Wawa Grocery Store Opens In Cranford With Gas And Hoagies (Subs)

CRANFORD, NJ — Raise your hoagies in the air and wave 'em like you just don't care. The Wawa grocery store chain, popular in South Jersey and surrounding states, just opened a new location in Cranford on Thursday — offering gasoline as well as groceries.

The Cranford Zoning Board approved the site plan in March of 2019.

Wawa currently has more than 850 stores in the United States, with 600 offering gasoline, including the Cranford store. Aside from New Jersey, the stores are located in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Florida, and Washington, D.C.

Besides groceries, gas, and coffee, they also offer breakfasts, salads, and subs — or "hoagies," as they say closer to Philly.

An interesting history

The chain has an interesting history.

The company began in 1803 as an iron foundry in New Jersey. According to the private company's website, "Toward the end of the 19th Century, owner George Wood took an interest in dairy farming and the family began a small processing plant in Wawa, Pa., in 1902. The milk business was a huge success, due to its quality, cleanliness and 'certified' process."

(And yes, there is a Wawa, Pa. — or at least, there used to be.)

In the 1960s, home delivery of milk declined. So Grahame Wood, George’s grandson, began selling dairy products through the first Wawa Food Market in 1964.

Cranford store

The Cranford store is located at 500 North Ave. East, just off the Garden State Parkway.

You can see a 6-minute video of the Cranford opening, along with representatives of Cranford EMS and the masked WaWa mascot, here.

"Excited to welcome Wawa to CranfordTwp," Tweeted Mayor Kathleen Miller Prunty last week, "and thank them for supporting our first responders. And, I got to meet the Wawa Goose!"

One are resident seemed pleased, posting a photo of himself outside the store on Sunday with the words, "I must be easy to please because I’m really excited about my first visit to Cranford‘s new Wawa!"

Will you try the new Wawa? And do you prefer to call the sandwiches subs, hoagies, heroes, grinders, or something else? Comment below.

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