BJ’s Wholesale Club announced Dec. 19 it will open its new Beachwalk store in St. Johns County on Dec. 20.
The 104,298-square-foot store is at 115 Beachwalk Blvd., about 2½ miles east of Interstate 95 and north of a Publix Super Market.
It is the first BJ’s in St. Johns and the 40th in Florida.
The company operates three stores in Jacksonville and one in Orange Park.
The Beachwalk BJ’s has a gas station with seven fueling stations and 14 pumps, an auto service and tire shop, and a liquor store operating separately from the main store.
Store hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.
Kirk Saville, BJ’s head of corporate communications, said Dec. 12 that the store is nearly fully staffed with about 100 employees, including full- and part-time workers and management.
He said BJ’s differentiates itself from competitors such as Costco and Sam’s Club through the frequency of customer visits.
“The big difference is we have a lot of our members who do their weekly shopping here with us,” he said. “We offer 25% off grocery store prices every day.”
BJ’s Wholesale Club has 247 locations across 20 states, with plans for new stores in Knoxville, Tennessee; Southern Pines, North Carolina; and Louisville, Kentucky. It has about 7.5 million members, Saville said.
The company owns two brands: Wellsley Farms, which offers frozen food, produce, coffee, baked goods, dairy products, meat and seafood, and the Berkley Jensen brand, which includes paper products, office equipment and medicine.
St. Johns County issued a building permit June 27 for the $9 million store. Separate permits were issued for the gas station, valued at $946,000, and the store’s foundation plans, approved May 16 at a cost of $4 million. BJ’s announced the project April 30.
Twin Creeks SPE LLC of Boca Raton owns the land.