Crestline retailers look forward to annual tent sale

On Saturday, Aug. 12, Crestline Village will be filled with shoppers looking to score back-to-school deals at Crestline’s annual tent sale. With Mountain Brook schools starting on Wednesday, Aug. 9, the tent sale is a chance for families to start off the school year while spending time outdoors in their community.

Each year, the Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce sponsors the tent sale, and the majority of retail shops in the village participate. Each store will have its own sales, which can be found on the chamber’s website and social media accounts. 

According to Emily Jensen, executive director of the Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce, the chamber will also have a tent on the lawn of City Hall, where community members can come for giveaways, cold drinks and children’s activities.

The tent sale tradition started in 2012, after the years-long success of the Pants Store’s annual tent sale.

“It was born out of the fact that the summer months in our villages can be a little bit slower,” Jensen said. “So this is just a way to boost business during the slower summer season and also give people the opportunity and to encourage people to shop locally as they are preparing for back-to-school.”

Michael Gee, co-owner of the Pants Store, explained how they came up with the idea in 2009. The store rented a large outdoor tent and filled it with discounted items from their store that they hoped to get rid of before the end of the summer season. The Crestline Village sale followed a few years later.

“We look forward to it because it’s good for us to get rid of stuff, and it’s good for the customers too because they’re getting deals,” Gee said.

The Pants Store is not the only retail store in Crestline that looks forward to the sale each year. Katie Smith from Please Reply said customers can expect back-to-school deals on stationery, cups and paper products from her store. According to Smith, the event is a fun way to be active in the community.

“It’s a fun day where everyone is outside and walking, and it’s fun to see familiar faces,” she said.

Likewise, Aja Powanda of Mon Ami, which sells children and tween clothing, said the tent sale is a highly-anticipated day for her store.

“It’s a ton of work prepping for the day, but the tent sale is consistently one of our best days of the year each year,” Powanda said. “Hopefully we continue to see new faces from our neighboring towns and communities that are coming into our village to explore and shop.”

Supporting local businesses remains at the heart of the chamber’s motivations for sponsoring the tent sale, and Jensen encourages people to come out and invest in Crestline’s local businesses.

“We have a tremendous business community here, and as I often tell people, you will find no finer group of retailers who put so much back into the community than you will here in Mountain Brook,” she said.

More information about the tent sale can be found at mtnbrookchamber.org.