During the month of April, Wawa Inc. will mark the billionth surcharge-free automated teller machine withdrawal at one of the family-owned company’s convenience stores. The company is marking the occasion with a parade in Center City Philadelphia,
the
Philadelphia Inquirer
reported.
Brand-and-marketing experts said Wawa’s maintenance of surcharge-free ATMS even during a down economy burnishes the company’s reputation for being focused on consumers’ desire for convenience and value.
The company “has been strong enough to invest in employees and infrastructure,” the
Inquirer
report said.
For example, while some companies cut health-care benefits during the recession, Wawa offered them to 7,000 additional employees; 1,000 accepted the offer. It also boosted the percentage of profits contributed to the employee stock-ownership plan to 15 percent, from 10 percent.
Wawa, which operates in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, has 572 stores, three more than it had at the end of 2007, the
Inquirer
article said. It plans to open 20 to 25 more stores both this year and next year and eventually plans to expand outside its current five-state market, the report said. (Source:
Philadelphia Inquirer,
April 13, 2010.)
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