Image via Blaine Shahan, Lancaster Farming.

Amid all the news about Wawa and Sheetz, Rutter’s is launching its own expansion campaign.

Pennsylvania residents are fixated on the expansion of Wawa and Sheetz and are still arguing about which is better.

Meanwhile, Rutter’s, which has been largely ignored until now, is spreading rapidly in central Pennsylvania and elsewhere, writes Carol Hardbarger in a column for Agriculture in Lancaster.

Rutter’s expansion goes from 84 stores in three states to over 130 stores in five states within five years.

This includes movement east toward Philadelphia and west toward Pittsburgh.

Rutter’s long-term plans include expansion on the East Coast.

The company is headquartered in Pennsylvania and also has extremely loyal customers.

Hardbarger noted that there is already a Sheetz in her neighborhood and a Rutter’s less than half a mile away. Now Wawa is planning a store directly across the street from the Sheetz.

“This is quite possibly the only place in the Commonwealth where our three domestic convenience store chains are located so close to each other,” Hardbarger wrote.

She says it can’t be a coincidence that three small stores are located near the geographical center of the state.

“I’m suggesting that there is some kind of cosmic aura or other force emanating from this place that drew them here.”

Or it may simply be located at the nearby exit off I-99.

Read more about Rutter’s expansion and the history of these three family-owned Lancaster Farming businesses.