Wal-Mart officially opens in Bluffton

The new Wal-Mart Supercenter at the Bluffton Gateway shopping center is officially open.

Curious customers arrived at the store early Wednesday morning and celebrated the opening with a number of freebies. As of 9:30 a.m., the store was giving away burgers, hot dogs, sodas, Monster Energy drinks, Coke products, Nature Valley products, cupcakes, coffee, iced tea, coupons, Kleenex products and even cereal bowls.

This grand opening comes a week after the opening of the neighboring Sam’s Club and fuel center Jan. 19 at the intersection of U.S. 278 and S.C. 46.

Employees throughout the store greeted customers as they piled into the new store. The parking lot was starting to fill early Wednesday morning as customers began to scope out the new addition to Bluffton’s retail scene.

There’s not much difference between this Wal-Mart Supercenter and the others in the county, but the store will offer a full pharmacy and free store pickup service for customers shopping on Walmart.com.

This Wal-Mart grand opening marks the fourth Wal-Mart store to open in Beaufort County. Currently, there’s a Wal-Mart Supercenter open at 25 Pembroke Drive on Hilton Head Island, 350 Robert Smalls Parkway in Beaufort and 4400 U.S. 278 in Hardeeville.

A Wal-Mart Supercenter is under construction on Sea Island Parkway on Lady’s Island and developers expect to complete the project sometime this spring. Developers for a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market planned for the intersection of Bluffton Parkway and S.C. 170 said in December the project that’s been “coming soon” for nearly two years is still in the works.

This story was originally published January 25, 2017 at 8:58 AM with the headline "Wal-Mart officially opens in Bluffton."