Lexington, SC (Paul Kirby) – At the request of a number of followers, the staff of The Lexington Ledger reached out Friday to the Town of Lexington’s Mayor Steve MacDougall for an official answer on exactly what was under construction at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Mineral Springs Road in Lexington. We had received a number of inquiries and had heard a number of guesses and authoritative, “Well a friend told me that,” type statements from people who seem to know, or think they know, just about everything. Our attitude is, “When in doubt, hear it from the horse’s mouth,” so we took the novel approach of asking someone who should really know, Mayor MacDougall.
On Friday Mayor MacDougall quickly answered our email and the horse, excuse us, the mayor said…. the ones of you who had guessed gas station or convenience store were right! His honor said it was going to be a new 7-Eleven convenience store with a detached car wash. While the ones of you who were right and have dislocated your own shoulder patting yourself on the back can stop here to seek medical help, the rest of you more humble folks can read on.
As you may know, 7-Eleven has been on a huge building spree in the Midlands over the last few years after an absence from this market for a bit. In December of 2018, they made a return in a big way! Ireland based Applegreen, Inc. bought a very successful and established Lexington based c-store chain, Bob Brandi’s Pitt Stops, for a cool $70.1 million dollars. For that kind of money, you get 34 established Pitt Stops, the restaurants inside them if that was the case, and eight stand alone Burger Kings too.
Bob worked for everything he had. He started the Pitt Stop chain with a Texaco in the Ballentine area of Richland County in 1974. Through decades of hard work and great leadership, Bob built his empire in the period where the 24-hour convenience stores were just toddling along. Not much before Bob’s venture began, any convenience store’s hours were exactly what the 7-Eleven was named for. They opened at 7:00 a.m. and closed at 11:00 p.m. If you needed anything any other time of the day or night in The Midlands, you drove somewhere like the old Taylor Street Pharmacy that was across from the Township Auditorium in Columbia.
When the market began to demand something that was opened 24-hours a day, not long before Bob Brandi was getting his start, stores like The Village Pantry (1966) and The Pantry (1967) were pioneering the “We never close” concept and becoming very popular. Of course, none were on the cutting edge any more than 7-Eleven. That brand opened its first 24-hour store in 1963. Through the sale of franchises, the 7-Eleven brand grew very quickly.
7-Eleven was the brand that made Icees and their iconic Polar Bear a world-famous name starting in the late 1960s. Many of us cut out our Icee points from the cup’s side as children and later proudly wore the Icee Bear t-shirt we got by redeeming the points not having any idea we were being used as a part of a great advertising campaign by a large corporation. The Icee brand later changed to Slurpee, a frozen drink that has been enjoyed by children and adults across America for decades. Of course, their new stores feature these wonderful, sweet treats along with everything else you'd expect in a modern convenience store.
7-Eleven, Inc. re-entered the Lexington County, SC market in 2018 after being MIA for a few years. That first store was the one that open on Thursday, December 6 at 2374 Augusta Highway across the intersection from Lexington School District One’s Technology Center. Of course, that store wasn’t built from the ground up. It was one of Bob’s Pitt Stops that had been remodeled and rebranded into what is now a very modern day 7-Eleven.
As stated earlier, the Midlands 7-Eleven’s are owned by that Applegreen, a Ballyfermot, West Dublin Ireland company. Currently, they have over 472 service stations/convenience stores employing over 10,700 people across the Republic of Ireland, the UK, and America.
The new 7-Elevens not only sell gas and diesel fuel, they also have a gazillion different food, drink, snack, and sweets option in them too. When the one west of Lexington opened the high school’s band was there as well as a huge crowd of people and vendors giving away FREE stuff! Those vendors included Budweiser, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Monster, Miller/Coors, and Red Bull just to name a few! You could also enjoy free food samples and drinks including 7-Eleven’s own pizza, a Big Bite Hot Dog®, and other great sandwiches along with many more treats!
Mayor MacDougall didn’t say exactly when the new store was expected to open but that may be because we forgot to ask. By the looks of things, it should be completed and opened sometime in early 2021.
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