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After 42 years, DT says goodbye to New and Not Shop
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After being open for more than four decades, a South Main Street staple will soon be shuttering their doors. The owners of the New and Not Shop are prepping for retirement after 42 years in business.

“We opened in November of 1979,” Cullen Barnes said. “We want to thank all our loyal customers for all these years in Liberty County.”

The store is owned by Cullen and his mom Linda Barnes and Peggy Williamson, his aunt. Cullen said his aunt retired about ten years ago.

The building has been a major part of their family.

“The building has been in our family for a gazillion years,” Cullen Barnes said. “Granddaddy had a nursery store there at one time and also had a Five and Dime Shop here.”

When his mother and aunt inherited the store, they opened up the New and Not consignment store.

They originally planned to close by Dec. 31, but the Barnes family said Christmas seemed more reasonable.

Right now, many items are being sold with 75 percent off the listed price. Barnes said they are also liquidating store equipment and shelves. They plan another major sale just before their doors close permanently which Cullen Barnes said might be Dec. 23.

“We will be open Dec. 21, 22 and 23 for sure,” he said adding after that day the doors will likely remain closed. Barnes said his mother is ready to retire and is selling the building. The plan is to relax and enjoy their coastal home in Sunbury.

“Just relax and get in the boat and get in the river and fish and crab probably,” he said. Cullen said he may go back to school and get his Certified Nursing Assistant degree.

He said their customers were much like family, many of which returned each generation.

“We are going to miss everybody for sure,” he said. “I’ve watched their children, from infants, grow up and have their own children come to our store.” And many in the community are sorry to see the store close. “I was such a regular they would call me when certain items came in cause they had learned my style, frequent shopper and City Councilwoman Diana Reid said.

The District One Councilwoman said she was sad to see them closing and recalled when it was a Five and Dime shop.

“I shopped there when it was Shave’s Five and Dime over 50 plus years ago when I was a kid,” she said. “Fast forward to New and Not, which became my fashion designer shop and my Saturday morning therapy.”

"I was so saddened to see the closing sign go up at the New and Not Shop across the street," said Rhonda Thomas owner of molly Maxine. "They have been there my entire life and as Main St changed, they were still there.  I remember shopping there back in 2000 when it was time to move off to college and decorate my dorm room. And then when we first opened our doors 7 years ago, Cullen was the first one to stop in and say welcome! I will surely miss looking out my front door and see him standing there and I most definitely miss my daily wave."

Clients who want their unsold consignment items returned should pick up their belongings by Dec. 18.

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