Family Looks to Sell Tifton Store After 115 Years

Savvy family retail stores in small Southern towns are like lox to bagels. Or, at least, they were. As generations of children fly off to college and other worldly careers, the family store might succumb to a natural death or be run off by Walmart.

Or, in the case of small-town Tifton, Georgia’s long standing department store, aka, “The Big Store,” owner Phil Perlis, at a young 71, has decided to voluntarily retire along with wife, Susan, to write a new chapter traveling and “who knows what else.”

The store was founded in 1911. Now, after four generations, Phil Perlis declared, “We are leaving on a high note. 2024 was a record year, and 2025 is on track to top that.”

While searching for new owners, the duo has agreed to stay on for a bit to usher in a smooth transition. Actually, for the past five years, Phil Perlis has been considering an exit but recently decided to take definitive action based on the urging of family members.

While in college, Perlis was en route to the University of Georgia Law School, when he returned to Tifton to try working in the store, and found he wanted to stay.

He said, “Something just clicked and I didn’t want to leave. I’m the luckiest person in the world to get to work with parents, aunts, and uncles.”

With 22 employees, The Big Store sells men’s and ladies’ apparel, suits, shirts, pants, shorts, footwear, hunting boots, outdoor products, and more, with “not much demand for children’s wear, but we still carry it.”

The website is alive with colorful panels of upscale sneakers, a fashionable over-the-shoulder magenta dress, tasteful men’s outfits, suede boots, Yeti mugs, spiffy jeans and the like.

Tifton, with a population of 17,045, draws shoppers from nearby Fitzgerald (population 9,006) and Valdosta (population 55,378). Phil Perlis told the AJT he has close ties to the Fitzgerald Hebrew Congregation; interestingly, the synagogue where local rabbi emeritus of Ahavath Achim Synagogue, Rabbi Neil Sandler, serves part-time as visiting rabbi. Perlis noted, “Rabbi Sandler has really been a spark plug for our Fitzgerald congregation.”

In terms of the 13,000 square feet in The Big Store, Perlis is actively seeking buyers. He said, “Susan and I split duties and ran things smoothly, but we did not discuss work at home. We learned to pivot and adapted with the Internet. We made a living in slightly different ways and provided a service — not just in business ‘to sell things.’”

Perlis is also proud of winning the Cox Communications Family Business Award. With two grown children not living in Tifton, Perlis continued, “I don’t play golf, have zero hobbies, and have no grandchildren. I don’t plan to move to Atlanta but have learned to ‘never say never.’ We have a long list of places to see. Maybe starting with Spain.”

Recalling this writer’s now defunct family’s schmattah store (nowhere near the caliber of The Big Store in Tifton) in La Grange, Ga., Jews worked well with Black and even farming communities, sometimes giving credit terms to poor families. In 1998, Stella Suberman published, “Jew Store: A Family Memoir,” with compelling photographs that told of soft good establishments retailing to locals in small, mostly Christian towns, where the KKK sometimes reared its ugly head. Nevertheless, owners, employees, and customers typically formed close-knit bonds.

The Big Store in Tifton’s tagline, “Where quality and service are second to none,” is looking to be embraced by new owners devoted to its longstanding mission in line with the Perlis’ legacy.