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Thursday, July 29, 2010
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History
 Abbadabba's was started by Janice Abernethy (it's her high school nickname) while husband-to-be Bill Carmichael was finishing up school at Emory. Her tiny little crafts shop near Emory's law school expanded into a booth at the Atlanta Flea Market, which was unfortunately displaced by Marta's rail station on Piedmont Road. After trying other flea markets, in 1981 Janice opened her first "real" store in Little 5 Points, Atlanta's alternative neighborhood (one part Berkeley, two parts Greenwich Village, a splash of Coconut Grove and toss with Tara.)
As Little 5 and its surrounding neighborhoods were rebirthed by urban pioneers in the early eighties, the business, and our reputation, grew. In 1988, so did Janice, who gave birth to our daughter, Abba Charice Carmichael, on September 8, 1988.
Buoyed by metro-wide customer enthusiasm and full-time partnership with Bill, the Buckhead store was opened in 1990. "Could we take a slice of L5P to the 'big city' and survive?" Well, we did. The Buckhead store's checkerboard parking lot did raise a few highbrows in Atlanta's toddy district, but we also made a lot of new friends, and converted many a high heel to comfort footbed! In 1994, an informal survey of our customers told us we needed to make another big jump, so we held our breath and opened the Roswell store, out there in the suburbs. Sure enough, we built it, and ya'll came. In 1996, we again listened to our customer survey, and opened our fourth store in Gwinnett, overlooking the Gwinnett Place Mall. We are grateful that once again, our customers in the "suburbs" have supported our business so well.
In Spring of 1998, we transformed half of our Buckhead store location into Georgia's First Birkenstock Specialty Store, and we have achieved Specialty Store status at our other locations. This distinction allows us many advantages over other Birkenstock dealers. We continue our ongoing commitment to provide the best customer service and a broad selection of product.
In 2003, we expanded once again. This time we went "West by North West" into Kennesaw, opening a store near Town Center Mall. Although somewhat smaller than our other locations, our "Ken" store is crammed with the same great footwear and provides the same level of service. In 2005, our dream of expanding Little 5 Points finally came true. We doubled our size upstairs and undertook an extensive upgrading of our interior. So far, you have seemed to like it... we are serving more customers there than ever before.
We've enjoyed winning the awards, mind you ("Best of Atlanta" from Atlanta Magazine, Creative Loafing, Creative Loafing Readers, 99x Express, Where Atlanta, etc.) but what really stokes our coals is to turn somebody on to some really cool, comfortable shoes, and watch them walk out the door knowing they'll never feel the same about their feet again. Our look may be far forward and progressive (some call us the "bleeding edge" of footwear retailing) but our methods are very traditional. We want to pamper you in the kind of service you don't get in retail stores anymore. We want to put on a show for you, with our products as the stars of the show. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to knock your socks off, Atlanta!
History
Abbadabba's was started by Janice Abernethy (it's her high school nickname) while husband-to-be Bill Carmichael was finishing up school at Emory. Her tiny little crafts shop near Emory's law school expanded into a booth at the Atlanta Flea Market, which was unfortunately displaced by Marta's rail station on Piedmont Road. After trying other flea markets, in 1981 Janice opened her first "real" store in Little 5 Points, Atlanta's alternative neighborhood (one part Berkeley, two parts Greenwich Village, a splash of Coconut Grove and toss with Tara.)
As Little 5 and its surrounding neighborhoods were rebirthed by urban pioneers in the early eighties, the business, and our reputation, grew. In 1988, so did Janice, who gave birth to our daughter, Abba Charice Carmichael, on September 8, 1988.
Buoyed by metro-wide customer enthusiasm and full-time partnership with Bill, the Buckhead store was opened in 1990. "Could we take a slice of L5P to the 'big city' and survive?" Well, we did. The Buckhead store's checkerboard parking lot did raise a few highbrows in Atlanta's toddy district, but we also made a lot of new friends, and converted many a high heel to comfort footbed! In 1994, an informal survey of our customers told us we needed to make another big jump, so we held our breath and opened the Roswell store, out there in the suburbs. Sure enough, we built it, and ya'll came. In 1996, we again listened to our customer survey, and opened our fourth store in Gwinnett, overlooking the Gwinnett Place Mall. We are grateful that once again, our customers in the "suburbs" have supported our business so well.
In Spring of 1998, we transformed half of our Buckhead store location into Georgia's First Birkenstock Specialty Store, and we have achieved Specialty Store status at our other locations. This distinction allows us many advantages over other Birkenstock dealers. We continue our ongoing commitment to provide the best customer service and a broad selection of product.
In 2003, we expanded once again. This time we went "West by North West" into Kennesaw, opening a store near Town Center Mall. Although somewhat smaller than our other locations, our "Ken" store is crammed with the same great footwear and provides the same level of service. In 2005, our dream of expanding Little 5 Points finally came true. We doubled our size upstairs and undertook an extensive upgrading of our interior. So far, you have seemed to like it... we are serving more customers there than ever before.
We've enjoyed winning the awards, mind you ("Best of Atlanta" from Atlanta Magazine, Creative Loafing, Creative Loafing Readers, 99x Express, Where Atlanta, etc.) but what really stokes our coals is to turn somebody on to some really cool, comfortable shoes, and watch them walk out the door knowing they'll never feel the same about their feet again. Our look may be far forward and progressive (some call us the "bleeding edge" of footwear retailing) but our methods are very traditional. We want to pamper you in the kind of service you don't get in retail stores anymore. We want to put on a show for you, with our products as the stars of the show. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to knock your socks off, Atlanta!
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