Parker’s Kitchen celebrated grand openings for two new state-of-the-art retail stores in the Charleston area of South Carolina on Sept. 19. The grand opening events included ribbon cuttings, as well as presentations of two $5,000 Fueling the Community donations to support the Berkeley County School District and Dorchester public schools.
The Savannah, Georgia-based company’s 59th and 60th convenience stores, located at 1105 N. Highway 52 in Moncks Corner and 1601 Central Avenue in Summerville, offer Southern-style food, as well as gourmet coffee, 28-degree beer, fountain drinks with Chewy Ice and a range of convenience items. Both stores feature the company’s Charleston-inspired architectural design with low-country-style brick, metal roofs, twin entrances and indoor and outdoor seating.
The newest Parker’s Kitchen locations are part of a strategic $50 million expansion into the metro Charleston market over the next 12 months. The company plans to open 40 new-to-industry locations in the greater Charleston area over the next four years and to secure 30 percent market share.
“We want to raise the bar for what customers in the metro Charleston area can expect from a convenience store,” says Parker’s founder and CEO Greg Parker. “That’s why we serve fresh, Southern-inspired comfort food that’s made from scratch on-site, each and every day. That’s why we offer the latest technology, so our customers can spend less time waiting in line and more time enjoying life. At Parker’s Kitchen, we know that time is the most precious commodity of all.”
The new Summerville store, located in the revitalized Knightsville Crossing Shopping Center, has a unique mansard-style fuel canopy and is the first Parker’s Kitchen with a “green screen” of Confederate jasmine that will create verdant walls of greenery on both sides of the fuel canopy. The store also has a covered outdoor pavilion with seating and a cedar shake roof.
Both Parker’s Kitchen locations feature a selection of fresh, homestyle fare, including hot and cold grab-and-go options, as well as a hot bar with signature items like never-frozen, antibiotic-free, double-breaded chicken tenders, mac ‘n’ cheese and more. Both new locations serve a wide range of breakfast, lunch and dinner items, seven days a week.
The entire Southern-style menu is homemade on-site from the freshest ingredients by Parker’s Kitchen chefs. The new stores also include self-checkout technology and electronic kiosks designed to expedite the food ordering process, as well as freshly brewed sweet tea, lemonade and Bean to Cup Guaranteed Fresh Coffee, where every cup is ground and brewed on demand.
The Moncks Corner and Summerville stores offer regular, mid-grade, premium, diesel and marine fuel. The Moncks Corner location also features diesel truck service with ample space for tractor trailer parking.
Founded in 1976, Parker’s Kitchen has earned accolades for its Parker’s Rewards loyalty program, award-winning Fueling the Community charitable initiative, innovative mobile app and acclaimed Parker’s Rewards program, which has saved customers more than $10 million since its inception.
Parker’s Kitchen has 60 retail stores throughout coastal Georgia and South Carolina, and its major expansion into the Charleston market is currently underway. The company has experienced 20-24 percent annual growth for the past 19 years and was recently named to the Inc. 5000 list of the Fastest Growing Companies in America for the fifth time.
Parker’s Kitchen employs nearly 1,000 people throughout the region and completes more than 125,000 transactions daily.
