Wawa

At 11:59 p.m. tonight, the contract between Wawa Inc. and the 300 or so drivers who take products from the Wawa distribution warehouse to its 550 stores expires. Both sides agree there are still major issues on the table. "We are hopeful we can reach a settlement," said Steven Wall, Wawa's chief negotiator, "but there are very substantial issues that need to be discussed. " "We have authorization to call a strike," said Bob Ryder, secretary treasurer of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 463. Ryder said one of the main issues involves pensions.

You might say the 15-foot structure that stands shrouded at the entrance of the Malvern Shopping Center on King Street is, well, a sign of the changing times in the borough. It used to announce in fluorescent lights the presence of an IGA supermarket, the anchor store in the plaza. Now that store is gone after 20 years, replaced by a Wawa convenience store. The sign, like the new tenant, has become an issue of contention in the borough. Some residents opposed the new store, which opened in the fall, calling it a pricey replacement for a supermarket.

The 10-day strike of Wawa store truck drivers and warehouse workers ended last night in City Hall after several hours of "shuttle diplomacy" by U.S. Rep. Bob Brady and city Controller Jonathan Saidel. Union head Bob Ryder declared the agreement was "excellent for the members," saying he would "strongly recommend approval.' "We have a deal and Wawa is extremely pleased," said company negotiator Steven Wall. "We want to bring them [the striking workers] back as soon as possible.

The New Garden Township Board of Supervisors approved preliminary subdivision and land-development plans for a Wawa convenience store at Route 41 and Newark Road. The supervisors approved the plans at Monday's meeting, with the condition that developer Vaughn Carlton widen both sides of Newark Road by 14 feet each and provide acceleration and deceleration lanes. The supervisors also want Carlton to install a pork-chop-shaped island that would permit only right turns onto Newark Road.

A tentative contract agreement reached late last night averted a strike by Wawa drivers and maintenance workers but the threat is not over. The convenience-store chain issued a statement last night saying it had reached a contract agreement with Teamsters Locals 463 and 473. But Local 463 Secretary Treasurer and principal officer Bob Ryder said the negotiating committee rejected the deal because there is still one area of disagreement, overtime....

The prospect of a new Wawa store in the Malvern Shopping Center drew the ire of several residents Tuesday at the Borough Council meeting. Wawa is renovating the 5,300-square-foot space previously occupied by Scheidel's Malvern Market, a supermarket that closed in April, according to Richard DiPrimio, borough manager and council member. Local business people expressed concern that the new store would not provide the kind of service required by residents and that it would attract a clientele unlikely to shop at local stores.

A federal judge has ruled that a Delaware County developer planning to build an office complex named after the old village of Wawa must warn the public that he is not associated with the well-known dairy and chain of convenience stores. U.S. District Judge Louis H. Pollak ruled Monday that Commons at Wawa Inc. must carry an asterisk on its signs, stationery and other advertisements noting that the firm is not affiliated with Wawa Inc., whose dairy is in the nearby village of Wawa.

How many Wawas are enough Wawas? In Ridley Township, it seems, one about every six blocks. Last month, the convenience store chain got approval for another Wawa on MacDade Boulevard, making it impossible to go more than a mile in places without seeing the familiar flying goose. "With this one, there are six just on MacDade Boulevard alone," said Francis Pileggi, attorney for Wawa. What's more, adds Pileggi, "I think they'll open more. " The new Wawa, at Holmes Avenue and MacDade Boulevard, will take the place of a hot dog restaurant that went out of business.

State police in Delaware and Pennsylvania are looking for an apologetic thief who has robbed cashiers at four Wawa food stores at knife-point on consecutive nights. In each case, police said, a middle-aged white man with a mustache and beer belly entered the store and waited for customers to leave before brandishing a knife. Each time, the man apologized to the clerk after announcing: "I'm here to rob you. " Police said the man made off with less than $100 in each robbery.

It may be a tall order to fill, but Wawa Inc. hopes to achieve in the next 10 years what it has taken the company the last quarter-century to do. The Delaware County company whose structures have become part of the county landscape wants to more than double the number of its convenience stores by the end of the decade. Henry McHugh, vice president of operations, summed up the company's aim succinctly: "Our objective is to have 1,000 stores by the year 2000. " Increasing the number of stores from 465 to 1,000 in so short a time may seem highly ambitious, especially in a market that seems saturated with convenience-store chains.

Five-cups-a-day coffee-drinker Paul Friel, the former Sunoco and Wawa executive who has run the Broomall-based Swiss Farms chain of drive-up dairy and convenience stores for the last three years, just picked up a second job: He's also the new CEO of the Saxbys Coffee shop chain. Investor Robert E. Brown Jr.'s MVP Capital Partners, the Radnor firm that's owned Swiss Farms since 2003, paid previous owner Joseph Grasso less than $3 million in cash and debt payments for Philadelphia-based Saxbys, according to people familiar with the terms.

