Convenience store industry insiders, as well as many East Coast residents, are well familiar with the c-store chains from Pennsylvania, ever-competing for the title of the most beloved c-store: Wawa and Sheetz.

Both chains are growing, and recently they both eyeball the same direction – West.

Sheetz Inc. broke ground on its first-ever Detroit-metro location on March 14. Located at 33380 Wick Road in Romulus, it will be the first of 50 to 60 locations Sheetz plans to open in the Detroit area within the next five to six years. This will mark its first expansion into a new state in nearly 20 years. Sheetz opened its first c-store in North Carolina in 2004.

In the meantime, Wawa, Inc. recently announced that Wednesday, April 16, will be the grand opening of the “first Wawa store in the state of Ohio, launching the retailer’s expansion into the Midwest,” according to a press release. The site is located north of Cincinnati and is “the first of 8 to 10 Wawa stores slated to open in Ohio by year’s end”.

At Ticon, we are especially happy about the latter announcement, and proud to be a part of this important milestone for Wawa. After all, we contributed to this development by providing our site selection analysis for each of the sites that were considered and for those of them that were finally selected for the new stores.

Location intelligence is what we do extremely well at Ticon, and we invite all c-store operators, large and small, to explore our product offering for business location analysis, retail location analysis and site selection. Check us out, and call us to set up a meeting that may lead to the new stage in your approach to optimal site selection.