Ribbon cutting was held on Oct. 12
By Lyndsi Naron
The Bolivar Bullet
The grand opening of Bealls, located at 417 South Street in Cleveland, was held Thursday October 12 at 9:00 a.m. After the ribbon cutting ceremony, the new store opened to the community.
Shaw native, Iris Miller, is the manager of Bealls and was excited about opening the new space.
According to Miller, she has been with the Bealls company for 17 years.
“I started off as a sales associate, moved to supervisor, and worked my way up to management,” said Miller. “So, what we did during the pandemic, we bought the Goodies company out. We were always Bealls in Florida, so when we decided to buy the company out, we could use our Bealls name here.”
Miller shared that Burkes is within the family of companies that Bealls owns.
“We are Burkes outlet”, said Miller. “So, we’re getting rid of the Burkes outlet name since we have the rights to Bealls. We’re just rebranding. We’re the Bealls family of stores now, which consists of: Home-Centric, Regular Outfitters, Bealls, and Bealls department stores, which are located in Florida. Every Burkes that was in Mississippi, every Burkes that we had with the company is getting changed to Bealls.”
According to Miller, the building that had previously been Burkes will soon become a Five Below.
Miller said that the product selection is similar to what had been in Burkes, but with a larger variety of options. Products include: toys, clothing for all ages, cologne, perfume, children’s books, holiday items, kitchen accessories and cookware, some food and drink products, art, candles, frames, decor, lamps, linens, bedding, baskets, pet items, luggage, shoes, lingerie, bags, purses, toiletries, a wide variety of accessories, and gift items.
“Everything is basically the same,” said Miller. “For every $200 you spend, you get a $5 coupon when you become a reward member. When you sign up for our email offers, we send our coupons through email. That’s the only way we’re going to send them out as of now. Our company is still learning the process and the rebranding part of it, which is good. But the same discounts, same benefits that we had at Burkes, we’re bringing them over to here.”
According to Miller, the new store is 17,000 square foot in comparison to the 10,000 square feet that used to be Burkes.
“There’s more product for the community, more brands,” said Miller. “We cater to the woman shopper who comes in and shops for her family. We cater to that customer so she can make sure that she comes in and finds everything that she needs for her family.”
Miller shared that apart from the new store in Cleveland the closest Bealls is in Batesville, Ms.
“We try to make our guests feel like they’re welcome,” said Miller. “I just want the community to know that they will get a great shopping experience and a great guest experience when they enter the building. We try to keep it family friendly.”
Miller said the new business will add jobs for the community and help the community grow.
Though they do have brand name perfumes and cologne to test in store, they do not have a traditional makeup counter.
“Our prices are reasonable,” said Miller. “It’s something different from what we had. Now, if you would go into one of our department stores, which are located in Florida, we will have a perfume counter set up. We don’t here, but we do have name brand perfumes in our accessories department.”
Bealls will be open 9:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. on Sunday.
“Bealls is, for me, it’s just a great, great company to work for,” said Miller. “With me being here so long, it’s very family-oriented and you have that work-life balance where you can still go home and spend time with your family.”
Tracie Bogan is the distract manager for our Bealls and she was at the opening celebration. She shared she was excited for the opening and happy to be a part of the process.
“We are glad to have them and they will be a big asset to Cleveland. Glad they are going in at the holiday season,” said Cleveland Mayor Billy Nowell.