Okatie’s Chick-fil-A set to close up shop for the summer, officials say. Here’s why.
If anyone in Okatie has had a hankering for Chick-fil-A waffle fries and been met with the devastating sight of locked doors, it’s because the store has closed for the summer.
The location, which opened up earlier this year at the University of South Carolina Beaufort’s Bluffton campus, is temporarily closing up shop due to staffing.
The students, said Carol Weir, a spokesperson for the college, “virtually all” go home for the summer. A news release from the time of the restaurant’s opening on campus reported that about 25 USCB students would be employed there. Eventually, officials from the fast-food chain plan to create 40 full and part-time jobs.
“We closed Chick-fil-A for winter break and spring break and this is expected to be our pattern,” Weir said.
Since it opened, the on-campus location hasn’t just been popular with students. About 40 “outside patrons” come to the restaurant and 10-15 community members per day eat at the Sand Bar, the dining hall next to Chick-fil-A.
But Okatie diners need not despair. They won’t long have to head all the way out to Beaufort or Bluffton to get their fix as the on-campus Chick-fil-A is expected to open the week of Aug. 21 as students return for the fall semester.
