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That's good; I generally avoid Whole Foods on general principal anyway. And where does Wawa rank?

Wawa is pretty decent. I think their coffee could use some improvement, tho. QT has awesome coffee. My dad even buys his coffee grounds prepackaged at QT like its some gourmet roaster or something. Its good coffee. One thing I sort of wondered about Wawa was that the only Wawas in West Philly were on the Penn campus, although there are many convenience stores in that part of the city. I wonder if its a manifestation of racism on the part of Wawa, refusing to serve the predominantly African-American area.

I did discover (on a road trip with Messrs Slepner, Haupt, and Samuels three years ago) that there are in fact Wawas south of the Mason-Dixon Line; America's Southern-most Wawa, we discovered, is in Fredericksburg, VA.

Wawa is indeed the greatest convenience store known to man. And there is anecdotal evidence of Wawa as far south as Orlando!

But for my part, I think most bodegas are better than Wawa any day of the week. And as for Philly in particular, the Foodery is my favorite convenience store, mostly because of its wide selection of beers and the beer database.

One thing bodegas have over convenience stores (on the East Coast, at least) is if you patronize a bodega regularly, you get to know the proprietors and strike up conversations. Maybe I look like a rube when I strike up conversation with strangers on the West Coast, but you can certainly chat up any and all QT workers, if they're not too busy. iZac, have you been to Sam's Place at 45th and Pine? Its not a bodega, per se, but a corner store run by anarchists that serves coffee and sandwiches and has seating outside. Its kinda like Norman's Midway Market done West Philly anarchist style, for you Normanites. Its stocked with health food and sells cigarettes, but it doesn't sell beer, due to PA's wacky blue laws, I'm sure.
Did you know you can buy real wine at gas stations in Texas? In PA, you have to buy it from government-controlled liquor stores that are over-priced and have bad selection.