After 45 Years, A Sad Closing for Somers Point Wawa

Gotta have a Wawa?  Hope it's not the Somers Point Wawa on New Road and Rhode Island Avenue?  That Wawa location closed its doors forever this week after being a landmark on New Road for more than 45 years.

Don't worry, the Wawa Company isn't going out of business, just this location.  You see, we live in 2014, the age of the Super Wawa, and the old New Road Wawa was deemed not-so-super.  The store didn't have a salad or coffee bar inside or gas pumps outside; nor did it have the room for these and other renovations, so Wawa decided to close the location.

Wawa has offered jobs at other store locations to its employees, and you can still get your Wawa fix at the two other Wawa stores in Somers Point, so I guess this store's closing is just progress in the making, but still it makes me a little sad.

This particular Wawa store was one of my favorite Wawa's.  It didn't really matter to me that it wasn't a super Wawa; it was just a good place to get a quick sandwich or a gallon of milk.

Living on Downbeach, the store was always a good, convenient location with quick access.  If you were driving through Somers Point, you could pop in, grab a quick snack, and be back on your way down the Longport Boulevard in a snap!

After the derecho storm in the summer on 2012, when much of Absecon Island had lost power in the 95° heat, this old Somers Point Wawa still had power and was a life-line for many people.  I still remember folks lined up out the door waiting for bags of ice and something cool to drink in the days after the storm.

And if you ever spent some time at one of the Somers Point bars on New Road,  then you really had-da have this Wawa afterwards!

But time marches on, and so does Wawa, so that's the end for the old-style Wawa store on New Road in Somers Point. Soon, if other closed Wawa stores are any indication, the building will be occupied by a bail bondsman or a place to hock your jewelry, but it will still look like an old Wawa. That's a strange South Jersey phenomenon, isn't it?

Thanks for the memories, Wawa...and for all the Italian shorties with the chips and the sodas.