Foley’s retail landscape is about to expand in a big way this fall as BJ’s Wholesale Club prepares to open its doors, giving South Baldwin County its first warehouse club and a new option for bulk shopping close to home.
The new store will sit on a 14-acre site along the South Juniper Street Extension, just a block east of South McKenzie Street. Construction has been underway since a groundbreaking ceremony held on Dec. 17, 2025, and the 106,370-square-foot store is on track for an October 2026 opening.
The location places the club along one of Foley’s principal retail corridors, a short drive from the city’s commercial center and easily reached from the beach communities to the south. During the summer months, when Gulf Shores and Orange Beach swell with visitors, routes through Foley carry some of the heaviest traffic in the county — traffic that retailers along the corridor have long competed to capture, and that a warehouse club is now positioned to serve as well.
The Foley location marks BJ’s second club in Alabama, following the company’s first store in the Huntsville area, which opened in 2023. Its arrival in Foley fills a long-requested gap in the local retail market, according to city leaders.
Until now, South Baldwin residents who wanted warehouse-club shopping have driven to Mobile or Pensacola — round trips measured in hours when traffic on the Beach Express or U.S. 98 backs up. Those errands also took grocery dollars and gasoline sales out of the county, which is why city officials courted the project: every bulk-shopping trip that stays in Foley keeps the spending, and the sales tax that funds city services, close to home.
“This will be the first wholesale club in South Baldwin, and it means our citizens won’t have to leave Foley for this type of shopping,” said Foley Mayor Ralph Hellmich.
Jobs and a community role
Beyond giving residents another option for bulk goods and warehouse pricing, the project is already generating economic activity in the area. BJ’s has begun hiring for a range of positions tied to the new club, including warehouse fulfillment team members, cashiers, stock clerks and gas station staff, adding to Foley’s growing base of retail jobs.
The hiring wave spans the range of roles a modern club requires, from entry-level floor positions to specialized roles in the bakery, butcher shop and fulfillment operation that fills BJ’s online orders. Warehouse clubs typically employ well over a hundred people at a single location, and the positions come with the company’s benefits package — a notable draw in a region where retail and hospitality jobs have historically been seasonal and service-oriented.
The company has also signaled plans to get involved in the community once the store opens. Consistent with its national charitable efforts, the Foley club intends to partner with local nonprofits on hunger relief, including regular donations of produce, meat and dairy products to area food banks.
Food assistance organizations across Baldwin County have reported rising demand as the county’s population grows, and perishable donations from a retailer’s supply chain are among the most valuable contributions they receive — proteins and fresh items that food banks struggle to buy at scale. A steady donation relationship with a store that stocks them in bulk can meaningfully change what a pantry is able to offer families each week.
The arrival of a major national retailer also signals something to other companies watching the market. Retail site selection follows proof points: a chain that breaks ground in a fast-growing market tells its competitors the demographics support a store there, and adjacent parcels tend to fill in quickly. Foley’s planners have seen that pattern before, and the BJ’s site is likely to draw companions.
What a warehouse club brings
Warehouse clubs occupy a distinct niche in American retail. Customers pay an annual membership fee for access to bulk pricing, which changes the psychology of the trip: purchases are planned, quantities are large, and the average basket dwarfs a typical supermarket run. Clubs also sell gasoline, a category that turns a grocery trip into a regular weekly stop and builds the habit the membership depends on.
The gas station planned for the Foley site is consistent with that model, and its pumps are likely to become a familiar sight for commuters along the corridor. Fuel sales give clubs a high-traffic draw independent of groceries, and members who come for cheap gasoline routinely fill a cart on the way inside.
The Foley club’s opening also reflects BJ’s broader expansion strategy. The chain, which built its base in the Northeast, has been pushing into Southern markets where warehouse-club penetration remains thin, opening clubs and fuel stations across the Southeast in recent years. Alabama’s growth — Baldwin County in particular — fits the profile the company targets: rising population, household incomes that support bulk buying, and a market where competitors have not yet saturated the landscape.
For South Baldwin shoppers, the practical effect arrives this fall. Families that once planned monthly drives for bulk staples will be able to fill the pantry closer to home, and small businesses — restaurants, churches, event planners — that buy in volume will gain a nearby source for supplies. City officials expect the club to draw customers from beyond Foley’s city limits, extending its economic reach across the southern end of the county.
Foley’s growth story is the backdrop for all of it. The city has transformed itself over the past two decades from a quiet agricultural center into one of the fastest-growing cities in Alabama, with a downtown that has been deliberately revitalized, a track complex that draws national events, and residential subdivisions spreading in every direction. Retail development has followed the rooftops, and the South McKenzie and Juniper corridors have become the city’s commercial spine.
Population growth across South Baldwin has been the engine. The beaches, the schools and the region’s quality of life have drawn thousands of new residents, many retiring from colder states, and each wave of arrivals has increased demand for the everyday retail — groceries, hardware, bulk goods — that a mature market provides. Retailers’ site-selection models have caught up with the census data, which is why national chains that once skipped the area now compete for sites along the U.S. 98 and Alabama 59 corridors.
Local businesses are preparing for the ripple effects as well. Restaurants and caterers that buy in volume are expected to shift some purchasing to the club, and gas stations along the McKenzie Street corridor will be watching the fuel pricing the new pumps bring. Competition of that kind is the price of a maturing retail market, and most merchants in the corridor have seen it before as national chains have arrived.
The October opening will add a final marker to a project that has moved quickly by the standards of large-format retail. From groundbreaking in December to opening day is a span of months that reflects both the company’s experience with its store prototype and the city’s willingness to move a major project through its approval process without delay.
The membership model is also the reason cities court these stores so actively. A club’s customers have paid for the privilege of shopping there, which makes them regulars rather than browsers, and the store anchors repeat traffic week after week. Planners consider a warehouse club among the most reliable traffic generators a retail center can add, which is why its arrival tends to lift the leases around it.
Construction activity has already rippled through the local economy. Site work on a 14-acre parcel, the erection of a structure larger than two football fields, and the fit-out of refrigeration, bakery and fuel systems all draw on contractors, electricians and suppliers from across the county — a temporary but real boost that precedes the permanent payroll the store will carry.
City officials have also pointed to the property tax and sales tax implications. A store of this size represents a significant addition to the tax rolls, and the sales taxes collected on bulk groceries and gasoline flow to the local governments that provide the roads, police and fire services the growth depends on. For a city funding its own infrastructure improvements, the math matters.
The club’s opening schedule — doors in October — lands after the summer tourism season but before the holidays, positioning the store to capture the stretch of the calendar when families restock after back-to-school and begin planning holiday purchases. Retailers time openings deliberately, and a fall debut ahead of the shopping season is among the most advantageous slots on the calendar.
What the club does for Foley’s standing in the regional retail market may matter as much as what it does for local shoppers. A first-of-its-kind store — the only warehouse club in South Baldwin — makes the city a destination for a category of shopping that has always required a drive elsewhere, and destinations bring other business. The store’s opening day is still months out, but the competition for the corridor’s next retail announcement has already begun.