What's In Store: Love's Travel Stops, QuickChek & Street Corner

Love's Travel Stops

Love's Travel Stops opened up three new locations in Jacksonville, Fla., New Boston, Texas, and Lafayette, Ind., as well as a store in Piedmont, S.C.

The Jacksonville location adds 80 jobs and 93 truck parking spaces to the area, while the New Boston and Lafayette locations add 100 jobs and 86 truck parking spaces, and 95 jobs and 64 truck parking spaces, respectively.

The company also reopened a Gary, Ind., location, which had to be demolished and rebuilt after a fire there last year. The new building includes more square footage, parking spaces and updated amenities, including the third Naf Naf Middle Eastern Grill at a Love's location. 

"As we move into 2023, Love's continues to be focused on providing customers with the amenities and customer service they expect when they stop at one of our locations," said Shane Wharton, president of Love's. "Reopening the Gary location and adding new stores in Jacksonville, New Boston and Lafayette strengthens our commitment to providing additional safe, clean and well-maintained locations and getting customers back on the road quickly."

All four locations are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and offer bean-to-cup gourmet coffee, brand-name snacks, Love's Mobile to Go Zone and a dog park. 

Meanwhile, the Piedmont location measures 13,000 square feet and adds 90 jobs and 91 truck parking spaces to surrounding Anderson County. Like the other stores, it remains open 24/7 and includes amenities such as a Hardee's, showers and laundry facilities.

The company donated $2,000 to Woodmont High School in honor of the site's grand opening.

QuickChek Corp.

QuickChek opened the retailer's newest 24-hour convenience store in North Jersey at 92 Route 46 West in Ridgefield. 

More than half of the new store is dedicated to freshly prepared food and beverages, including QuickChek's fresh brewed hot and iced coffees, which, as part of its grand opening, will be free for QuickChek Rewards members every Friday through April 28.

The Ridgefield store has one canopy with eight gas pumps offering high-quality fuel at value prices and a second, separate canopy dedicated to high-flow diesel for tractor trailers, which will be able to fuel both side tanks at the same time and has a dedicated exit from the store onto the highway.

Amenities include no-fee ATMs, indoor seating for 10 people and outdoor seating for eight people, and 45 parking spaces.

Street Corner Urban Markets

Street Corner opened a new store in Alexandria, Va., in the downtown Eisenhower Building. This marks the third Virginia store for the Topeka, Kan.-based convenience chain, known for its "urban markets" in office and mixed-use developments in 19 states.

The site offers a wide variety of fresh and prepackaged food offerings, coffee, and other sundry and grocery items to apartment dwellers, area employees and visitors enjoying an evening out. 

The 2,074-square-foot store features a Rare Earth Coffee bar, with seating planned in the near future. Local apartment residents, area employees and visitors also can order fresh food via touchscreen, with menu items including sandwiches, wraps and naan-based pizza.

"We're looking forward to becoming a vital part of the neighborhood, getting to know residents and serving movie-goers and others looking for a good cup of coffee or a quick meal on the go," said owner Upender Nadipalli, an Alexandria resident.

The new Street Corner store is located at 2361 Eisenhower Ave., adjacent to Orangetheory Fitness and around the corner from the AMC-22 movie theater. 

Wawa Inc.

Wawa hit several milestones in the company's Southeast expansion plans, opening its 250th Florida store in St. Petersburg on March 9 and breaking ground at a new site near Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

Located at 5390 66th Street North, the St. Petersburg store celebrated its grand opening with free coffees through March 19. According to a report from WFLA News Channel 8, the opening ceremony included recognition of local first responders from the store's Hoagies for Heroes hoagie building competition. First responders from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, Lealman Fire District and St. Petersburg Police Department competed to see who could build the most hoagies in three minutes.

Afterward, Wawa presented checks for $2,500 to each department's charity of choice, as well as a check for $7,450 to Feeding Tampa Bay.

Meanwhile, FLA BPI LLC, a partnership led by longtime south Florida shopping center owner/developer Beth Azor, plans to open the Ft. Lauderdale area Wawa — located at the southeast corner of Pine Island Road and Broward Boulevard in Plantation —in approximately 12 months in early 2024.

FLA BPI acquired the 3-acre site in 2016 and tore down a 1970's-era, dilapidated office building to make way for the new development. The store will offer easy access to residents and workers at nearby employment centers, Azor said. 

In addition to its stores in the Sunshine State, Wawa will continue with company plans to push into central Pennsylvania, heating up its good-natured rivalry with fellow Keystone State convenience store Sheetz Inc. According to the PhillyVoice, Wawa has plans for a store in Happy Valley, Pa., located directly across the street from a rival Sheetz store in Benner Township.

The planned store would be Wawa's furthest Pennsylvania outpost from its established foothold in the Philadelphia area, with the c-store chain looking at several other locations in the region for future development, the report said.

In June 2022, Wawa announced plans to add 40 stores in central Pennsylvania, with an eye toward spots along the Susquehanna River. The Happy Valley location would be the first of those stores after the company asked for suggested locations from fans via an online survey.