Bahama Buck's Opens in Farmington, Drawing Two-Hour Lines at Grand Opening

The line at Bahama Buck's new Farmington location wrapped entirely around the building before staff cut it off at 6:45 p.m. on opening night; the last person standing in it waited two hours for shaved ice.

The tropical franchise held its VIP preview at 1618 E. 20th St. on March 30 and distributed complimentary items to all 614 guests who attended. Owners Derrick and Sallee Hansen said the turnout exceeded their expectations for what they had built as a family-run business in San Juan County.

"We had a line that stretched around the entire building," Derrick Hansen said.

The Hansens returned to Farmington in 2021 after living in Idaho, where the family had operated an ice cream truck. They chose Bahama Buck's as their franchise partly because of a personal connection to the brand: Sallee Hansen worked at a Bahama Buck's as her first job in high school. Opening the Farmington location was, by the owners' own account, a family decision as much as a business one. They said they wanted to create a workplace that could eventually employ their teenage children and anchor a long-term livelihood in the community.

The Farmington Chamber of Commerce joined the couple for a ribbon-cutting ahead of the VIP preview, a visible sign of institutional support for the new storefront on East 20th Street. The Chamber's participation also places the opening within a broader stretch of small-business activity along Farmington's commercial corridors in recent years.

The franchise model leans on seasonal and part-time workers, with high-school and college-age employees typically making up much of the staff, which aligns with the Hansens' stated vision for how the business should run. Whether opening-week crowds hold through summer will show how deep the demand runs beyond the novelty of a grand opening.