Stephanie Stuckey stepped into the role of CEO of Southern road trip chain Stuckey’s in 2019, the company her grandfather, W.S. “Sylvester” Stuckey Sr., first founded in 1937 as a roadside pecan stand in Eastman, Georgia. As the third generation to lead the business, Stuckey is often on the road, giving a presentation in Houston one week and attending the Sweets and Snacks Expo in Chicago the next, all while sharing her travels on behalf of the company on social media.
Stuckey recently returned to the shuttered plant in Eastman, which still houses the old brittle-making equipment. “I wish I could have revived that plant,” she says, “but it’s in terrible shape.”Before opening his first location, her grandfather, Sylvester, bought pecans from local farmers and neighbors who had pecan trees on their property, selling the nuts at his roadside stand in Eastman.
Sporting bright-teal roofs, Stuckey’s became road trip destinations. At its peak in the 1960s, the company had over 350 locations in 40 states and thousands of highway billboards reminding travelers where they could “Relax, Refresh, & Refuel.”Each store had a sense of place: A Florida Stuckey’s might have had kitschy alligator heads and wind chimes made out of shells, while a Virginia location might have sold souvenirs focused on U.S. history.
He propped it up with the money made from his other businesses, namely Dairy Queen. He had the franchise rights to the fast-food restaurants off the interstates in the continental U.S., so he added Stuckey’s to some of those Dairy Queen locations, jumpstarting the Stuckey’s Express people still see today. This store-within-a-store model created licensed Stuckey’s shops which include a section dedicated to the brand’s items, but aren’t standalone Stuckey’s.
“All we had was a rented warehouse with some inventory in it and 68 locations that we don’t own or operate anymore,” Stuckey says of the licensed stores. “That was not bringing us enough revenue to keep the operations afloat.”
Oh god I love these things.