Shoppers don’t have to wait any longer for the long-awaited Lowe’s in Rincon. In fact, the store got a head start on its own grand opening.
Lowe’s held its board-cutting Thursday morning, three days after it opened its doors with no fanfare.
“It’s a great day for Lowe’s, and it’s a great day for Rincon and Effingham County,” said Rincon Mayor Ken Lee. “I don’t know of anything that has created as much excitement as this has.”
The 120,000 square foot store has 120 associates, and the store footprint is one of the biggest Lowe’s has, according to district manager Rex Rhyne.
“We’ve got a state-of-the-art store,” said store manager Mark Dorsey. “We’ve got an unbelievable looking store.”
Lowe’s had a “soft” opening Monday and business has been steady since.
“The community was ready for us,” Dorsey said.
Employees were hired in October and they started putting things together the first week of November. Dorsey
said the store gets a lot of vendor support in getting ready to open and he also credited the project manager and the associates for their efforts.
“It’s been great,” he said. “It’s been awesome.”
Rhyne said the company tries to get the employees as comfortable and oriented as possible in the first week.
“We try to get everybody’s feet wet before we open the doors,” he said.
Lowe’s had been targeting Effingham County for quite a while before making the move.
“It’s nothing we take very lightly,” Rhyne said. “We see how much Effingham County is growing, and we wanted to be a part of that. We’re very selective where we put a store.”
The Rincon location, on Highway 21 across from Wal-Mart, is expected to generate the kind of traffic Lowe’s likes to see.
“We want traffic,” Rhyne said. “We’ve got some good drawing cards.”
Lee hopes that will help pull residents to shop more locally instead of having to go to Chatham County.
“Our people want to spend their money in Effingham County,” he said. “We’re going to reverse that trend. We’re going to swing them back this way to spend their money in Effingham County. I think it’s going to be a win-win for everybody involved. We’re glad to have Lowe’s as a business partner here in Rincon.”
