A brand new Wawa location just opened its doors today in my parent's town of residence: Winter Garden, Florida (wonderful little town should you ever find yourself in the area). Now I was raised outside of Philadelphia, only about 30 minutes from the first Wawa store. In my area of South Jersey, Wawas pop up faster than McDonald locations, so I am no stranger to the wondrous treasure that is Wawa. I began thinking about all the reasons I love Wawa and I thought I'd share a few of them with you today.

1. Free coffee for the first 10 days a Wawa store is open.

It's no Starbucks, but when you're a broke college student, free coffee is free coffee.

2. They have better food than most other gas stations.

Okay so the question is why am I looking for quality anything at a gas station, and I honestly couldn't tell you.

3. Coke-Cola Freestyle Machines.

Where else am I going to get a 79 cent any size cherry-vanilla coke?

4. It's so clean!

Need I say more?

Now all of these reasons seem good enough to convince me to go out of my way to go to Wawa. But are they really?

RaceTrac is another gas station/convenience store in the area with equally good coffee and food, Freestyle Machines, and equally clean bathrooms. If you hold all other variables constant, the only reason I should go to Wawa over RaceTrac is if it's closer. But I can tell you now, I'll still go out of my way to Wawa, even if I just proved I don't really have a good reason to.

Why is that? Why are we so loyal to brands and names?

Is it convenience? I always buy CoverGirl foundation because I know exactly which bottle I need so I'm in and out of the store. I always buy American Eagle jeans because I know my size and what styles I like so it's easy to shop for. But if Revlon and Lucky Brand had sales, I know I could be persuaded to change my mind.

Is it quality? It could be. But in order to know that, I would have to visit every gas station, test every brand of foundation, try on jeans from every store. But I haven't. I haven't been to RaceTrac unless I'm desperate for gas, I haven't used any other brand of foundation, or bought jeans from anywhere else since I was old enough to shop for my own clothes. So it isn't quality.

It's an emotional attachment to a set of data that causes us to be loyal to brands. The color, consistency, and convenience of CoverGirl foundation are all data factors, but there could be better ones out there. But I wouldn't know because I developed an emotional attachment to this particular foundation, and I will probably use it for the next fifty years. The same could be said about my American Eagle jeans (though I can guarantee I won't be wearing these for the next fifty years). Wawa's good food and clean stores are data that make it pretty awesome, but my emotional attachment to that little white goose is the reason I will always go out of my way for their coffee and subs.