EASTMAN, Ga. — There’s been no shortage over the years of claims to being the originator of roadside retail, but Stephanie Stuckey, CEO of Stuckey’s Corp., makes a pretty good case for her family … at least in the Southeast.
Her grandfather, W.S. Stuckey started a roadside pecan stand in Georgia in 1937. It was while manning this “side hustle”—“sitting in the hot summer sun waiting for tourists to drive by”—that he thought “maybe if he offered more things, that people would start pulling over,” Stephanie Stuckey said during a Talks From the Top interview on CRU Community.
The result was the addition of candy, bottled water, souvenirs, Stuckey’s famous Pecan Log and, eventually, gasoline. “He really was the O.G. of roadside retail. We were there before any other location that you see on the highway today,” she said. “He offered something really special and unique.”
Here she discusses her own transition, from attorney to state legislator and back to leading the company her grandfather started all those years ago. She also provides insight into where she’d like to see Stuckey’s go next.
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