Nestled at the bottom of the southside of the intercostal waterway bridge on a quiet street corner is one of the oldest and oddest buildings in Gulf Shores. It’s beautiful, yet unassuming facade welcomes locals and tourists alike onto the island and is one of the first landmarks inviting people onto the island. 

It’s the city store and, although it opened in 2014, many locals still wander in unaware of that’s inside.

Bridgette Reynolds, programs and events manager for the City of Gulf Shores, said the store opened as part of the city’s initiative to change its branding and way finding signage.

“We started in just a little corner in our tennis center selling t-shirts,” Reynolds said. “It expanded and grew to the point where we said it needed to be something larger than just a corner of the tennis center. At the same time, the building on the corner of Clubhouse and 59 was owned by the city and the fire department was actually occupying it because they were building a new fire station.”

The building was actually the first tourism building in the state of Alabama and was christened by Lurleen Wallace. The city spoke with the same consulting firm who worked on the city’s branding about how to use the building.

“I said we can't have this building not used by something,” Reynolds said. “It’s just too good not to. We don't have a lot of historical things down here. Everything gets taken away by hurricanes, or we knock it down.”

And so the building had a function once more. The palm trees around it are original and tell a story themselves. Each notch in the trees are from a period when the tree was in distress, such as during Hurricane Frederick and Hurricane Ivan.

The building not only serves to sell city-branded merchandise. It also functions as an information hub, a box office for city entertainment events and an outlet for renting city facilities.

Ed Delmore, superviser of retail operations, said the store has been so successful because the brand is something locals are proud to wear.

“We could sell pretty much anything out of here, but that's not the goal,” Delmore said. “The goal is brand recognition. It’s for somebody who's down here to come in and buy our stuff to take back to wherever their from and remember the good times they had in Gulf Shores. For folks who don't know Gulf Shores, it's for them to see 'Small town, big beach' and say 'Where's that?’”

Delmore said a lot of time and effort goes into picking the items that will be sold in the now four different store locations. He said when picking out beach towels, the team had 10-15 different samples around the offices of city hall to lay on and wrap up with until the final selection was made.

“It's really high quality stuff provided to the citizens and the visitors at an affordable price,” Delmore said. “It's growing. It's crazy how much it's growing.”

From Miss Sunny to ‘Small town, big beach’

The current tagline for the city wasn’t implemented until a consulting firm was hired to help with way finding signage in 2012. Before then, the marketing for the city was a “Come to Gulf Shores” campaign which featured a character known as Miss Sunny.

Likened to Betty Boop by many, the woman had a small waist and bouffant hair while being featured in a bathing suit in varying settings.

“She's very 60s mod, and she was with her family,” Reynolds said. “They had everyone in the car saying "Take the next left to Gulf Shores." Or they had her holding up her kid like the Coppertone baby. They had her with the beach pail and the big beach ball. So she became part of what those ads were.”

Miss Sunny became somewhat of a dignitary for the city, becoming synonymous with Gulf Shores thanks to billboards, bumper stickers and ad campaigns.
Miss Sunny would come to life in the form of a pageant held annually at the Shrimp Festival.

“It became a big thing,” Reynolds said. “When they cut the ribbon on the bridge, Miss Sunny was there with the mayor and the governor and all of the other dignitaries. It was Miss Sunny who got the scissors to do it. She was the one who welcomed people to the city. She was an ambassador of the city, and that went on until the mid-80s and then the pageant just kind of died off.”

Last year, for Miss Sunny’s 50th anniversary, the city did a large campaign for the former mascot. A section of the city museum was dedicated to Miss Sunny and her role in tourism for Gulf Shores. Mayor Robert Craft even named the first Saturday in June a “Sunny Day” in her honor.

“She was truly - Miss Sunny truly was Gulf Shores,” Reynolds said. “She represented the area. She was the thing. We had former Miss Sunnys come to the opening of the exhibit at the museum. It was an honor to be a Miss Sunny - it wasn't just a beauty pageant.”

Looking ahead

The store as a retail outfit has seen unprecedented growth since it’s opening. Last year alone, sales grew by 25 percent.

At the time of publication, the city is waiting on word from an application to get a historic marker for the building.

Not satisfied to just get the word out about city events, the staffers inside also give out Leave Only Footprints information, inform tourists about road work and help the understanding about turtles and other wildlife who share our white, sandy backyard.
Delmore said his hope is for people to just come visit the store. To make a sale is a bonus- his goal is to provide good service.

“I think the biggest thing is that people can walk in here and say we sell t-shirts,” Delmore said. “It's an oversimplification of things. To have something as great as the beach and still have all of the other things going on that we do for people to do other than that is incredible to me. I don't know of any other place like that.”