SUFFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — The home of the Pub Sub has officially opened in the peanut capital.
Publix, a Florida-based grocer with a devoted following, held a grand opening ribbon cutting on Wednesday morning, just over a year after the store was first announced. The store’s at a booming area of the city called Planters Station, off Godwin Blvd. not far from King’s Fork Middle School.
“It’s awesome,” said Suffolk Mayor Mike Duman. “Very exciting to be here for this particular ribbon cutting and you can by the excitement when we opened up it’s a much needed grocery store option for one of the fastest growing corridors we have in the city of Suffolk.”
At 7 a.m. there was a line of customers ready to get inside.
“This was the earliest ribbon cutting I’ve been to and probably the most well-attended other than Blue Bell Ice Cream when they were giving away free ice cream,” Duman joked.
The head of the line got there as early as 5:30 a.m., per Publix spokesperson Jared Glover.
“Our first customer Mary was so excited to be here. To see that line grow up until 7 o’ clock and to continue to have people coming in it’s just so exciting.
As a reward, she got a gift basket and even got to cut the big ribbon.
Suffolk’s Publix is the first in Hampton Roads’ seven cities (the first in the greater region opened in Williamsburg in 2018), with others planned in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. There’s also one on the way in Isle of Wight County in Carrollton.