Sam's Club Celebrates Ribbon-Cutting

Business and community leaders welcomed Sam's Club to Easley Monday morning with an official ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“As with most communities across South Carolina, Easley is focused on new business development and job creation,” said Cindy Hopkins, president of the Easley Chamber of Commerce. “We are pleased Sam’s Club has chosen Easley for expansion, not only for these employment and business growth benefits, but for their outstanding corporate citizenship as well. We are thrilled to have Sam’s Club as our newest community partner, and we can’t wait until the new store is officially open in June.”

The new Easley Sam’s Club is set to open this summer at 309 Rolling Hills Circle in Easley Town Center.

Brandon Cox, Club Manager for the Easley location, said the target opening date is June 27.

The Easley Sam's Club will have several ancillary areas, Cox said.

“It will have a gas station, a hearing center, a pharmacy, an optical center, a tire center,” he said.

The new location will create many jobs for the area.

“We're looking to bring on around 160 (employees),” Cox said.

Sam’s Club, along with parent company Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., currently employ more than 27,000 associates in South Carolina. The average hourly wage for a full-time hourly associate in South Carolina is $12.66 an hour.

“The hours for our Business and Plus members will be 7am – 8:30pm, Monday through Saturday and 10am – 6pm on Sunday,” Cox said. “For our Advantage members, it's 10am – 8:30pm Monday through Friday, 9:30am – 8:30pm on Saturday and 10am – 6pm for everyone on Sunday.”

Hiring has begun for the Easley Sam's Club location. A Hiring Center has been set up at 5208 Calhoun Memorial Highway, next to Arby's, in the old New Generation location. The hiring center is open from 8am – 8pm Monday through Saturday and 10am – 6pm on Sundays.

“This is where we're looking to initially bring on those folks,” Cox said. “We're going to use it as a hiring center and a membership center. If someone wants to sign up for a (Sam's Club) membership, they want to come here, we can get them signed up for a membership. Once we get the people in and hired, we're going to use it as a training facility as well.”

One of the factors that makes Sam's Club a good company to work for is “the upward mobility,” Cox said.

“I start with Sam's Club about eight years ago as an hourly cashier, part-time,” he said. “I worked my way up and now I'm the Club Manager. I previously ran the Spartanburg Sam's Club and now I'm moving here to Easley to run this Sam's Club.”

Cox said Easley's growth makes it a good fit for a Sam's Club.

“Before, any time that someone wanted to shop at Sam's Club from Easley, they'd have to drive all the way to Anderson or all the way to Greenville,” Cox said. “This is really going to put a Sam's Club in their backyard, which I think is going to be really convenient for the people that live in Easley.”

Cox said he's very excited to be moving his family to Easley.

“That's part of my reason I made my decision to come, just looking at the growth here – it's huge right now,” said. “With not a lot going on in a lot of other areas, Easley is one of those places that I see as continuing to grow.”

Cox said Sam's Club was to be part of the community.

“We love to be part of the community,” Cox said. “We have things such a Local Community Grants which we give out to organizations. We encourage our associates to get out in the community, to be involved in some kind of organization. It's sort of our way to give back to the community.”

Through the Walmart Foundation, Sam’s Club and Walmart contributed $17.4 million to non-profit organizations throughout the state in 2011.

The Spartanburg location was heavily involved in Relay for Life and area food banks, he said.

“Sam's Club as a whole right now is just ending its campaign in raising money for MS,” Cox said. “It's one of our bigger pushes. We like to be involved with the community. We like to go out there and see where we can lend a helping hand.”