12 May Rebels at Wawa
Written by Mykel and Tre’Cia
On Tuesday, my colleagues and I drove from West Philly to Media, PA to Wawa headquarters. We had plans to gain information on how to run a successful food business. On the van ride there we discussed our agenda, broke down roles and rehearsed our presentation for Wawa.
When we arrived at the headquarters we signed in, received our name tags and waited to meet Jerry and Leslie, category managers at Wawa. After some handshakes and introductions, we were offered to help ourselves to beverages of our choice. We then walked around the building until we got to the conference room and our guides kept us engaged in a conversation about the construction that was going on around the Wawa building. When we arrived to the conference room we were offered seats and started to talk about how to make our business a more successful business.
During the meeting we discussed how we should start off selling our products, such as where will we sell them and who will we sell them to. They gave us some helpful information about some things that we did not know, such as the stocking fees snack companies pay to get their products on the shelf. We learned a C-store is a convenience store, and that they are expensive to sell products to. They also added information to the things that we already knew and they helped us expand the information that we already knew, such as discounts and promotions to help products sell. We asked Jerry and Leslie what makes Wawa great. They said Wawa customers know how much Wawa cares. They have some of the best customer service in the country.
After the meeting Jerry and Leslie took us on a tour around the mansion of the Wood family, the founders of Wawa. During the tour we saw pictures of the very first Wawa, the first dollar earned in Virginia, and a Christmas tree that was recovered from Hurricane Katrina and given to Wawa for their help and support during the storm. We learned about the development of Wawa throughout many years.
Jerry and Leslie thanked us for coming , and we thanked them for having us. They said we were able to visit anytime. Me and my colleagues all left Wawa with smiles and a better knowledge about how to run a better and more successful food business.
The day after our trip to Wawa the Rebel crew visited the Fruit Stand at Comegys Elementary school. Fruit Stand is a small business run by students that sells healthy snacks to their friends after school. Fruit Stand sells sliced fruit, smoothies, parfaits, as well as Rebel Bars and Rebel Seeds. We think of Fruit Stand like a very very tiny Wawa. We learned from Fruit Stand that smoothies and Rebel Seeds sell very quickly, but Rebel Bars are struggling. We took Wawa’s suggestion and discussed with the Fruit Stand students about running a Rebel Bar promotion. First, the Fruit Stand will give out free Rebel Bar samples. Then once a week, the Fruit Stand will give customers a free Rebel Bar with each smoothie purchase. It was excited to use information we learned from our meeting at Wawa immediately in our work in West Philly schools.
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