Yet Another Wawa Is Closing in Center City; Only Five Remain

Wawa will close yet another location in Center City Philadelphia later this summer.

The Headhouse Square Wawa will close in exactly a month. Company officials told media including 94.5 PST and The Philadelphia Business Journal on Friday that the store will shut its doors forever on July 16.

The store is located at Second and Lombard.

The news comes after locals complained to Wawa about aggressive panhandling, crime, and drug use happening outside of the store, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Plus, the Inquirer has in-depth reporting on how local neighbors were working with the corporation to increase safety in the area. Click here to read that insight. 

The closure of this Wawa store marks the sixth store in Center City Philadelphia that will be closed since 2020 as the company grapples with security and safety concerns for customers and employees of the stores in their home city.

“While closing a store is always a difficult decision to make, Wawa constantly conducts careful and extensive evaluations of business performance and operational challenges of all stores on an ongoing basis,” the company's spokesperson Wawa Lori Bruce told the media on Friday.

Wawa Closes Several Center City Stores

In late 2022 the company closed its stores at 12th and Market and 19th and Market for safety and security concerns.

At the time of those closures in October 2022, the company also cited safety concerns.

"Despite reducing hours and investing in additional operational measures, continued safety and security challenges, and business factors have made it increasingly difficult to remain open in these two locations," the company said in a statement issued to the media last year.

Those closures came after several others for similar reasons.

Wawa closed a store at 13th and Chestnut last December, and back in 2020, they even closed their flagship store located at the interaction of Broad and Walnut.

“We continue to invest in our home market of Philadelphia," Bruce said on Friday.

Following the closure of the store at 2nd and Lombard, just five Wawa stores will remain in Center City Philadelphia.