The Old Post Office
Photos by Todd Gill, Flyer staff
Acumen Brands’ experiment with a brick-and-mortar boot store in the center of the Fayetteville square will soon come to an end.
The company last week announced that they plan to close their Country Outfitter store currently operating in the Old Post Office building at 1 W. Center Street.
The business opened in August 2013 inside the 104-year-old building, and was intended to be a flagship physical location for the online retailer.
According to a news release, the company plans to move “to a new location that will support the company’s new physical retail format” sometime next year.
“The Old Post Office is a beautiful space filled with history and warmth, but we can’t expect to secure locations on every historic square in America,” said Rich Morris, VP/GM of Retail Operations for the company. “We are grateful to have launched our brick-and-mortar business in the building, and plan to leverage our learnings from this space, and recreate its authenticity across the country.”
The building, which sat empty for nearly five years before Country Outfitter opened, isn’t in immediate danger of another extended vacancy.
Acumen co-founder John James is planning to use the space as the location for his planned startup accelerator, Hayseed Ventures. James has also launched a Kickstarter to turn the basement into a co-working space.
The store is expected to close for business sometime this month. Store manager Cathy Campbell will take on a leadership role within e-commerce merchandising back at Acumen’s home office.
