Phillip Stafford is a Wawa fan, but when he needs to charge his Tesla, he’s going to Sheetz, where his EV charging is faster.
Convenience store chains like Wawa, Sheetz, and Love’s Travel Stops think differently when luring EV users. The draw is no longer who has the cheapest fuel, but who has the fastest, best recharging wait experience, writes Benton Graham for Grist, as reported by WQOW.com.
Convenience stores are investing in EV chargers. Wawa and Sheetz are leading the way with hundreds of chargers at 10 percent of their locations.
“The problem with a lot of current gas stations is [they’re] not that nice of a place to spend 15, 20, or 30 minutes,” said Scott Hardman of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis. “Hopefully in the future, we’ll see more of them turn into coffee shops, cafes — places you actually want to be.”
Ryan McKinnon of the Charge Ahead Partnership sees fuel retailers as a good place to build an EV charging network because they are already in the right locations, with amenities.
Read more about the changing retail landscape surrounding EV chargers and the customers that use them at WQOW.com.
Editor’s Note: This post was initially published on DELCO.Today in January 2026.
