BizFeed: Delay in Wawa’s Request to Sell Beer

Plus: Company refuses to hire Ivy Leaguers; Target under fire for "Trophy" T-shirt.

Photo illustration | Alyse Moyer

Photo illustration | Alyse Moyer

1. Hearing for Wawa’s Beer Sales Pushed Back

The News: A decision on Wawa‘s request to sell beer at a Delaware County store will have to wait, as the conditional hearing on the matter has been pushed back until August 4. It was originally scheduled for Tuesday night.

“Just hours before a verdict was due Tuesday,” the Concord Township Board of Supervisors announced the delay, the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote.

Why It Matters: Wawa is attempting to muscle its way into a special designation to sell beer — much like Wegmans, Acme and Whole Foods have already done in the area. If Wawa is successful in its quest to sell six packs, it could set a precedent to change the scope of Pennsylvania’s archaic liquor laws. At least a little bit.

Lori Bruce, public relations manager at Wawa, told me back in June that the company is just seeking “a single store product expansion” of the beer permission for its Concordville, Pa. location on Naamans Creek Road. But, she said, it could be expanded “depending on our experience at this store and the licensing requirements in the communities” it serves.

Wawa already sells beer in at its locations in Maryland, Virginia and Florida.

2. Company Refuses to Hire Ivy Leaguers

The News: New York law firm owner Adam Leitman Bailey has an interesting recruiting rule: No hiring of Ivy Leaguers. That means he literally doesn’t take resumes from the likes of Harvard, Yale, Cornell or any other Ivy League school. In a Huffington Post op-ed, Bailey said that new employees from lower-tiered schools tend to be “more ambitious and more hungry to excel.” He even said that many Ivy League schools “either fail to rank their students or do not even grade them at all.”

Why It Matters: There’s some kind of weird anti-elitist thing going on here. It’s one thing to recruit hungry, middle-class students and admire their work ethic—but assuming that all Ivy Leaguers are stuck up brats who have been spoon-fed their entire college careers isn’t just inaccurate, it’s also biased. It’s not easy to get into an Ivy League law school and it’s no picnic trying to pass tough classes.

3. Target Under Fire for “Trophy” T-Shirt for Women

The News: Retail giant Target is under fire due to a T-shirt for women depicting the word “Trophy” (you know, meaning trophy wife.) So far, more than 10,000 people signed this Change.org petition to have Target pull the product from its shelves.

Why It Matters: Target is hardly the first retailer to use edgy clothes to get noticed. Urban Outfitters has been doing it for years, and even though they continue to get bad press, they continue to push the boundaries. Perhaps they think bad press is better than no press? Maybe Target is taking a page out of the Urban playbook.

People on Twitter didn’t seem to care so much:

https://twitter.com/lvernon22/status/623801968344068096