Wawa Public Relations files

The Wawa Public Relations files consists primarily of financial and operations records, advertising materials, Wawa product packaging, company newsletters, and press clippings. Although these files do not provide a detailed picture of Wawa's finances and internal operations, they allow for a fairly comprehensive view of the company's management philosophy, public relations efforts, internal communications to employees, advertising strategies, and the process of package design.

Financial and Operations documents series deals with the operations of the Wawa Food and Farm Markets (convenience stores). These items include yearly general ledgers and financial statements, lease invoices, lists of assets, monthly statements of operations (often by store), freight invoices, payroll records, merchandise reports, and various other operations reports. Most of the records are in their original bound format, although many have been placed in folders and labeled with original titles. For boxes 3 to 5, "Statement of Operations," "Financial Work Papers," "Store Profit & Loss," "Supplemental Information to Financial Statements," and "Financial Statements" refer to the same types of records. The series is arranged chronologically within each record type (i.e., financial statements and merchandise reports).

Packaging series contains examples of Wawa product packaging, proofs and renderings of packaging artwork, and documents that trace the process of packaging design. In the mid 1990s, Wawa redesigned much of the packaging for their dairy and juice products (such as milk, ice cream, and flavored teas). A majority of items deal with these design changes, particularly the artwork for drink and ice cream cartons. These items also illustrate Wawa's interaction with various marketing, container, and supply companies that helped with the packaging redesign. Examples of these companies are Richard P. Ritter, Inc. (advertising and marketing firm), Turkey Hill Dairy, Sweetheart Cup Company, and container companies like Potlatch, Champion International, Westvaco, and Tetra Pak. The Packaging Series is divided into two Subseries: Containers and Design. The Containers Subseries includes examples of containers and artwork, and artwork proofs and renderings. The Design Subseries contains proofs, and containers that were part of the design process.

The Advertising and promotion Series includes Wawa advertising materials and items dealing with the process of developing advertisements and promotions. Materials in this series document much of Wawa's advertising and promotions efforts throughout the 1990's. Examples of the items found in this series include FSI's (Free Standing Inserts; double sided 8 1/2 × 11 sheets typically inserted in newspapers and bulk mailings); POS items (Point of Sale; advertisements positioned literally at the point of sale, usually by cash registers, on walls and windows, or hung from ceilings); manager's packets issued in conjunction with advertising or promotional campaigns; advertising proofs; and internal corporate documents concerning advertising and promotions.

The Miscellaneous documents series is a conglomeration of materials about Wawa, company management, company activities, and Wawa CEO Richard D. 'Dick' Wood, Jr. A majority of these items were generated by Wawa management. Examples include company history fliers, internal communications and manuals, documents from litigation against Wawa, and various other materials about Wawa stores and personnel. Although these materials are not management documents per se, they help supplement an understanding of Wawa's system of management and give insight into Wawa stores founder Grahame Wood and his successor, Dick Wood.

The Press clippings series consists of articles from magazines and newspapers about Wawa. A majority of the pieces come from periodicals in areas where there are or were Wawa stores (Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia). These writings cover a variety of topics, including store associates, philanthropic activities, store promotions, development, and opinion/editorial pieces about Wawa and American convenience stores. Some of the articles come from trade journals and deal with various aspects of Wawa's operations such as marketing, selling gasoline, management philosophy, and merchandising. Includes articles on "Hot, Hot, Hot" advertising campaign and the creation of "Hoagie Day".

The Company newsletters series consists of newsletters Wawa published for its employees between 1980 and 2007. The newsletters cover such topics as employee benefits, physical expansion, new products, employee incentive plans, new technologies used in stores and throughout the company's various divisions, Wawa's charity and philanthropic activities, and incidental information about the company's executives, especially Richard D. 'Dick' Wood, Jr. Wawa's newsletters underwent several alterations, each with a new title and revised format. The titles included in this collection are: The Honker, Nobody Does it Better, Wawa Vision, My Wawa, and UNO. Newsletters in the first folder, Box 25, Your Health & Fitness, Safety Edition were distributed to employees but not published by Wawa. The item in the second folder, Box 25, is an internally generated newsletter, but not part of the larger serial series contained in this collection. Arranged chronologically and by title; newer titles supersede older ones. In many cases the newsletter edition numbers are not accurate, making it necessary to go by title and date for identification.

The Textiles and objects series includes hats, aprons, tee shirts, and buttons generated by Wawa. A majority of the objects concern Wawa's annual "Hoagie Day" promotions held in and around Philadelphia.