Southern Season Specialty Foods & Gift Baskets Catalog

Southern Season Specialty Foods & Gift Baskets

Southern Season — originally launched as A Southern Season — was founded in 1975 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and grew into one of the South's best-known specialty-food destinations. For decades the Chapel Hill flagship operated as a sprawling gourmet emporium of coffee, confections, cheeses, and regional Carolina foods, drawing shoppers from across the Triangle and serving as a fixture of University Place. Its reputation as a "foodie dream" made it a regional institution well beyond its mail-order catalog.

That trajectory turned in 2016. Southern Season filed for bankruptcy in June 2016, listing roughly $9.8 million in assets against $18.3 million in liabilities, and in August 2016 the business was sold at auction for $3.5 million to Calvert Retail, a Delaware-based company. After the acquisition, the new ownership signaled a shift away from the large brick-and-mortar model toward online sales. In January 2020 the Chapel Hill flagship closed for good after 44 years — the end of the destination store that had defined the brand.

The Southern Season name did not disappear, however. Under Calvert Retail, the brand continues today as an online specialty-food and gift retailer shipping from Graham, North Carolina. The current https://southernseason.com storefront sells gift baskets, crates, and towers alongside coffee, peanuts, cheese straws, baking mixes, jams, sauces, sweets, and a "Carolina Pride" line of North Carolina products — a leaner operation than the Chapel Hill emporium, but one that keeps the catalog and its heritage in circulation.

What Southern Season Offers

• Gift baskets, crates, and towers — Curated specialty-food gift assortments for holidays and occasions
• Coffee — Blends, flavored and decaf coffees, plus mugs and brewing accessories
• Carolina specialty foods — Peanuts, cheese straws, baking mixes, jams, sauces, and spices, including a "Carolina Pride" North Carolina collection
• Sweets and confections — Cakes, chocolates, cookies, and candy

Contact Information

How to Order

Browse the current Southern Season catalog at https://southernseason.com or reach guest service by phone at 800-253-3663. Orders ship from the company's Graham, North Carolina warehouse; the original Chapel Hill retail store is permanently closed, and the brand now operates as an online and mail-order business under Calvert Retail.

References

• Southern Season online store – current Calvert Retail–operated catalog, Graham, NC contact details, and product range
• Southern Season – Wikipedia – founding in 1975, 2016 bankruptcy, Calvert Retail acquisition, and 2020 flagship closure
• Southern Season closes Chapel Hill store (WRAL) – January 2020 closure coverage
• How Southern Season, a Chapel Hill Foodie Dream, Met Its End (The Assembly) – history, bankruptcy, and the shift to online sales