Bennie's Shoes, an Atlanta mainstay for more than 100 years, has announced it will soon close permanently. A graphic attached to the Facebook post announcing the closure reads "Lost our lease." The store, located in Buckhead Crossing shopping center (2625 Piedmont Road,) spans 8,100 square feet and was once one of three locations of the locally owned business in metro Atlanta.
Bennie Shemaria immigrated to the United States when he was just 16. He came from the Isle of Rhodes, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, and through Ellis Island before finding his way to Atlanta in 1909. Shemaria opened his store, originally just shoe repair, on Marietta Street near present day's Aderhold Learning Center at Georgia State, in 1912. When downtown, Bennie's was one of at least three Jewish-owned shoe focused retailers in the area.
Walter's - located at 66 Decatur Street - has been a destination for Georgia State students for generations, having first opened in 1952.
Friedman's Shoes has been in business since 1929 and even had an ESPN 30 for 30 chronicling the store's ties to the sports community. (The video reveals an amazing link between it and Zappos.com.) The store is located at 209 Mitchell Street, around the corner from the original Bennie's.
Bennie's Shoes relocated to Broadview Plaza in 1959 and after an opportunistic purchase of Johnson & Murphy "factory rejects" in 1970, entered the discount shoe business. The current Bennie's occupies space that previously housed the bakery of former Buckhead Crossing anchor Cub Foods. Matt Green, one of the store's managers, remembers fondly coming to get doughnuts from Cub when Bennie's was across the street, saying "they had a good bakery."
Satellite stores opened in Norcross and Marietta (which for a short time relocated to Kennesaw) but both closed around 2008. Mark Shemaria, Bennie's grandson and current primary owner of the business, consolidated both merchandise and equipment to focus on the Buckhead store.
For decades, Bennie's was the spot for shoes in Atlanta. Politicians, athletes, business people, and countless savvy shoppers found their way to Bennie's. Atlanta's favorite cheapskate, Clark Howard, took to Bennie's for the cover of Atlanta Magazine'sBest of Atlanta in 2000.
In the age of the internet, Bennie's kept itself relevant and vital to the community by providing some of the best shoeshines and repairs money could buy. Customers came for repairs but returned for the stellar service the store provided. That said, like any brick and mortar, things were not easy and vendors with whom they had decades long relationships went from trusted vendor to chief rival as manufactures opened individual websites and brick and mortar stores of their own.
When asked why not simply move or downsize elsewhere in the center, the answer is basically what you'd expect: the thought of moving and starting over is just too great an ordeal to consider, especially in a post-pandemic world with less need for dress shoes.
Plans call for the store to close permanently as of the close of business on Sunday October 1. According to store employees, new shoe repairs will be taken until Saturday, September 23.
In advance of the closure, all in-stock merchandise - including name brand shoes, cleaner, polish and more - are all up to 20 per cent off with the deals expected to increase in the coming weeks as inventory sells. Assorted fixtures and equipment including two vending machines will also be made available for sale.
ToNeTo Atlantareported September 6 that Office Depot, located in a space adjacent to Bennie's, is also closing. According to a source close to the center, current plans call for existing tenant Michaels to relocate from their current space within the center to the Office Depot and Bennie's spaces. The existing Michaels is a little more than 17,000 square feet but has an awkward layout whereas the combined Office Depot + Bennie's is a little more than 30,000 square feet and will allow for a more traditional store design. No word yet on what may backfill the current Michaels space.
Additional reading on Bennie's Shoes and its rich history in Atlanta can be found here and here with great reporting from the Atlanta Jewish Times and Northside Neighbor, respectively.
What is your fondest memory of Bennie's Shoes? Can you think of another Atlanta retail business that has been in business for more than a century? What would you like to see open in place of Michaels if their relocation comes to fruition?
Please share your thoughts below