Slew of new drive-thru coffee shops coming to Columbia, councilman says. What to know
A Richland County Councilman who once brought numerous locations of a national pizza chain to the Midlands is now set to launch more than two dozen coffee chain spots in the Columbia area and other places in South Carolina.
Councilman Joe Walker III and business partner Andrew Reed have inked a deal to bring 25 Scooter’s Coffee locations to South Carolina. Scooter’s was founded in 1998 and is based in Nebraska. There are more than 300 Scooter’s locations across 21 states.
Walker previously brought a host of Marco’s Pizza franchises to South Carolina and Virginia. At the peak, he had 23 Marco’s, but he sold 21 of them earlier this year. He said he still has two of the pizza locations in Virginia but is in the process of selling those, as well.
Word of Walker’s involvement in bringing Scooter’s to South Carolina was first reported in restaurant industry publications earlier this fall.
The councilman told The State he and Reed began exploring the possibility of bringing a new coffee concept to South Carolina back in the spring.
“We found Scooter’s, based out of Omaha,” Walker said. “There was just a very strong cultural alignment with the corporate entity and the opportunity for us to develop here in Richland, Sumter and Orangeburg counties. That was a big piece of it for us. We wanted a similar operation area that we had with Marco’s, given our success there.”
Walker said he ended up signing a 25-unit development agreement with Scooter’s. He has rights to bring the franchise to Richland, Orangeburg and Sumter counties in the Midlands, as well as Pickens, Anderson and Oconee counties in the Upstate. Of those two pockets, Walker said he plans to bring 20 Scooter’s to the three Midlands counties, with the other five headed to the Upstate.
Walker said he thinks “at least 15” of the Scooter’s units would be concentrated in the Columbia area. He could not yet say where the first Columbia-area Scooter’s would be located but said multiple sites are being pursued, and he is hopeful that the first shops could be open sometime in the second quarter of 2022.
The Scooter’s units Walker and Reed are bringing in will be drive-thru only. Walker said the popularity of drive-thru and carry-out models has surged amid the pandemic. He also said the company simply makes a good cup of coffee.
“Product quality certainly matters, and we do feel Scooter’s brings a higher quality, better tasting, less bitter product to market than some of our competitors do,” Walker noted.
The Columbia coffee scene is dotted with numerous locally owned favorites, from Drip to Indah to Immaculate Consumption, and beyond. From a franchise standpoint, Starbucks continues to be omnipresent in the Midlands, with more than 30 locations in Richland and Lexington counties. However, the Starbucks in the Vista announced its closure recently.
This story was originally published December 9, 2021 at 1:52 PM.
