Rock Hill Sam’s Club to open Sept. 26

After years of speculation — and now, months of construction — Warehouse giant Sam’s Club will soon open off Dave Lyle Blvd.

The store, which sits behind Academy Sports and More, occupies 140,000 square feet on a 40-acre site developed by the Warren Norman Company.

This Sam’s Club will be the first of the company’s warehouse stores in York County, while sister company Walmart already permeates in Rock Hill, Tega Cay, York and Lake Wylie.

Store Manager Bill House is excited for the new opportunity and about the hiring of 175 employees.

“Never in my life did I dream that I would be running my own club one day,” House said back in May at the opening of a Welcome Center on Cherry Road. “You never know who’s walking through the door.

Since May, the Welcome Center has handled the hiring, evaluation and training of those employees prior to the move on-site.

“[The store site] isn’t really ideal to do that,” House said.

Over the past few weeks, employees and vendors have spent time painstakingly filling the store’s shelves with product — items that will likely fly off the shelves on September 26.

“I started exactly in this environment,” House said of his start with the Walmart company in 1991, “as a garden center sales associate.”

Now, 22 years later, he’s running the store.