Why gas stations are at war

Gas stations have evolved from random roadside stops into sandwich-slinging, turf-protecting superstores. How? That's what this video is all about.

How this video happened

Sheetz-Wawa polarization may be the thing that splits our country apart. I'd always noticed these gas stations in the news, but it was only when I passed a Buc-ee's in South Carolina that I became curious if something bigger was going on here.

I lived in Philly for two or three months and spent time in Central Pennsylvania, yet I genuinely thought these chains were just gas stations with moxie.

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Here's a link to the reaction video (for some paid tiers).

The Sheetz/Wawa Culture War: Which Is the Weirdest

Here's what you learn after reading four books about gas stations in 48 hours: corporate culture is weird. Especially when it comes to the two elites of convenience stores, Wawa and Sheetz.

I'm not talking about the "yinzers" of Western PA against the Philly "jawners" (I think I used this slang correctly, but consult your local linguist before repeating.). This is more about the respective corporate cultures of these companies, which includes name changes, fowl obsessions, and lots of puns.

Of course, no judgment here — no one is safe when it comes to the cultish behavior that a strong corporate culture requires. I've spent most of the past ten years navigating emoji politics as if I were a Smiley-slinging Machiavelli (is the 🫡 passive aggressive? So be it!). I also remember working at Wal-Mart for a semester and having to do a weird cheer or dance before my shift started. We all live in glass houses.

Still, I think there's something to a battle royale between Sheetz and Wawa, who have taken a few corporate principles and let them curdle into two different obsessions with their name and how special it is.

Sheetz's weirdness starts with the Z. According to officially-sanctioned corporate legend, Jerry Sheetz literally stole the name from someone else at a conference.

“He was startled to see two name tags bearing a striking resemblance—his own, embossed with Jerry Sheets, and yet another imprinted with the name Jerry Sheetz. To Kathleen’s great surprise, Jerry pondered each name tag before selecting the latter. “What are you doing?” she asked. “I like this one better,” he replied. “But that’s not your name!” she protested. “Maybe so,” he answered. “But I like the z. I think we’re going to change our name.”

Kathleen goes on to say that they battled over the name for five or six years but, needless to say, Jerry won. I don't even know how to characterize the rationale here:

“As Bob remembers, in Spangler, where Jerry grew up, the population grew to 7,500 people, along with a thriving downtown fueled by an influx of European immigrants. “My father knew the Jewish bankers and merchants there,” Bob recalls, “and many of their last names ended with z. My father said, ‘I’m going to be a businessman, too, and I’m going to end my name with a z.’ "

Wawa's name origin is quirky too, though to my eyes it's a bit less weird. Apparently it comes from the goose common in the unincorporated area where the Wawa dairy started, putatively derived from the Ojibwe word. The Wawa corporate history dutifully quotes the Longfellow poem that mentions "wawa" and then kind of moves on.

But what's really unusual aren't the names as much as the two company's obsessions with making them meaningful.

The Sheetz mascot Pop Sheetz seems to have disappeared (old age?)

But the Sheetz name is still a strong motif in Sheetz marketing, mostly centered around the weird letters. Sheetz "Freakz" earn "Rewardz" (I'm glad I don't have a copy editor, because she'd have to shoot me after that sentence). The short-lived in house potato chip brand was "Spudderz" (these were, of course, found in the "Snackz" section). The charitable arm of the company? It helps "Kidz" (though not with spelling).

Just in case the "Sh" fans out there feel left out, distribution center employees can work out in the "Shwellness Center."

Wawa's got less of the "Idiocracy" style branding, but it does have a goose obsession that you'd find disturbing outside of a three year old. In 1974, the goose and gold background were added to the Wawa logo, and they ran with it. The CEO is occasionally called the "lead goose." The Wawa Way book spends an entire section on how goose behavior can teach business (Lessons from the Geese). Associates get "Goose Bumps" awards. Executives have dressed up as geese. The company considered naming its gasoline after the goose.

Let me state an opinion: Wawa over-leveraged on its love of the Canada Goose, today known as a man-made hazard that poops everywhere.

That said, I don't want to be too harsh on either company for having its quirks. As I said above, a bit of weirdness is probably essential to any company culture, and for Wawa and Sheetz it's paid dividends (or is that, "dividendz"?). These family-owned businesses have innovated in big ways, whether its through kiosk based ordering, or food service, or amenities they use to draw people in. When I visited a Sheetz while researching this story, an employee cheerily shouted to me as I opened the door. When I had my Wawa hoagie, it was made perfectly to my expectations.

Still, awards should be awarded. While a goose obsession is something, I'm going to have to give the weirdness trophy to Sheetz. Sheetz family, come collect it at your leisure: it's a giant golden Z. 

Sources for the video

• I'll be honest, when I realized there were books about Wawa, 7/11, and Sheetz (as well as gas stations in general), I was dreading reading all of them (I found my copies at Archive.org, so at least I didn't spend a fortune). That said, it was nice to have pretty reliable sources for the origin stories and history.

• Wondering how I mapped all those Sheetz and Wawa stations? Scrapehero! It wasn't cheap, but there is something intoxicating about mapping 2000 gas stations on an infinitely modifiable map. I used a service called Felt to process the data and get it mappable in my mapping program of choice, Geolayers in After Effects.

• Rob Wolcott was a very nice person to talk convenience with, and his case study helped me feel like I was going in the right direction and also gave me lots of details. His new book, incidentally, is all about convenience of a sort.

• The video heavily leans on this paper about the impact of self-service bans. I took it at a bit of a different angle than the paper, focusing on the food aspect more than the pricing. But I was pretty psyched to have such good evidence for my "take."

• The stats about supermarket growth come from this paper.

Other stuff

I'm so grateful for all the responses to my call out on YouTube — the videos made me laugh out loud, and so did some of the comments. I always feel very lucky when I get to see who actually watches these things.

Programming note - if you ever do become a paid subscriber, do it via the web rather than Patreon's iOs app (existing subscribers don't need to worry). Apple has added a 30% fee that they will carve out of your money if you sign up via the app. Through web or Android, it's totally normal.