WAWA: RETAILING

INVENTED THROUGH
BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY
NIKHIL S - PGP/23/033
Pranav S Krishnan- PGP/23/405
Ashmil C Ibrahim- PGP/23/197
AKshay Kannoly- PGP/23/315
Vaishnav - PGP/23/245
 CASE SUMMARY

 Founded in 1803 as an iron foundry

 Pioneer in innovation – Doctor certified Milk in 1902
 Entered into food markets in 1964
 Traded down to convenience stores due to price and automated supermarket competition
 1996 – Entered into fuel businesses
 Currently operating in three businesses – convenience store, fuel and food
 Following the 2008 recession – companies started copying the tactics of WAWA, how to distance from the highly competitive
marketplace and create value for both company and customers ?
Blue Ocean Strategy – Pursuing differentiation and low costs ( Value innovation)
 Business Model

 Not a franchising model like 7 – Eleven

 Company owned and operated stores
 Hence competition between individual stores for profit is not needed
 Centralized owner enables development of the organization as a whole
 Sold own brands (store brands)
 Empowered employees who were members of the community – had ESOPs, increased sense of responsibility
 Clustering instead of optimal distancing – sub-optimal location of stores close to each other created image that WAWA is
everywhere, reduced logistical costs, increased ease of re-stocking, sharing best employees across as well as best practices.
 Customer orientation

 Improved core product - Installed high speed pumps

 Supplementary services – Free credit card transactions
 Complementary services – Free ATMs
 Customer orientation of employees

However more companies started following these routes, hence WAWA has to continuously pursue value innovation to distance
from competition
 BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY

Convenience store that sells gas Quick service restaurants that sell gas and
and food convenience products

 Redesigned stores – to reduce costs, it eliminated amenities that added little value. Its quick service restaurants did not have
tables or waiters. Stores were given a modern look
 Healthy and fresh food options
 Increased speed using Kiosks, without increasing costs
 Strategic partnerships to source ingredients or provide fresh food
a) Logistic partners like McLane, aligned with its clustering model
b) Taylor farms for fresh salads
c) Safeway group for fresh pre-made foods
 BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY

◦ Bread was prepared at the stores to keep quality and freshness high
◦ Centralized facilities for preparing food kept size of kitchens at individual stores small, reducing costs and improved
standardization
◦ Customer involvement through testimonies to improve brand image

As a result many competitors did not view them in their category, they saw WAWA as a niche player who is not eating
into their market share, whereas in reality customers saw WAWA as an alternative to many fast casual restaurants