River Street Sweets will close its longstanding location on the second floor of Phipps Plaza this coming Saturday, March 31. The shop, a satellite location of the Savannah-based candy shop, has been a mall mainstay for almost 20 years. There will be no inventory liquidation sales associated with the closure.
The second floor of Phipps Plaza has gone through many changes in recent years, and the area of the mall in which River Street Sweets is located does not get the foot traffic it once did.
River Street Sweets, which prides itself as being Savannah's oldest candy store, was established in 1973, and produces southern candies and baked goods including over 50 different flavors of old-fashioned taffy, pecan pies, praline cheesecake, pecan pralines and other sweets.
There are reportedly no current plans to reopen River Street Sweets in Buckhead anytime soon. The company's other Atlanta area location, on the first floor of Mall of Georgia in Buford, is remaining open. Both the Phipps Plaza and Mall of Georgia stores opened in 2002.
The company also operates its orginal location on the Savannah Riverfront as well as a second location in Savannah. Riverstreet Sweets also operates three locations in Charleston and two locations in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
In 2015, the company introduced a franchise model, Savannah's Candy Kitchen. The concept, very similar to its namesake shop, has a number of locations including at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Pooler,GA, Nashville, TN and Oxon Hill, MD, among others.
Are you surprised by the company's decision to close their shop at Phipps Plaza? If River Street Sweets did reopen in metro Atlanta, where should they reopen? What would you like to see open next at Phipps Plaza?
Please share your thoughts below.