At Your Convenience

Chumbawumba's "Tubthumping" blares from the television overhead. But the song's normal lyrics — "He takes a whiskey drink, he takes a vodka drink, he takes a lager drink, he takes a cider drink" — are noticeably different.

Clean-cut Wawa employees with perfectly tuned voices perform carefully choreographed dance moves as a short, balding manager cabbage-patches in his office.

"He takes a fresh kiwi, she takes a large coffee, he takes a ham shorti, she takes a hot sizzli," they sing in a disturbingly cheerful tone.

This instructional video for Wa trainees serves a crucial role in Wa employee training, teaching them Rule No. 1: "If there's three or more, go to the core."

This simple mnemonic aid is Wa code for "When there's three or more people in line, go to the registers."

Natasha, a prospective Wa employee, laughs uncontrollably while three other trainees pretend to watch, occasionally whispering to each other in Spanish.

For any prospective employee of the Princeton Wa, an odyssey behind the counter starts here — at orientation in the Quaker Bridge Wawa.

In the windows of the store, signs beckon potential applicants to "Discover your true potential" and remind them that "You can't choose your gene pool, but you can choose your destiny."

As trainees arrive, Tracy, who leads the orientation, directs them through the back of the store into a cramped office.

With brown hair down to her shoulders, a cream-colored sweater and faded blue jeans, Tracy flips through the employee manual and makes frequent Wa-specific jokes about her tenure at the popular convenience store.

During the three-hour training session, she explains the benefits of becoming "part of the Wawa family" and the new employees watch videos on topics ranging from worker safety to sexual harassment.

The first video outlines the history of the company, which Grahame Wood founded in 1964 and named after the Pennsylvania community where his family owned a dairy farm. "Wawa" is a Native American word for the Canadian flying geese that populated his Delaware County town.

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As the video continues, "Captain Safety" explains the four types of accidents, and the video employees perform another song called "Check that ID," which explains state tobacco laws.

Later, Tracy spells out the Wawa dress code, which restricts employees from wearing "a green mohawk" or displaying tattoos while working.

The code also has stringent restrictions on beards — employees cannot have beards unless a "medical reason or religious custom requires it." For those employees who have to keep their beards, Wawa provides a "beard net."

Next, Tracy explains that a new employee holds the position of customer service associate — the "first goose" in the larger Wa hierarchy.

The Wa veteran then boasts of food service battle wounds caused by hot coffee and the deli slicer, cautioning employees to be careful when handling hot liquids and sharp objects.

And then, the orientation is over — and the odyssey is under way.

Weekend midnight-shift employees at the Princeton Wawa start work in the midst of the pre-'Street' rush. Students fill the store, buying cigarettes and Gatorade as they prepare for a long night ahead.

They return only a few hours later, seeking a different sort of nourishment — hoagies and Bolis. But the Wa staff has gotten used to it. "You should see it on Thursdays," night shift manager Tyrone warns rookie Wa workers.

Night fades to early morning, as post-'Street' partyers stumble out of the store and the wave of morning commuters crashes in for newspapers and coffee.

A picture of a police officer clobbering a hot-pink-haired protester with his billy club at last week's World Bank and IMF demonstration screams from The New York Times front page as coffee steams from cardboard cups.

The doors swing as customers rush in and out in a matter of seconds. Amid the organized chaos of the morning Wa rush, customers grab their papers, fill their mugs, slap their change on the counter and hurry out to start their days.

And as those customers start their days, the night-shift Wa employees finish theirs. Most will not return for another 16 hours.

One weary employee trades her apron for her coat, grabs her backpack and sweeps through the door to face the newly risen sun.