MIDDLETOWN — A second Wawa has opened on Broad Street in Middletown, located approximately 340 feet from the Wawa that has occupied the same street since 2019, raising questions about market saturation, corporate strategy, and what, exactly, is happening in Middletown.

The new location, which opened Thursday with a ribbon-cutting attended by the mayor and a modest crowd of curious residents, features the standard Wawa layout: touchscreen ordering kiosks, a full coffee bar, a hoagie counter, and a parking lot that will, within six months, develop its own informal traffic patterns that no signage will be able to correct.

"We're excited to serve the Middletown community," said a Wawa spokesperson, when asked why the company had opened a store within visual range of its own existing store.

The original Broad Street Wawa, reached for comment via its manager, declined to characterize the situation as competitive.

"We're all one Wawa family," said shift supervisor Mike Torrence, 29, in a tone that suggested he had been coached to say this.

When asked whether foot traffic had changed since the new location opened, Torrence said it was "too early to tell" and then looked at the parking lot for a long moment.

Reaction among Middletown residents has been mixed, in the sense that some people are fine with it and others have very strong feelings.

"I live closer to the new one," said resident Pam Driscoll, who was filling her coffee at the new location on opening day. "So this is good for me personally."

Her neighbor, Frank Osei, disagreed. "The old one knows my order," he said. "The new one doesn't know anything yet. It's going to take months."

A third resident, who asked not to be named, said she found the whole situation "philosophically troubling" but acknowledged she had already visited both locations that morning.

Middletown has grown rapidly over the past decade, adding thousands of new residents and the commercial infrastructure that follows them. It now has four Dunkin' locations, three Chick-fil-A restaurants, and, as of Thursday, two Wawas on the same street.

City planner Doug Hess said the new Wawa went through a standard permitting process and met all applicable zoning requirements.

"There's no rule against two Wawas," he said. "There probably should be a conversation about it, but there's no rule."

Asked whether he personally thought two Wawas on the same street was a good idea, Hess said he was not in a position to comment on that.

He was holding a Wawa coffee cup.

Both locations are expected to remain open. Wawa has not indicated any plans to close either store, and the company's track record suggests it does not close stores under any circumstances short of a natural disaster, and possibly not even then.

The original Broad Street Wawa will celebrate its seventh anniversary in 2026. It has not yet been informed of its feelings about this.