Wawa, a popular convenience store chain based out of Pennsylvania, is set to open approximately 80 stores in North Carolina’s eastern region over the next decade.
Exact grand opening dates for all stores have not been cemented, but the following locations will see Wawa stores open in 2024:
- North Croatan Highway and West Fourth Street, Kill Devil Hills;
- Halstead Boulevard and Route 17, Elizabeth City;
- Raleigh Road Parkway and Hayes Place, Wilson;
- Ward Road and Nash Street, Wilson;
- Benvenue Road and Jeffreys Road, Rocky Mount;
- Wayne Memorial Drive and Hospital Road, Goldsboro;
- U.S. Highway 70 and N.C. Highway 581, Goldsboro; and
- Stantonsburg Road and Moye Boulevard, Greenville.
Wawa plans to invest approximately $7 million and employ, on average, 140 contractors and local partners for each store, according to a release. Each store will also employ about 35 associates.
Wawa’s plans to expand in this part of the state come as communities like Wilson are working to transform their economies, which in the past were largely based on tobacco production.
Goldsboro’s downtown development office earlier this year showed plans for creating a downtown social district, according to reporting by WRAL’s Keenan Willard.
And in Wilson, stores such as Burrito Shak and HotWorx are being added to the area’s retail options, according to the Triangle Business Journal. Wilson’s Raleigh Road Parkway has seen interest – in May, TWAS Properties LLC, linked to the Tidal Wave Auto Spa chain, bought a property on the street, and earlier this year a Hilton-brand hotel recently opened a hotel just off the road, too, according to the Business Journal.
Still, population growth in the eastern part of the state has been lagging. Wilson city lost about 0.5 percent of its population between April 2020 and July 2022, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, and Goldsboro lost about 1.3 percent of its population in the same time span.