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Fred's, 6420 Garners Ferry Road (Cedar Terrace): September 2009   6 comments

Posted at 11:00 pm in Uncategorized

OK, I'll admit it -- I like Fred's. Why? Well there's probably some history. There is a Fred's within easy walking distance from the house were my aunt lived in Fernandina Beach, and I sort of developed a respect for its no-nonsense "yes, we are a cheap store" attitude over the years. I was also always happy with the fact that they showed no desire to get rid of the huge live-oak in their parking lot:

With that initial positive impression, I was glad when Fred's started moving into the SC market, and in general I would rather shop there than other bottom tier stores like Dollar General or Family Dollar. I first saw them here when I was living in Aiken, and they opened a store on Whiskey Road. I remember buying a padlock and some other sundries there, and I'm pretty sure I've gotten motor oil at the Decker store.

I didn't even realize there was a Cedar Terrace store for quite a while (it's not very visible from Garners Ferry) and never ended up shopping there. I'm not sure how long it was there, but it certainly hasn't been very many years.

I don't know what happened here. I would have said that Fred's would be better able to deal with a recession than many other stores, since price becomes more important then. Perhaps they have been expanding too fast and have gotten overextended. Or perhaps people just like 'Sam' better than 'Fred' when there's only a mile between them.

(Hat Tip to commenter Gary..)

Written by ted on October 4th, 2009

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6 Responses to 'Fred's, 6420 Garners Ferry Road (Cedar Terrace): September 2009'

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  1. I am taking the liberty of copying Dave's Fred's comment from "Mission Statement" to below...

    ted

    4 Oct 09 at 11:08 pm

  2. Fred's closing is a sad day for all of us! Where else will we be able to go to get some of the great things they have there! No more 3-piece-toilet-covers in dusty rose, singing bass trophies, wicker accent pieces & $30 curio cabinets to store our Precious Moments dolls! Not to mention the cheap groceries - where else can you buy imitation-cheese pizzas, Stale Valentine candy in the middle of September, dented cans of Veg-All and get bargain prices on cartons of Basic Menthol 100's! I'm definitely gonna miss the place. Sigh... Guess I'll have to go back to shopping at Big Lots.

    Dave

    4 Oct 09 at 11:09 pm

  3. Wasn't this the old Jeffers McGill, untill they moved down the road? If that's right, they moved out about 2002, and I think the building was vacant for a while. But I still think that Fred's has been here since about 2004. Not a real long time, but a decent run given its location.

    badger

    5 Oct 09 at 8:28 am

  4. Given the current economy, I am surprised that Fred's is going out of business. I figured they, Big Lots, Dollar General, etc. would be thriving as people try to pinch pennies.

    Tom

    5 Oct 09 at 12:01 pm

  5. @Tom: This particular Fred's store may be closing, but I sincerely doubt the whole chain is going out of business. As others have guessed, they and other discount stores have been weathering the recession fairly well. According to this, they're at the same stock price as they were at this time last year, with a nice upwards spike during summer 2009:

    http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/dynamic_charting.aspx?symbol=FRED&selected=FRED

    J.P.

    5 Oct 09 at 8:17 pm

  6. I can confirm that the chain did not go out of business - the manager from this Fred's location now works at the St. Andrews location and we speak frequently. Fred's closed this location, in part, due to maintenance issues, specifically in the stock room. Also, Fred's attempted to negotiate a lower rent, and the Landord(s) declined - with the result that Fred's opted to close the location despite it's apparently successful business traffic. That Fred's location had been plagued with acts of vandalism and overnight breakins, due to a relative lack of security during non-business hours.

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