The day may come when the opening of a new Wawa store in south Alabama seems routine, but Thursday was not that day: Mobile got its first brand-new store and Baldwin County got its second.

Scores of people gathered at the intersection of Cottage Hill Road and Sollie Road in west Mobile for an 8 a.m. opening. By the time the Excelsior Band played its final fanfare, many of them were waiting in line, enjoying the music and, in some cases, dancing with Wally Goose, the chain’s mascot. When the doors open they flooded in, ready to grab some coffee or maybe one of those famed made-to-order hoagies.

“It’s incredible, the amount of people and the devotion,” said Ala. Rep. Margie Wilcox, whose District 104 includes the store. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson likewise called it “amazing.”

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The East Coast gas-and-convenience-store chain, which has legions of die-hard fans, is in the process of an aggressive expansion across the central Gulf Coast. Its first Alabama store opened in Fairhope in April.

The 8:30 a.m. ribbon-cutting at 7095 Cottage Hill Road in west Mobile was to be followed by one a few hours later at 21022 Ala. 59 in Robertsdale. At the Mobile opening, Director of Store Operations Joe Collins gave an update on the next few openings.

Before year’s end, he said, Mobile’s second Wawa will open at 664 Schillinger Road. Early in 2025 Fairhope will get its second, at the intersection of Ala. 181 and Ala 104. Collins said he expected two more stores to open in “the middle of 2025:” one at 7780 Lamplighter Drive in Semmes and another at U.S. 98 and Johnson Road in Daphne.

“We’re excited about our new plans in Alabama, and you should know we’re just getting started,” Collins said. “We’re going to open 40 stores in the Florida Panhandle and south Alabama markets, at least, before all is done.”

As part of Thursday’s festivities, the Wawa Foundation presented a $10,000 grant to Feeding the Gulf Coast. Store officials also held a “Hoagies for Heroes” sandwich-making competition between the Mobile Fire Rescue Department and the Mobile Police Department. The police team managed to put together a few more sandwiches in the allotted time. Each squad received a $1,000 contribution, with the MPD’s gift going to the Mobile Law Enforcement Foundation and the MFRD’s to the Dumas Wesley Community Center.

At the newly opened stores, self-serve coffee is free for the first 10 days.

Wawa is a food market/gas station chain that started with a dairy market in 1964 in the Pennsylvania town of Wawa. It’s a privately held company with more than 1,000 stores, mostly in East Coast states, including many in Florida’s main peninsula. The company announced in 2022 that it planned a rapid expansion into the Florida Panhandle and Lower Alabama.