The Stuckey’s Comeback Plan: Start With Candymaking, End With Stores

The Stuckey’s Comeback Plan: Start With Candymaking, End With Stores

The Stuckey's roadside stores were an integral part of the American road trip experience in the 20th ... [+] century. It wasn't Stephanie Stuckey's original life plan to take on reviving the business that bears her iconic family name. "A year and half ago I was the Director of Sustainability for the City of Atlanta," she said. "I'm a former state Representative and I was teaching law at the University of Georgia." Now she owns Stuckey's Corporation, including a pecan and candy factory in Wrens, Georgia, that employs 120 people. And she has ambitious designs to bring back the stores that her grandfather made part and parcel of the great American road trip. In its heyday in the 1960s, Stuckey's had 368 outlets in 30 states, offering gifts and souvenirs, restaurant services and Texaco gasoline. But it all started with a single roadside stand that W. S. "Sylvester" Stuckey set up in Eastman, Georgia, 1937 to sell the pecans, honey and souvenirs he bought from local farmers and producers. As he grew the business, he added not only other and more modern stores but much more besides. "My grandfather owned his own trucking company, sign painting company, distribution center, and