ANDERSON COUNTY — Acolytes from hours away waited in the wee hours of the morning for the long-awaited opening of Buc-ee's in Florence along Interstate 95.
The May 16 opening marked the first location of the Texas-based mega convenience store and gas station in South Carolina.
It won't be the last. The Upstate is next. In 2025.
At least that's the plan, Buc-ee's general counsel Jeff Nadalo told The Post and Courier on May 17.
Customers browse the aisles at the newly opened Buc-ee's Travel Center in Florence on May 16, 2022. The store employs 275 people. Jessica Holdman/Staff
The megastore, with its signature "Bucky the Beaver" cartoon logo, has become a destination in and of itself for travelers along southern interstates. The second South Carolina outpost would be off Interstate 85 in Anderson County, but tens of millions of dollars in public money must be secured.
The chain bought about 30 acres at Exit 21 at I-85 and Liberty Highway, but the road infrastructure in its current condition can't support the level of traffic the store would create.
Buc-ee's travel centers — with their range of briskets and jerkies, kitschy t-shirts and knick-knacks, outdoor equipment and what it claims are the "world's cleanest bathrooms" — can exceed 50,000 square feet and feature more than 100 gas pumps.
The chain — with 43 stores across Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky and now South Carolina — markets itself as a destination and not a truck stop. Tractor-trailers aren't allowed.
"Before a store can be built, the bridge must be widened and other infrastructure improvements must be made to accommodate the travelers visiting the store," Nadalo said. "Anderson County is working to secure grant funds for infrastructure work. We are hopeful that they will succeed."
Buc-ee's gave Anderson County $1 million to pay for preliminary environmental and site plans, which County Administrator Rusty Burns said was passed along to the state Department of Transportation for development.
Before the improvements can start, the county must find a way to secure up to $55 million to supplement the additional, undisclosed amount of money Buc-ee's has pledged to the project, he said.
"What we're trying to do is round up the money," Burns said. "We're doing everything we can to make it a reality."
The bridge and the intersection has long been identified as in sore need of replacement before the store made its intentions known. The intersection is already home to the Sunbrella manufacturing company and a large residential subdivision, he said. There are also two other gas stations at the intersection.
The Buc-ee's brand began in 1982 in Texas, with the first store in the Houston area. The store later adopted the megastore model.
The Florence store is the only location on I-95 north of Buc-ee's locations in Daytona Beach and St. Augustine, Fla. Two Georgia stores sit on Interstate 75 north and south of Atlanta.
Two stores are under construction in Tennessee, with others planned in Colorado, Mississippi and Missouri.
