Wawa, Inc. grew throughout the 1970s, opening stores in eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, and Maryland. These stores continued selling dairy and other fresh food products and added food service departments that made sandwiches and other hot foods.
In 1977, Richard D. ‘Dick’ Wood, Jr. (Grahame’s second cousin, b. 1938) became president of Wawa Food Markets and took over as Chief Executive Officer in 1981. Dick Wood presided over the continued growth of Wawa, Inc. during the 1980s and 1990s, which included adding coffee to the stores’ list of products; expanding the line of hoagies and other foodservice products; introducing a myriad of technological innovations to product control, store management, and foodservice; and adding gasoline pumps at many stores...NEXT >>