by KEVIN MCKINLEY
It was a simpler time. The responsibilities of being an adult and the requirements which went with it seemed somewhere over a distant horizon. In those days the shopping center which is now occupied by Ramey’s was very different to what it is today.
In the 1970s, when I came along, the building occupying Ramey’s didn’t exist. A bowling alley stood on the site and at the entrance of the parking lot was the bus station. Next door to present day Ramey’s was a Sears catalog store where a lot of Christmas and birthday wishes were handed over the counter or ordered through the old Wish Book which was the
pre-Amazon way of handling Christmas. I remember getting a Dallas Cowboys varsity jacket for Christmas 1977 – back when being a Cowboys fan meant something.
Next door to Sears was The Quick Chick, a tiny fried chicken to-go place. Next door to was Bill’s Dollar Store, then Winn Dixie then a laundromat (now a nail salon), and next door to the laundromat was AL’s Super 5&10.
I can remember getting off the school bus (bus number D-84 driven by Mrs. Stafford or Mrs. Cunningham depending on the year) on many afternoons in those days and heading to town with my mother and grandmother. They would give me money to get a cheeseburger and milkshake and play the juke box (”Seven Spanish Angels” – Ray Charles and Willie Nelson seemed to be popular on my play list) at the bus station where one would often see Alfred Moye, Roy Daw or other locals sharing coffee and tales.
Sometimes local kids would meet up to shoot a game of pool at the bowling alley such as with Quintin Bynum, Dennis Wiggins, Glenn Kelly or Clint Wetzel. This bowling alley also gave all the school kids cards for free bowling during the summers.
It’s hard to describe to a young person in 2024 what AL’s 5 &10 meant to local children in 1984. This department store seemed to have everything a child of the 70s and 80s would want. Many a first came out of this store. First BB guns, bicycles, Barbie Dolls, Star Wars action figures, GI Joe, the list goes on and on.
School supplies were sold in bulk at AL’s as well. I remember buying my first “Trapper Keeper” there to keep schoolwork and interclass notes between classmates safe. AL’s also sent out a yearly letter near Christmas to local children letting them know about a special Christmas sale. This was a stroke of advertising genius because I bet every household who
got the letter, called “Santa’s Playland,” had kids making a wish list.
I asked some of my classmates from Escambia County High School class of 1991 as to their recollections on the store.
“I put my first Care Bear on layaway there,” remembers Tammy Powe-Tolin.
I seem to remember her bringing that Care Bear to school. Probably when we were at Escambia County Middle School at the old location.
“There was always the freshest popcorn in AL’s,” remembered Kimberly Anderson Richbourg.
“I remember looking at the fish at AL’s,” reflected Laurie Strawbridge.
Fish were a big deal in those days. They were on the east side of the store along the wall. The aquariums were lined up and the sound of the pumps running and the water bubbling to keep the fish aerated stand out in my memory.
“I can still see those little tanks on the left wall … middle of the store … you could get ten fish for a dollar. I remember because I ‘unalived’ a lot of fish,” Laurie Strawbridge recalled.
I can concur with this finding in that we went through a lot of those aquarium fish too at my home as we searched for the perfect tropical fish sanctuary.
Adults enjoyed shopping at the store as well. Willodean Davis commented, “I enjoyed browsing the store in those days.”
Until the construction of the Harco Drugs (now Family Dollar) there was an outdoors section to the store that sold bird feeders, yard statues and the like.
AL’s disappeared from the Atmore commercial landscape some time ago, but the store lives on in Mobile and Orange Beach. It’s funny what a part of our memory that smells can play in that every time I go into the Orange Beach store, the smell reminds me of the
Atmore store. Similarly, the Covington County Courthouse in Andalusia always reminds me of the smell of the cleaners used at A.C. Moore School, yet that’s another article for another time.
I recently spoke with Mr. Mark Loeb who is the owner of today’s AL’s 5 & 10. He told me the amazing history of the store which was unfolding as local children were buying their Daisy BB guns, model planes, popcorn and pet birds.
“Post World War II, Super 5 & 10 had 60 stores in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. This was as retail was going from regional to national level stores and floor space was expanding,” Mr. Loeb said. “Stores like Super 5 & 10 found it hard to keep up with
stores like McCory’s and TG&Y.”
Mr. Loeb’s father put his heart and soul into keeping the retail store chugging along. “My father, Alvin Loeb, mortgaged his house to buy some of the stores and had seven stores, mostly staffed with former TG&Y- and Woolworth-trained managers as in they knew retail,” he said.
Alvin Loeb was committed to keeping the shelves stocked with the best merchandise and would travel to the New York City Toy Show yearly to secure the most popular toys for the Christmas season.
In 1980 Alvin Loeb incorporated AL’s Super 5 & 10 but the name was too long so it was shortened on store signs to AL’s 5 & 10. In Atmore, World War II veteran Ben Cooper managed the store. He fought with Patton in World War II and had been a manager with Woolworth’s prior to taking over Atmore’s AL’s 5 & 10. John Lewis replaced Mr. Cooper when he retired. My neighbor growing up, Jerry Page, worked at AL’s back when we
were all younger.
Alvin Loeb passed away in April 2007.
AL’s has gradually diminished from seven stores to just two, having held their ground against the behemoth Walmart, Target and Dollar General. Yet the stores have more character than the big box stores and your money stays closer to home.
Today the old AL’s store in Atmore sits darkened and closed like a monument to retail’s past among a raging sea of dollar stores and Amazon delivery trucks. Yet if a store could have a soul, I often wonder if maybe the lights flicker mysteriously on and off late at night during
the holiday season as the memories of Christmas past course through the veins of the old store.
Remember to make those Christmas memories count – you never know which one may be the last.