5 Travel Plaza Assumptions South Carolinians Get Wrong
The Pantry Inc. once ran more than 1,500 stores across thirteen states under a banner South Carolinians drove past for years.
Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard bought the company in 2015 for about $1.7 billion, and nearly all of it became Circle K.
The signs on I-95 changed. The assumptions underneath them didn’t.
These are the travel plaza assumptions South Carolinians get wrong.
1. Assuming Buc-ee’s Already Rules I-95
Does Buc-ee’s already dominate I-95 in South Carolina the way it dominates Texas and Georgia?
South Carolina drivers who’ve watched the beaver logo spread through those states assume the answer is yes.
It doesn’t.
South Carolina has exactly one open Buc-ee’s, sitting where I-95 meets S.C. 327 in Florence with 120 fueling positions.
That store has been running since 2022.
A second Buc-ee’s is planned for Hardeeville near the Georgia line, but the city’s mayor has said it isn’t expected before South Carolina finishes widening that stretch of I-95.
That project isn’t due to wrap until around 2028.
2. Thinking Kangaroo Express Is a South Carolina Original
Kangaroo Express feels like a homegrown Southern name, the kind of brand South Carolinians assume grew up right alongside the interstate.
Kangaroo Express paired Kangaroo-branded gas pumps with convenience shopping at stores across the Southeast, the same combination that makes a travel plaza, not a corner store.
It didn’t.
The banner belonged to The Pantry Inc., a chain headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, that once ran more than 1,500 stores across thirteen states.
Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard paid $861 million in cash for the company in 2015, plus about $840 million in assumed debt.
The deal was worth close to $1.7 billion in total, and nearly all of those stores became Circle K.
South Carolina keeps just one Kangaroo Express-branded store running today, operating as a small Circle K franchise rather than an independent company.
The kangaroo mascot never had anything to do with South Carolina at all.
3. Assuming South of the Border Quit Selling Gas
South of the Border made headlines in late 2025 when part of the Dillon-area complex went up for sale.
Many South Carolinians assumed the whole roadside stop was closing for good.
Wrong.
South of the Border’s owners listed 30 acres of the property in December 2025.
The listing doesn’t mention the gas station or Pedro’s Truck Stop, and the family’s site still lists both as open.
The travel plaza itself never went anywhere.
Alan Schafer opened the original stand along U.S. 301 in 1949, and his family has run the complex for more than 75 years.
The Schafer family still runs two Sunoco stations and Pedro’s Truck Stop on I-95, open around the clock with diesel, showers, and a trucker’s lounge.
What’s for Sale at South of the Border
None of South of the Border’s 30 acres for sale touches its travel plaza.
The parcel includes the closed Pedroland rides, the old convention center, a motel building, a mini-golf course, and a former casino building.
South of the Border is keeping its sombrero observation tower and its reptile lagoon, neither of which is part of the sale.
South of the Border’s website still lists two Sunoco stations and Pedro’s Truck Stop as open businesses, though neither shows up on the December listing.
4. Assuming Every Pump Belongs to an Outside Chain
Spinx signs sit at enough South Carolina exits that many drivers assume it’s another national brand that set up shop in the state.
It isn’t.
Stewart Spinks opened his first station at a Greenville intersection in 1972, and the Spinks family still owns the company that grew out of it.
Spinx now runs more than 90 stores across the Carolinas, and several of them pair diesel pumps with dedicated truck lanes for drivers passing through.
The chain runs a bakery-and-eatery concept in downtown Greenville, serving made-to-order flatbreads alongside Spinx’s fried chicken.
That’s a hometown company competing for the same diesel customers as the coast-to-coast names.
5. Assuming Pilot Is Still a Haslam Family Business
A trucker pulls off I-95 at a Pilot Travel Center to top off the tank, never thinking twice about who owns the pumps.
Many South Carolinians still assume it’s the Haslam family, the Tennessee owners who ran Pilot Travel Centers for generations.
Not anymore.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bought out the Haslam family’s last 20% stake for $2.6 billion in January 2024.
Every Pilot Travel Center in South Carolina, including the stops lining I-95 and I-26, now belongs entirely to Berkshire Hathaway.
The green sign didn’t change.
The ownership behind it did.
Psst! How much do you know about South Carolina and the roads that cross it? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
Quiz
South Carolina Interstate IQ
Answer these questions on South Carolina’s flag, its interstates, and the roads that connect them. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
Many people call the crescent on South Carolina’s flag a moon. What did Colonel William Moultrie copy the shape from in 1776?
More Change on I-95
South Carolina's stretch of I-95 is in the middle of a rebuild that will reshape its travel plazas for years.
The state is widening 13 miles of I-95 between Exits 8 and 22 in Jasper County from two lanes to three.
The job touches 11 bridges and rebuilds the interchanges at Exits 18 and 21.
That 13-mile stretch is still in the design phase, with construction not set to start until fall 2027.
A separate eight-mile segment near the Savannah River broke ground first, in the summer of 2024, on a four-year construction timeline.
That's the same exit where Hardeeville expects its future Buc-ee's, and city officials have tied the travel center's opening to when the highway work near it wraps up.
Post and Courier reporting puts the future store's hiring at about 200 jobs, with cashiers and stockers starting near $16 an hour and general managers topping $225,000 a year.
Not yet.
Drivers merging near the Georgia line will keep meeting orange barrels instead of a new travel plaza for a while.
South Carolina's next travel plaza boom is still a construction project, not a grand opening.
That four-year construction clock on the Savannah River segment runs through 2028, the same year South Carolina wants the wider I-95 stretch near Hardeeville's Buc-ee's finished.
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