Wawa Dethroned — America Has A New Favorite Convenience Store

The battle for America's favorite convenience store wages on, and a new champion has been declared. According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, East-coast favorite Wawa has been overthrown by none other than the Midwest's beloved Kwik Trip, known for its friendly customer service and freshly-baked goods. I've been to both, and as biased as I might be as a Midwesterner, I'm not entirely shocked by this since Kwik Trip does exude a Midwestern friendliness to it that you don't get at other convenience stores.

This is particularly interesting, however, in that the two chains are fairly different upon first glance. Wawa offers an entire menu of made-to-order sandwiches, salads, pizza, and its famous Thanksgiving sub. Kwik Trip, on the other hand, serves more heat-lamp held food including rotisserie chicken (which is much better than you'd think), so you might consider Kwik Trip as having more of a self-service model. But it appears as if the human touch goes a long way when it comes to overall consumer sentiment, and that emphasis on positive interaction is what launched Kwik Trip into first place.

Wawa and Kwik Trip's general footprints don't often overlap. Kwik Trip is mainly focused around Wisconsin and its immediate surrounding states while Wawa is clustered up and down the East coast. But things have slowly been changing as Wawa has quietly been making its way west, having opened stores all the way in Indiana. You know the sparks are really going to fly when you can choose between a Wawa and a Kwik Trip during your next gas run because loyalists will have a field day defending their favorites.

As for now, however, Kwik Trip is in the lead in the number one spot in terms of customer satisfaction. Other metrics the report took into consideration include things like mobile app usage, food quality, and loyalty programs, which may have tilted the scales in Kwik Trip's favor a bit. Either way, as unthinkable as it might have been, Wawa is no longer the leader of the pack. A new convenience store sheriff has stepped into town.