Matt Thrasher received the call at 8:10 a.m. that Sunday morning in April 2020. By 8:20 a.m., when he arrived at Marketplace Shopping Center on Clemson Boulevard in Anderson, his beloved Skins’ store was engulfed in flames.
“We had just gone into COVID and our sales had dropped tremendously,” Thrasher recalled. “Then I watched our second-best store go up in flames and I thought Skins’ was done. I thought we were completely done. But our family got up and decided not to let it beat us and we’re back.”
Skins’ reopened in the Marketplace Shopping Center last week and kicked off this week with a celebratory event to thank City of Anderson, County of Anderson, Centerville and Rock Springs firefighters who responded to that devastating fire on April 19 of last year.
“We wanted to celebrate the firefighters who came to help that day,” Thrasher said.
Fire trucks rolled into the Marketplace Shopping Center Monday night, but this time for firefighters to enjoy the ‘Famous Hotdogs of the South,’ autograph Skins’ 75th anniversary t-shirts and take in details of the large photos of the fire that hang in the new store. Some even pulled out their phones to show photos they took that day.
For second-generation Skins’ owners Matt and Mike Thrasher and their brother-in-law, Wayne Harbin, the re-opening of the Marketplace store is the continuation of a story that began in 1988 when the Skins’ Boys opened their first store.
“Everyone in Anderson thought we were crazy to open up another store,” Thrasher said during a 2020 interview about two months after the fire. “They thought we were going to ruin our father’s reputation because he was a living legend around here at the time. It didn’t go too well the first couple of days, but after about three days it took off and we sold everything.”
And after the first week in the new Marketplace location, sales are good.
“The community has supported us like they have since 1946,” Thrasher said. “We’re very appreciative of everybody, our employees and all our past employees.”
