Murfreesboro is getting its second Wawa, and the convenience store chain is throwing a party to prove it. The new location at 1593 New Salem Highway will celebrate its grand opening on Nov. 20 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony starting at 8:30 a.m., complete with free coffee, a mascot appearance, and a hoagie-building face-off between local first responders.
Freebies, A Mascot, And A Hoagie Showdown
According to Rutherford Source, the first 250 customers through the door will walk away with limited-edition Wawa T-shirts while supplies last, and anyone who stops by between Nov. 20 and Nov. 22 can grab free hot coffee of any size. The celebration will also include Wawa's Hoagies for Heroes competition, pitting local police and fire department teams against each other in a hoagie-building challenge, with Wawa donating $1,000 to each participating department's charity of choice.
Festivities won't stop at sandwiches. The outlet reports the event will feature Wawa's Parade of the Ages, a nod to milestones from the company's 200-year history, along with an appearance by the brand's mascot, Wally Goose. The new store marks Wawa's seventh location in Tennessee and its second in Murfreesboro, per the same report.
A Second Murfreesboro Store Follows A September Debut
Murfreesboro's first Wawa opened in September at 5208 Veterans Parkway, where the chain held an invite-only Taste of Wawa preview ahead of its official debut, according to FOX 17. That station also reported Wawa launched a Lending a Helping Hoagie campaign to support Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee as part of its local rollout. A company alert tied to that September opening described the Veterans Parkway store as Wawa's fourth in the state, offering the same mix of a ribbon-cutting, a 250-customer T-shirt giveaway, and free hot coffee that ran from Sept. 10 through Sept. 13, according to a company release from Wawa.
Jobs And Store-Count Figures Have Shifted Over Time
Wawa's broader Tennessee ambitions have grown in the telling. A 2025 company release said the chain planned six new Tennessee stores in 2026 and up to 50 over the following decade, while the company's September 2026 alert instead said Wawa planned to build more than 50 stores in the state over ten years and open up to seven stores in Tennessee in 2026 alone.
Job projections tied to the expansion have varied similarly across company materials. The 2025 release said the expansion was expected to create more than 1,750 long-term jobs, the September 2026 alert put the figure at 1,750 long-term jobs, and Progressive Grocer reported the figure as 1,800 long-term jobs. That outlet also reported each Tennessee store is expected to employ an average of 35 associates once open.
More Openings On The Horizon In Middle Tennessee
The Murfreesboro celebration lands in a busy stretch for the region's retail scene. Progressive Grocer reported Wawa's first Nashville store, at 8033 Highway 100, is scheduled to open Nov. 19, just a day before the New Salem Highway ribbon-cutting. The same outlet reported Buc-ee's is slated to open a Murfreesboro-area location at 3355 Elam Road on Nov. 16, adding yet another new name to the area's fast-expanding retail corridor.
