Wawa has morphed from being just a convenience store and staple of the rush-hour landscape to a full-service operation that is a take-out restaurant, coffee house, bakery, and gas station all wrapped into one, writes Suzette Parmley of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Delco-based chain with 725 stores and $9 billion in sales in 2015 announced that it is hiring 5,000 people by June 1. It is also opening a new Center City location with seating at 1900 Market Street by the end of the year.

“Center City has responded,” Wawa president and CEO Chris Gheysens told Parmley. “As a result, we are opening another location in the city.”

There are 38 Wawas within the city limits.

Wawa’s evolution from a general convenience store to a broader restaurant is marked by this statistic: Food and beverages now account for more than 50 percent of Wawa’s revenue, said Gheysens.

This figure does not include the candy bars at the cash register or peanut butter and bread loaves on its shelves, which are categorized as “grocery.” Food items are the “meals” prepared in the back kitchen that customers can customize using electronic touch screens.

“We’ve grown from a traditional convenience store to more of a hybrid convenience-restaurant to go,” Gheysens said. “It’s hard to even categorize us.

“We still sell a tremendous amount of traditional convenience products, such as cigarettes, cold beverages and snacks,” he said. “But a differential for our brand has been fresh food. In the last decade, we’ve been dedicated to quality and assortment, like you would find in a fast casual, or even a sit-down restaurant.”

Wawa, a Native American word for Canada geese, has been the chain’s mascot since it was launched in 1964. About 435 of the chain’s 725 stores are concentrated in the Philadelphia region, which includes the suburbs, the city, South Jersey, and Delaware. Most are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Employees own 44 percent of the company’s equity as an ESOP, or employee stock ownership plan. It now employs 26,000 people.

Click here to read more about Wawa’s growth.