Byrd Cookie Opens Retail Store in Savannah’s City Market

Byrd Cookie Co. returned to downtown Savannah, Ga., recently, opening a retail store in City Market, 85 years after founder Benjamin T. Byrd moved the business out of the historic district with his family’s relocation to Sandfly, according to a news report in the Savannah Morning News. The shop is the first off-site retail outlet for the company.

“Being here 88 years we have become part of the history of Savannah,” Geoffrey Repella, Byrd’s president, told the newspaper. “We want to be a part of the fabric of historic Savannah.”

Byrd was founded just a few blocks from the new store’s location, and operated there for four years before the Byrd family moved to Sandfly in 1927 and relocated the bakery to their property on Norwood Avenue. The company opened its first retail location, the Cookie Shanty, across the road in the 1950s, and moved to its current site, home to the bakery, a gift shop and a restaurant, in 1995.

The new 1,500-square-foot store should help Byrd grow its already popular brand, CEO Stephanie Lindley said in the newspaper interview. The store at the bakery attracts anywhere from six to 15 tour buses a day, depending on the season. 

Byrd Cookie joins Savannah’s Candy Kitchen as another specialty food retailer within the City Market shopping, dining and entertainment complex. The new store will employ 12.