Look Inside: Burbage's Self Service Grocery - Charleston, SC

Burbage's Self Service Grocery
Owner: Lisa & George Bowen

Opened: 2013 under current ownership, 1946 previously

Cooperative: none
Location: 157 Broad St, Downtown, Charleston, SC

Photographed: January 2022

Much like the Coming Market and the Coming Street Grocery, Burbage's Self Service Grocery is a wonderful historically preserved grocery store in downtown Charleston. We're closer to what might be considered the main business district here, towards the southern part of the city. Burbage's opened in 1946 and in 1987 was taken over by the owner's son, Al Burbage, who owned the store until 2013 when it was sold to Lisa and George Bowen. They've owned it since.

Very unfortunately, Burbage's was temporarily closed when I was in town, I believe due to the owners being on vacation or something like that. But I did manage to get some excellent pictures of the classic interior through the front windows.

As we see, it's a very historical grocery store but it's also been updated with new features, such as the produce case visible here on the left. We'll see another similar grocery store that has a strong historical element but has been recently revitalized a little bit outside of town, too. Well, that wraps up Charleston itself, so we're going to take a look around the surrounding area for the next two weeks or so. Tomorrow, we head east to Mount Pleasant, a pleasant but retail-filled suburb to the east of the city, and then our next stops will be south of the city through James Island and Folly Beach. And after that, we're headed west to Johns, Kiawah, and Wadmalaw Islands. Head over to The Market Report tomorrow to check out our Mount Pleasant store!