Chichester's on Vineville to end legacy

A longtime Macon antique and gift shop — also known for its trendy children's clothes and accessories — is closing.

Chichester's at 3043 Vineville Ave. has been open for more than 30 years.

"There are probably a lot of reasons why," said Chichester's owner Tim Wright. "Our priorities change over the years. But the biggest is that people are not shopping in stores anymore. They're going online and ordering. ... We have loyal customers, but there's just not enough of them to maintain the business. That's really the bottom line. ... We need about twice the number of loyal customers than we have."

Chichester's pharmacies at Baconsfield and on Hartley Bridge Road will remain open and are "alive and strong," he said. Wright will continue his profession as a pharmacist at Hartley Bridge. The Chi-ches-ters on Gray Highway is a separate business.

The Vineville location has about five employees, including Wright and his wife. At its peak in early 2000, the store had about 30 workers, with about half in gifts, he said.

"We don't expect (to stay open) past the end of February ... if we still have inventory," he said.

The pharmacy department, which had been founded more than 95 years ago, closed at the store on Vineville in December 2011.

Wright began working at the Vineville store as a pharmacy intern in the mid-1980s and was hired two years later. He soon became an owner and then bought the other locations. An addition was added to the Vineville store in the mid-1980s to allow more space for the gift shop. It continues to have a post office substation in the store.

Last summer, the Vineville Chichester's shrunk to about one-third its original size in an attempt to hang on to the business, Wright said.

"I am so sorry to hear this. I have been going to Chichesters since my family moved to Macon in 1950. I have fond .memories of the soda fountain that served fountain cokes and the best hot dogs in Macon," said one of the more than 285 Facebook posts as of Wednesday evening.

"When I think of all of the adorable clothes, hair bows and toys my children have gotten from Chichesters, it makes me sad to see y’all close! You have been a wonderful place to shop for my children through the years," said another post.

The pharmacy department, founded more than 95 years ago, closed at this location in December 2011.

Helon "Chicken" Chichester, a Bolingbroke native, came to Macon in 1914 to work as a pharmacist's apprentice at Taylor-Bayne Drug Co. and got his pharmacist's license in 1918, according to a Telegraph article when Chichester died in 1976.

In 1921, after Chichester bought College Hill Pharmacy at Washington Avenue and Orange Street, the drug store was a center of activity for college and high school students for more than 20 years. At its peak, there were seven Chichester's in Macon.

The original store had a soda fountain, which wasn't installed when the business moved to the current location in 1971.

This story was originally published February 7, 2018 at 12:37 PM with the headline "Chichester's on Vineville to end legacy."