Serious shoppers - we're talking folks who live "Let's Make a Deal" - salivate at the mere mention of Boaz.
Say where?Say it "BOE-az" - then put on your trotting shoes when you arrive in this little town an hour's drive northeast of Birmingham.
People jam the concrete parking lots on weekends to shop at Boaz's five factory outlet malls, most of which abut one another.
Bus tours drive in from all over the South. Just to shop.
There are 160 factory outlet stores, 160 and counting. They employ 8,000 people, 500 more than Boaz's population.
It's shopping fever.
Sherry Smith knows. She is manager of the Boaz Outlet Center, the biggest mall with nine buildings and 70 stores. "The bus tours are great," she effuses. "We meet them and give them discount coupons ... . They'll make three or four trips back to the bus with their shopping bags full."
Pat Russell from Blountsville, Ala., about 20 miles away, and her pal, Betty Hicks from Cullman, Ala., an hour away, get their Boaz fix at least once a month. "My aunt and uncle come up once a year from Jacksonville, Fla.," Hicks says.
"We get good brands - CHEAP," Russell squeals.
They are clutching Polo-Ralph Lauren bags and dip in and out of the Anne Klein outlet and J.G. Hook and Harve Bernard and Geoffrey Beene and Nike and Oneida and Reebok and Donkenny and West Point Pepperill and Oshkosh and J. Crew and Benetton and Black and Decker and Evan Picone and Royal Dalton ... and highly recommend the Shoe Place ("Great buys!")
The big lunchtime draw is Mrs. Tupper's Buffet in the Boaz Outlet Center. It's an all-you-can-eat cafeteria that serves black-eyed peas, fried and smothered chicken, chicken livers, salads, ice cream, cake, peach cobbler and so on.
There also is a Bible outlet store and a store that sells unclaimed luggage it buys from the airlines.
And there are a bunch of stores named after Chalmus Weathers, who is big with the Chamber of Commerce. He and a former mayor, Billy Dyar, apparently are mainly responsible for Boaz's success. They convinced Vanity Fair, which has a factory here that makes Lee jeans, to open an outlet in their old building in Boaz when they moved to the new quarters. That was in 1982.
Now look.
About the only major competition is in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., where Dolly Parton reigns at Dollywood, and shoppers flock to almost 200 outlet stores.
In Boaz, sales personnel obviously are proud of their little town's fame. And virtually all of them say good-bye with a lilting, "You come back now."
Most do.
Boaz is about an hour's drive from Birmingham and 19 miles north of Gadsden on Highway 431. Take I-59 from Birmingham to Gadsden.
Motels include a Best Western (1-800-628-0146 or 593-8410), Boaz Inn Motel (593-2874), Days Inn (593-0000 or 1-800-325-2525) and Key West Inn (directly across from the Boaz Outlet Center, 593-0800).
Or drive another 30 or so minutes to Lake Guntersville State Park Lodge (582-2061, 1-800-LGville or 1-800-ALA PARK) and get a room, chalet or cabin overlooking the lake ($57 to $95). The Lake Guntersville Holiday Inn Resort (582-2220 or 1-800-465-4329) also has rooms overlooking the lake.
More information: Boaz Chamber of Commerce, South Trust Bank Building, Hwy. 205, Boaz, Ala. 35957.