FOLEY, Ala. — The manager and buyer for the South Baldwin Regional Medical Center Gift Shop said, while it’s breaking her heart, the Gift Shop is closing, and she’s having a clearance sale at wholesale prices that is open to the public.

Anne Appleby said everything in the Gift Shop goes at wholesale prices except the fresh flowers and food items. That includes gifts for all occasions: jewelry, baby items, cards, balloons, stuffed animals, enamel boxes, lighted stands, glass-etched cubes, equipment, displays and paper products.

The Gift Shop at SBRMC is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and sales are by cash and credit card only.

The Gift Shop’s closing comes a little over two years after the 82-year-old Appleby received the Silver Award as one of nine outstanding Alabama retailers as “Retailers of the Year.”

The 2007 award was presented by the Alabama Retail Association in cooperation with the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Appleby’s Silver Award came in the “Annual Sales Less Than $1 Million” category, the first volunteer to ever win a ARA award.

Appleby was cited for nearly doubling Gift Shop sales from $27,000 when she took over in 2004 to over $51,000 in 2007.

All Gift Shop profits go to medical scholarships, and that’s something that Appleby said she will miss most.

“I feel committed to this scholarship thing,” said the woman who was SBRMC’s “Volunteer of the Year” for 2007.

Appleby has 5,600 volunteer hours at SBRMC, 5,500 of those in the Gift Shop.

Appleby, who had been in the gift shop business in Missouri for many years, said the reason the Gift Shop is closing at SBRMC is because the Hospital Auxiliary is being dissolved.

The Auxiliary recently celebrated its 50th Anniversary, according to Appleby.

Attempts to reach SBRMC CEO Michael Neuendorff on Tuesday proved unsuccessful as did calls to members of the SBRMC Board. Calls placed to the hospital’s Marketing Department were not returned.