WAWA Gas Station…. All Hype No Substance!

Hey did you hear WAWA is coming to South Florida? I’m so excited! They have the best coffee and super friendly service, too! Oh boy, do I just love the sub sandwiches! They make their own bread and everything is so fresh including their salads. BLAH BLAH BLAH!

I’ve been hearing this tune ring out for the last 8 months. Every non-Florida native from up north who grew up with these gas stations swears by their food, friendly service, and great coffee. Because of all this hype, I decided at some point to try one of these WAWAs out.

Meatball Sub Challenge

So for my Meatball Sub Challenge #4, I decided to hit WAWA . WAWA was on my list (I would NEVER have picked them) because my buddy Kevin C. recommended them to me. I usually don’t eat at a gas station/convenience store unless I’m on a road trip and want to grab something on the fly or it’s 2:00am and I’m a drunk 25 year old. Just so you know,  I’ve already been to Doris’s Italian Market, SoHo Subs, and Laspadas. WAWA sounded interesting because of the hype and the price of the sub which is $4.99.

Not Impressed

I walk into the new WAWA at Royal Palm Boulevard and 441 in Margate, Fl. There are no angels singing, no one to greet me at the door, no balloons or confetti falling…shoot, I didn’t even see any workers smiling. $hit, that’s right….this is a gas station not a restaurant (LOL)! Silly me. I walk to center of the store where it looks like they prepare all the food. I will say, it smells real good in here way better than 7-11.

I took a photograph of the menu and proceed to a touch screen to order my food (it’s all done by touch screen). A guy/employee walks over and asked if I needed some help and I replied, “I’m good”. I place my meatball sub order and proceed to take pictures of the cold refrigerator case that has salads and cold sandwiches etc… as I’m doing this, another employee walks over to me and says in an Irish accent, “Are you ok?”. I looked at her a little puzzled and say, “Yes, I just ordered a sub”. She then says, “I see you taking pictures”. I reply, “Yes”.  She says, “You can’t take photographs in here” and looks at me very suspiciously. I say to her “This is a public place and I can’t take pictures in here?”, and she says, “No”. I’m standing there and I swear this employee thinks I’m a secret agent from 7-11 or Cumberland Farms sent here to steal trade secrets! This whole time she is giving me the stink eye so I give her the stink eye back. It’s a stand off of the stink eyes for about 10 seconds. Finally, I tell her I don’t want my sandwich anymore. I threw my ticket on the counter and walked out. Sure as $hit this white woman in her 50s with her Irish accent watches me from inside the store get into my son’s 2003 GMC Sonoma Pickup Truck…I bet she thought I was gonna get into a Tesla or some fancy car…boy did I fool her (LOL). Just a plain old dude who wanted to spend money in your store and write a story about it for free:)… your loss not mine.

This was the last picture I took before being caught by Agent Stink Eye.

Verdict

Screw you, WAWA!!!! Are y’all guarding the secret of life behind your counters? No pictures allowed???? Is this Area 51? Do you actually have to assign an employee to Police customers taking pictures inside? Are all of your employees trained that way? “Hi! Welcome to WAWA.  My name is Agent Stink Eye…no photography is allowed. Have a nice day!”. What type of corporate BS is this? Whoever made that rule, if it exists, should be fired. Not a good corporate policy to get a first time customer on the defensive by Agent Stink Eye. I will tell you this, I’m very suspicious of a place that won’t let you take pictures inside. It tells me they are hiding something. They only thing that I saw that was different at WAWA was the touch screens to order food. Which, of course, cuts labor costs and human contact with the customer. Not the friendly neighborhood convenience store I grew up with. Looks like just another corporate giant looking to take over the world.

0 that means Zero Beers for you WAWA!

Four beers = Outstanding
Three beers = Good
Two beers = OK
One beer = Needs work
Zero beers= Sucks (No beer is never a good thing.)

Agent Stink Eye catching me taking food pictures at WAWA