with newer options like pizza, hoagies and breakfast sandwiches. The drink ordering station is also considered a favorite among patrons.
“I haven’t gone there very much, but I think it’s pretty good. I got a coffee from there once, and it tastes really good,” junior Sophia Sigler said. “When it first opened, they put out these sandwiches… I like their hoagies there.”
The store experiences high customer volume during the afternoon hours, peaking with after-school traffic and the evening rush hour.
“At the beginning, when we were still getting situated with having so many orders, it was a lot, and a lot of people were really upset,” Abercrombie said. “But now that we kinda have it down to a T and we know how to do stuff correctly, it’s so much easier to get things done now.”
The high volume of customers often leads to extended waiting times for both prepared food and checkout. “I feel like I wouldn’t really call it a convenience store,” Sigler said. “Like, it technically is, but I feel like when I went there, it was a lot more crowded. It’d be a lot more convenient going to an actual gas station.”
The response of the general public towards the new Wawa has been positive and optimistic. Wawa introduced a new competitive option for prepared food, and created several dozen new service jobs for local residents.
“I don’t think we get a lot of new stuff in Brownsburg, and when we do, it’s kind of spaced out and gets old pretty quickly,” Danner said. “But because it’s a gas station and convenience store, it’s like, nicer.”
