If you’ve walked into an Old Time Pottery recently and seen “everything must go” signs, you’re not alone in wondering what’s going on. Shoppers across the country are asking the same question: is the whole chain shutting down?
The short answer is no — but the full picture is more complicated. Some stores are closing for good, some are converting to a different brand, and a handful are still operating as normal Old Time Pottery locations. Here’s what’s actually happening.
Old Time Pottery Is Not Closing Everywhere
Let’s be direct about this first. Old Time Pottery is not announcing a company-wide shutdown. What’s really driving the confusion is an acquisition that happened back in April 2023, when Gabe’s (Gabriel Brothers, Inc.) bought Old Time Pottery.
Together, the two brands now form a combined off-price retail group with more than 170 stores across 20 states. Gabe’s is headquartered in Morgantown, West Virginia, and runs a discount retail model — similar in spirit to Old Time Pottery, but with a broader product mix that includes clothing and general merchandise.
What looks like a chain closing is, in many cases, a brand transition. Stores are being converted from Old Time Pottery to Gabe’s, not shut down permanently. That said, some individual locations are closing for good. The situation varies market by market.
A Quick Background on Old Time Pottery
Old Time Pottery was founded in 1986 and built its name around large warehouse-style stores selling discount home décor and seasonal merchandise. It’s been headquartered in Murfreesboro, Tennessee since the beginning.
One thing worth clarifying: Old Time Pottery did file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in 2009, which led to the closure of eight stores in early 2010. That was a real financial crisis for the company. But that was more than 14 years ago and is a completely separate event from what’s happening now with Gabe’s.
Don’t let anyone connect those two situations — they’re not related. The current changes are the result of an acquisition, not another bankruptcy.
Which Old Time Pottery Stores Are Actually Closing
Here’s where things get specific. A professional liquidation firm called SB360 Capital Partners was brought in to run store closing sales at four confirmed locations:
- Fayetteville, North Carolina
- North Charleston, South Carolina
- Orlando, Florida
- Rockford, Illinois
These are true closures. SB360 specializes in retail liquidation, so when a company hires them to manage sales, it generally means a location is shutting down and not coming back.
A few other locations have also been confirmed as closing. A store in the Forest Park, Georgia area announced it would close by the end of October 2025, with a liquidation sale already underway at the time of that announcement. The Norfolk, Virginia location is listed as permanently closed with no reported conversion to Gabe’s.
So there are real closures happening. But again, these are individual stores being cut from the portfolio — not the entire chain folding.
What a Conversion Looks Like vs. a Permanent Closure
This is where a lot of shoppers get confused, and understandably so. A store clearing out inventory can look identical to a store going out of business — at least from the outside.
Signs a store is converting to Gabe’s
- Heavy discounts on old Old Time Pottery merchandise, while some items are still priced normally (those are likely Gabe’s products already on the shelves)
- Mixed or updated branding inside the store
- A posted reopening date under the Gabe’s name
The Murfreesboro, Tennessee location is a good example. It closed its doors as Old Time Pottery, but a sign in the window announced it would reopen as Gabe’s on April 26. Shoppers who saw “closed” might have assumed the worst, but the store wasn’t disappearing — it was changing its name.
According to community discussions, a Springfield, Missouri location followed a similar path: it operated its last day as Old Time Pottery in February and reopened as Gabe’s in March. These reports are anecdotal, but they fit the broader pattern.
Signs a store is closing for good
- A stated final closing date with no mention of a reopening
- A liquidation firm managing the sales
- No Gabe’s signage, branding, or announcement
- Local news or community posts confirming the building will be vacated
If you see a store closing that involves SB360 or a similar firm, that’s a good signal it won’t reopen under any name.
The Surfside Beach Example: How Confusing Messaging Creates Panic
A useful example of how all this creates confusion happened in the Myrtle Beach area of South Carolina. The Old Time Pottery in Surfside Beach put up clearance signs, and shoppers immediately started asking whether the store was closing or converting to Gabe’s.
Local media covered it. The store manager said it was not closing — the store was just clearing out old inventory to make room for new merchandise. But the manager declined to say whether the store was converting to Gabe’s.
That kind of answer leaves people in the dark, and it’s a pattern you’ll see at stores in the middle of a transition. Clearance signs don’t always mean a permanent closure. Sometimes they just mean the shelves are being restocked under a different brand identity.
What Happens to Employees During These Changes
This is a reasonable concern, and the honest answer is: it depends on the store.
In cases where a store is converting to Gabe’s rather than closing, some employees have reportedly kept their jobs through the transition. Reports from community forums suggest that at certain locations, staff were told directly they would stay on. However, this is anecdotal information — it’s not an official company-wide policy that’s been publicly confirmed.
At stores that are closing outright — like the four SB360-managed locations — job losses are a real consequence. Liquidation sales have a defined end point, and once a store closes completely, the positions go with it.
If you’re an employee at an Old Time Pottery and want to know your store’s status, the most reliable approach is to ask management directly or watch for official announcements from corporate.
Why Gabe’s Is Making These Changes
From a business perspective, this is fairly standard post-acquisition behavior. When one retailer buys another, it rarely keeps every single location. The goal is usually to grow the combined brand by keeping the strongest stores and cutting the ones that aren’t performing well.
For Gabe’s, buying Old Time Pottery made sense. OTP had large-format stores in markets where Gabe’s wanted a presence, and the two brands share a discount retail DNA. Converting OTP locations to Gabe’s lets the acquirer expand into new regions using real estate and customer awareness that already exists.
The closures — Fayetteville, North Charleston, Orlando, Rockford, Forest Park, Norfolk — suggest those particular locations didn’t fit Gabe’s strategy going forward, whether due to location, lease terms, or sales performance.
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How to Check Your Local Store’s Status
If you want to know what’s happening with your nearest Old Time Pottery, here are three straightforward ways to find out:
- Check the Old Time Pottery store locator at the official OTP website. Some locations, like Casselberry, Florida, still show active hours under the Old Time Pottery name, which means the brand hasn’t disappeared entirely.
- Check Gabe’s website, which has a dedicated Old Time Pottery page with its own store locator. This shows which locations Gabe’s is actively managing under that name.
- Call the store directly or watch local community Facebook groups. Liquidation announcements and closure dates often show up in local groups before they make the news.
If a store is closing, Yelp listings sometimes get updated to reflect that too — though those aren’t always current, so treat them as a starting point rather than a final answer.
What to Expect as a Shopper During the Transition
If your local store is in the middle of a conversion or closing sale, there are a few things to keep in mind.
Clearance deals during these periods can be genuinely good. Prices on old OTP merchandise get cut significantly to move inventory fast. But return policies are often restricted or eliminated entirely during liquidation sales — all sales may be final. Check before you buy, especially on large or expensive items.
If the store converts to Gabe’s, expect a different product mix. Gabe’s carries off-price apparel, footwear, and general merchandise in addition to home goods. It’s a broader store than the old OTP model, which leaned heavily into home décor and seasonal items.
The Bottom Line
Old Time Pottery is not going out of business across the board. What’s happening is a gradual integration into Gabe’s, the company that acquired it in 2023. Some stores are converting to the Gabe’s name, some are staying open as Old Time Pottery for now, and some are closing permanently.
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