SUMTER, S.C. — A new business opening marks continued growth within Sumter. On Wednesday, the Greater Sumter Chamber of Commerce celebrated a new business opening.
The chamber hosted a ribbon cutting at the new restaurant in the Sumter Town Centre on Broad Street. The location used to be a Checkers, but after more than four months of construction, it’s now home to a Tropical Smoothie Cafe.
“I use these as a meal replacement so I always get protein added to them, takes down on my calories,” Sumter resident Ronnie Chestnut explained about the smoothies. “So I really do enjoy them.”
Chestnut moved to Sumter from Fayetteville last month and says he likes to visit Tropical Smoothie multiple times a week. When he heard Sumter was getting a franchise location, Chestnut says he was excited.
“This is just diversity when it comes to food, when it comes to eating,” Chestnut remarked. “That’s the next important thing: people get a variety of foods to eat and they get a chance to explore different foods.”
It’s a theme in Sumter, where new businesses have been opening in the past few years. From Scooter's Coffee to the Starbucks on McCrays Mill to The Habit Burger, Chris Hardy with the local Chamber of Commerce says it shows growth in the area.
“These national chains, the franchise chains, they want to go where people are, they want to go where communities are growing. Sumter is certainly growing,” Hardy shared. “We've shown that over the last five to 10 years. We anticipate continuing to grow. So when that happens and your median household income increases like ours has. Ours has increased almost $20,000 in the last 15 years, which is huge compared to maybe some other communities. So that's what companies want to be a part of.”
Franchise owner Dax Soni lives in Columbia, where he’s opened three Tropical Smoothie franchises since 2018. When it came time for him to open his first location outside of Columbia, Soni says Sumter felt like the right fit.
“Sumter is a pretty nice town with a good population,” Soni said. “Everybody is very excited. They keep coming, calling like, ‘When you guys opening?’ and all that stuff.”
As Hardy explains it, this new restaurant falls under what he considers the “quality of life” category.
“It just adds to the quality of life for our citizens and our visitors,” Hardy said. “You know, anything like that when you're talking about a small chain like this or any type of smaller type of businesses that’s the hospitality side, you know, it's not so much about the economic impact they provide to the community, although that’s certainly, you know, worthwhile and significant, but it's more about the quality of life that it adds to our citizens and visitors. And that's always something that we always look forward to.”
It’s growth that Chestnut says he appreciates, although he says “you still want to keep that small town feel.”
“You don’t want to get it too, let's say, too populated, too crowded,” Chestnut expanded. “I still enjoy walking in the park at Dillon by myself.”
When it comes to future plans, Hardy says "there’s always plans in the works."
"There's also some that are coming down the pipe that we can't quite talk about just yet," Hardy elaborated. "The next couple of years should be very exciting."
The Chamber of Commerce tells us that in the recent past, 9-10 other businesses in that “quality of life” category have opened, like the new Burlington store and Hobby Lobby.