When Southern Season opened in July 2014 in the new Libbie Mill development of Richmond, Virginia (2250 Staples Mill Road), it was unlike anything the city had seen. Despite being around 53,000 square feet, comparable to other supermarkets, the gourmet market lacked traditional departments like produce, milk, bread, or eggs, it made up for it with over 80,000 items (10,000 of which came from Virginia) with all sorts of sauce, coffee varieties, tea blends, cheeses, craft beers, and kitchen gadgets. The response was positive and the gourmet grocer seemed like a great anchor to the development...but it was not meant to be. Less than two years later, Southern Season announced it would close its Richmond location in April 2016, with the parent company indicating the store was still too large to be profitable and future stores, such as one in Atlanta, being around half the size. The Atlanta store never opened as in June of that year Southern Season declared bankruptcy. Their first and now only store in Chapel Hill, North Carolina would announce its closure a few years later, leaving Southern Season just another online retailer.
A few years later, the building (now under the address of 4901 Bakers Mill Lane) was leased by Lumber Liquidators as their new headquarters and received a full interior renovation. A few years later, Lumber Liquidators rebranded as LL Flooring...and a few years after that, went bankrupt. The whole chain was days away from "Lumber liquidating" itself and its 400+ stores when it was saved by a last-minute deal by the original founder. Along with half the chain, the headquarters didn't make it unscathed and shortly afterwards the newly-reverted Lumber Liquidators announced it would pack up and move the headquarters to its distribution center. Still, hope springs eternal--just about a week ago as of this writing, it is to become a location of ACAC Fitness & Wellness.
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