05/30/2025
Hey y’all. This announcement is bitter-sweet, but we’re closing our Albany location. Bitter because it’s always difficult to close a store and say goodbye to great customers and fantastic employees. Sweet because we never thought we’d make it nearly 20 years when we first opened and we’ve had some stores close due to terrible situations like Hurricane Michael and Covid. Albany was our first real, year-round store and we opened as Georgia Traditions at the front entrance of Albany Mall on Nov 3, 2006. We had many name changes over the years (and paint colors) trying to compete in an increasingly digital world and also being in a mall that started to struggle. We moved out 3 years ago hoping that things would get better, and though they did ok at first, we could never recapture the magic we had for so many years in the mall. There were constant changes and frustrations in getting UGA merch and that began to take its toll on our profitability. We tried our hardest to continue to have the best selection of Bulldog merch (and other schools) in South Georgia. But because of the greed of major Universities and Fanatics, the products just weren’t available anymore. We’d hoped to stay open through the end of 2025 but there’s already too much competition in a town the size of Albany (plus more in surrounding areas), and we can’t take the further reduction in sales once Academy opens. There are 2 other GREAT stores in town for your Southern Lifestyle needs and we hope you continue to support local by shopping at Knight's Apparel and Gifts and Ivey's Albany GA. Our final day will be the Saturday before Father’s Day, June 14. We would like to be open longer, but our landlord who has been so good to us the last 3 years, has asked us to be out as soon as we could because he has a tenant that would like to start moving in and be open in early July. If you’re looking to open a store, which we don’t recommend because it’s definitely a challenge right now, talk to Brad at Live Oak because they are great landlords! We also want to take this opportunity to say something many will find shocking, but the people at Albany Mall were always a pleasure to deal with and treated us great. It’s a shame that the mall has become what it has, but it’s not from lack of trying by Charles and everyone still remaining there.
You have 2 weeks to get in returns and exchanges. We’ll have some Father’s Day sales, but don’t expect a big clearance sale. We’re moving all the product to a store in Alabama. Please pass this along to anyone you think has a gift card so that they can come use it. Again, thanks for the support for so many years!
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