Ideally, you'd want to register Widgets.com, and 301 redirect Florida-Widgets.com to Widgets.com/Florida/. Then you could setup other state sub-directories (Widgets.com/Texas/ & Widgets.com/Alabama/) as you expand. That way you:

• Get the multi-state operation credibility.
• Give your new sites (now site sections) the benefit of being on a domain that's (presumably) already ranked well in Google, helping them rank better.
• Links you receive in the future to your new site sections will add to your base domain's authority, so people linking to Widgets.com/Alabama/ indirectly help you rank well for terms relevant to Widgets.com/Texas/

As far as content for the pages goes, webface's answer is on the money. Customizing the state-specific pages with unique content is key. See this excerpt from Google's article on duplicate content:

• Minimize similar content: If you have many pages that are similar, consider expanding each page or consolidating the pages into one. For instance, if you have a travel site with separate pages for two cities, but the same information on both pages, you could either merge the pages into one page about both cities or you could expand each page to contain unique content about each city.

Hope that helps!