Early on the afternoon of April 1, Jim Duffy of Havertown unwittingly dropped a couple of rolls of bills while paying at the register of an Upper Darby Wawa. A woman snatched the $2,300 in cash from the floor and made a dash for the door, as seen on surveillance video. This morning, Stephanie Paparo, 28, a mother of three from Clifton Heights, was arraigned on misdemeanor charges of theft and receiving stolen property, according to Upper Darby Police Superintendant Michael Chitwood.

Wawa's next boss learned business at his dad's car wash, and drinks his coffee black. Cup a day. Maybe two. "This company isn't about the CEO. We have 18,000 associates, and this is really about them," the workers Wawa relies on to keep heavy users coming back at 600 stores, says Chris Gheysens, Wawa's past chief financial officer and current president, who is scheduled to take over as chief executive when Howard Stoeckel retires at year's end....

Imitating Homer Simpson's famous catchphrase, "D'oh!" was Tom Friel's initial reaction to the news that his Delaware County hometown was not the inspiration for the fictional setting of "The Simpsons. " Matt Groening, creator of the longest-running American sitcom, broke his silence after more than 20 years of fan guesses to reveal in an interview with Smithsonian magazine that the Springfield his characters inhabit is modeled after a Springfield in Oregon. Groening grew up just over 100 miles north in Portland, he told the magazine for a story being published in its May issue.

A Chester County mother's worst fear - that her estranged husband would kill her or one of her four children - was first articulated last summer, months before she was fatally stabbed Sunday night, her attorney said. Francis C. Miller said his client, Kimberly Hvizda, believed that James J. Hvizda, a former baseball star, was capable of murder, and she secured a restraining order against him in November, more than six months after she had filed for divorce. Kimberly Hvizda, 37, of Chester Springs, was starting her shift at the Wawa convenience store in Upper Uwchlan Township at 11 p.m. Sunday when James Hvizda arrived for a prearranged exchange of letters, the criminal complaint said.

Despite a protection-from-abuse order, a Chester County mother of four agreed to meet her estranged husband at her workplace Sunday night so she could give him two letters. But, authorities said today,the exchange was a setup for homicide. James J. Hvizda, 45, told police that he had been planning to kill his wife, Kimberly A. Hvizda, since around St. Patrick's Day and even kept a journal chronicling his murderous intentions, the criminal complaint said. Kimberly Hvizda, 37, of Chester Springs, was starting her shift at the Wawa convenience store in Upper Uwchlan Township at 11 p.m. when James Hvizda, met her outside.

A thoroughly mobilized Cherry Hill neighborhood was unable to prevail against a proposed mega-Wawa. A marathon township planning board meeting ended early Tuesday with unanimous final approval for a $6 million combination gas station and food store on Haddonfield Road, despite strong opposition from residents who live nearby. The new Wawa will rise on the site of a closed Toyota dealership on the west side of the roadway, just south of Yale Avenue. Homeowners on adjacent streets organized their neighbors, distributed petitions against the proposal, and engaged a consultant to assess the development's impact.

Emmanuel Dungworth must have thought himself blessed when, in 1715, he chose the bank of the Pennypack Creek for his grist mill and millwright's house in the village known as the Billet. There, along an Indian trail, were water to power the mill and patrons to buy the flour. Local lore has it that George Washington stopped by to purchase grain for his militia in 1777. For nearly three centuries, the sturdy stone and wood buildings at Horsham and York Roads in what is now Hatboro have stood as a tangible link to the past.

Neighbors of a proposed mega-Wawa in Cherry Hill say the store will be far from super - and far too close to their homes. "It's going to be ugly," says Mark Burckley, 50, whose house backs up on a strip of Haddonfield Road where Wawa intends to build a $6 million food market/gas station combination. A public hearing on the final plan is set to continue before the township Planning Board on March 5. The project does not require a zoning variance. Company officials say the store will feature 6,000 square feet of space, six two-sided gas pumps, and 50 parking spots.

A 34-year-old Philadelphia man was arrested Tuesday in connection with the armed robberies of three Wawa convenience stores in Delaware County this year, police said. Rezekiel Harris was apprehended by Philadelphia police and was being held in the Delaware County prison on armed robbery and related charges. Harris confessed to robbing a Wawa on Lansdowne Avenue in Lansdowne on Jan. 28; a patron at a Wawa in the 8500 block of Lansdowne Avenue in Upper Darby on Feb. 3; and a Wawa in the 200 block of Bryn Mawr Avenue in Radnor last Thursday, Radnor police said.