Introduced this summer as part of the chain’s latest menu expansion, the pizza at Wawa inspires just one question: Why?

The obvious answer is that Wawa is on a mission to stretch the boundaries of what a convenience store can be. Last year, the Pennsylvania-based chain introduced Angus beef hamburgers (and fries) to its dinner menu in hopes of attracting customers beyond the midday hoagie and late-night munchies crowd.

Pizza was the next logical addition: Its popularity is undeniable, and it can be prepared, when using premade crusts and commercial-grade toppings, with a bare minimum of training.

I’ve sampled pizza from a handful of regional Wawa locations, including one in downtown D.C., another in the Tenleytown neighborhood and a third on Riggs Road in Hyattsville, Md. You can’t order the flatbreads until 4 p.m., and from what I’ve witnessed and experienced, the transition period can be trying for staff.

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Whenever you punch up a pie on the touch-screen kiosk, a display screen at the pizza station starts beeping, alerting staff at other prep counters to jump on the order.

The beep isn’t always heeded. The first time I ordered a pair of pies at the downtown Wawa, the woman apparently in charge of pizza didn’t hear it, her attention focused on other matters. When she did finally notice it, she asked who was waiting for pizza. I raised my hand, and she apologized for the delay with such sincerity that I wanted to hug her in return.

Another time at the same location, a different worker heard the beep and audibly sighed. “It’s so counterproductive,” he complained.

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I wasn’t sure what he meant, but my takeaway was this: Pizza seems to put a burden on an already busy team. It can take up to 20 to 30 minutes to get a pie into your hands. This is convenience-store pizza without the convenience — for customers and staff.

You best order ahead for pies unless you enjoy testing your willpower against the deep and wide Tastykake stand.

The pizzas are cooked in a TurboChef oven relying on high-velocity impinged air technology, which dramatically cuts down the cook time. From my observations, the pies bake in about five minutes, turning out rounds with crispy, nicely browned crusts.

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The ovens appear to be brutally efficient and consistent. If there are any inconsistencies among the pies, it’s usually due to human error, which is not to say the staff is responsible for the generally inferior pizza at Wawa. But they have the ability to make a crummy pizza even crummier.

The first pair of pies I sampled were perfect examples of human intrusion: I watched as an employee ladled on the red sauce and applied the cheese and toppings. Hers was a parsimonious approach, leaving a good inch or inch and a half of outer crust untouched by any ingredient. The problem with this method is that it exposes the sheer mediocrity of the crust, a frozen round that bakes into a dry, cardboardy base bereft of the joys of well-developed dough.

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Aside from toppings, you have other choices with your pizza: You can select between a 14- or 16-inch pie, and, if you desire, you can choose a garlic-seasoned crust. I would avoid the latter — unless you enjoy mainlining garlic powder. I mean, it’s like someone spilled the entire contents of a garlic powder shaker into the dough.

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Those first pies, it turned out, were aberrations. The pie-makers at other locations loaded on the shredded mozzarella and toppings, right to the very edges of the pie. The bonanza of toppings helps smother the crust, which is a genuine act of kindness, while providing the one thing that makes most non-Neapolitan pies so appealing: CHEESE! AND MORE OF IT!

Which brings me back to my original question: Why has Wawa entered the pizza game when the chain brings so little to the table? At best, Wawa pizza is a cheese-delivery system and perhaps at 2 a.m. (or on some lonely highway in the middle of nowhere), when you have no better options, that alone will suffice.

But when it comes to pizza, I desire something with a personality, any personality, not this generic doormat with cheese. Most chain delivery pizzas, I’d venture, have more personality than these wan Wawa pies.

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