[southernplayer99]

More reason why Andrea Mitchell is full of ****.

As of this very moment, there are 148,126 convenience stores that make America great. Of that number, guess what percentage have fancy, candidate-impressing sando-kiosks. Twenty-five percent? Thirty? Try about one percent, Andrea Mitchell.

That helpful stat comes from Jeff Lenard of the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS). Sando-kiosk-embracing chains, says Lenard, include Wawa (600 stores), Sheetz (416 stores), not to mention smaller ones such as Royal Farms (Md.), Tedeschi Food Shops (Mass.), Delta Sonic (upstate N.Y,) and Quick Chek Food Stores (N.J.). A massive 62 percent of convenience stores countrywide are mom and pop enterprises — known to the NACS as “one-store operators” — and they’re the “least likely” to have the kiosks, says Lenard.

Wawa kills it on sando-kiosks. This story in the Philadelphia Inquirer speaks of a pilot project by the company to test the implementation of the touch-screens. That was in 2001. In a random survey of a few Delaware Wawa stores, clerks noted that the technology has been in their midst for years. Lori Bruce, a spokeswoman for Wawa, passes along word that the touch screens underwent an enhancement this April, packing a “’Wow’ factor through the addition of appetizing food photography and graphics. It’s been a real attention grabber and a great enhancement and aid to the customer experience.”

Accordingly: Expressing any degree of enthusiasm or excitement about the wonders of Wawa’s sando-kiosks delivers no message whatsoever that you’re out of touch with America.