WELCOME

To Half-Moon Outfitters

HEY Y'ALL. NICE TO MEETCHA.

Half-Moon Outfitters is a fiercely independent regional chain of Outdoor Stores that serves South Carolina and Georgia. Founded in 1993 in downtown Charleston, Half-Moon thrives on a boutique selection of the best the Outdoor Industry has to offer. Half-Moon prides itself on being first to the dance on the new, innovative and most interesting products. Half Moon cares deeply about a service model that is meaningful to employees, vendors and most importantly to the consumer. 

AND NOW, A BRIEF HISTORY OF HALF-MOON OUTFITTERS:

1990

Beezer works at The Trail Shop in Chapel Hill, NC as a clerk to make a little dough during school, and as a good way to meet the "cool" girls. Generally considered by the store manager to be the most unmotivated hire in company history

1991

St. John USVI - Beezer writes a business plan on Pretlow's computer in the back office of Big Planet as a device to stay out of bars. Pretlow mails the business plan to a friend at Patagonia: Paul Marsh. Miraculously they support the idea of letting Beezer open a store in downtown Charleston.

September 15, 1992

Beezer makes one fundraising phone call to rich uncle Jim and asks if he wants to be a 1/10 owner of the future Half-Moon Outfitters for $100,000. Uncle Jim says "thank you, no - but I will take 25% for $40,000." Beezer says, "great, thanks." Simulated photo of Beezer's feelings right after the deal went down. 

February 13, 1993

Half-Moon Outfitters opens in downtown Charleston-Store 1. Pretlow and Beezer go to Banana Republic and lure away their best and prettiest sales person - Kit. Southeast Wildlife Expo kicks off a week later and it is off to the races for Store 1.

September 1993

Beezer receives extended eye contact from the Man in Black at a Highwaymen concert in Central Park.

October 1994

The Greenville, SC store opens - store 2. Lame location, poorly executed store. Beezer develops odd eye twitch. Meanwhile back at Store 1 - Blake doles out some "magic" chocolate chip cookies to unsuspecting co-coworkers and one oblivious customer. Kit and Katherine spend the rest of the day on the floor of the office excitedly discussing the world-saving qualities of ceiling tiles. Beezer covers the sales floor and waits on a call from the police. Eye twitch gets worse. Oddly, Blake gets promoted.

Summer 1995

The Clemson store opens - ditto as above for location and execution. The only good news was that this store was an hour from the Chattooga River. So rather than putting his head in the sand, Beezer could put his head in the cool clear waters of the Five Falls.

Fall 1996

Don gets hired as a consultant. Clemson gets shut down. Greenville moves - things get better.

Fall 1997

The Mt Pleasant, SC store opens - store 3. It is tiny and smells like dead shrimp, but it is also successful.

February 2000

Shop dog Marley passes to the great hereafter.

November 2002

The first warehouse is purchased and the back room workers and all stored goods move there for central distribution. Don plays a trick on Warehouse Boys by leaving large road-killed raccoon on the loading dock with note and cig, hanging from the poor dead creature's mouth. The note reads "Rocky says - 'thou shalt count the tee shirts properly.'" The Warehouse Boys pack up the raccoon and ship it to Mt. Pleasant as if it were inventory. That joke doesn't go over that well - buzzards circle for days thereafter.

April 15, 2003

The Columbia, SC store opens - store 4. Dad and Robert persuade Beezer to pull out the drop ceiling exposing beautiful barrel vault architecture - Good Call.

April 2005

Jessica T. says, "Here take it - send the checks to this PO Box in Telluride - I am outta' here." And thus store 5 was adopted in Savannah, GA.

Dec 15, 2006

The Half-Moon warehouse, offices, and internet store make the move to N. Charleston. This takes place one day before an employee ultimatum expired in which all warehouse employees were to walk out due to cramped working conditions.

January 27, 2007

Outdoor Retailer trade show - Dean Potter, Chris Sharma, and that Bulgarian dude put the hard sell on Beezer, Sara, Don and Brian to buy a demo climbing wall. The purchase is for a yet undesigned brand new store on the southwest side of Charleston. Beezer caves in and the signatures are still there on the climbing wall as proof.

May 17, 2007

While on tour of the new facility, a dozen home-schooled 6th, 7th and 8th graders put Beezer and Polly to the test on Green Construction and what the acronym LEED stands for.

2008

The strangest, most intense, but oddly pleasant store roll out in history. Athens, GA store opens - store 6 - in February. The Virginia Highlands area of Atlanta, GA store opens - store 7 - in April. In October, "El Ocho" - the papa of all Half-Moons - opens in the South Windermere shopping center in Charleston.

November 1, 2008

The venerable Mayor Riley cuts the ribbon while Hank Futch croons and the kids run amok at our first Grand Opening since 1995. One family, headed for dinner elsewhere spots the buffet spread and throwing elbows, fights for the pork trifecta every time a new one emerges from the oak oven. It almost comes to blows as Hugh and Justin attempt to bounce the hippy vagrants. Wachovia, Half-Moon's bank, flirts with insolvency and everyone is pretty weirded out that Christmas season - but Santa always arrives. That climbing wall was a hit.

January 2009

Emily and Beezer visit Troncones Mexico where Emily befriends Gerry Lopez. While relegated to third wheel status Beezer does become convinced by Gerry that Stand Up paddle boarding is not for kooks only.

Black Friday 2010

Erin Burnett finally replies to the copious fan mail and replies to Beezer allowing him to come on Squawk Box to report some good news for a change. Filmed live from South Windermere store as store mgr -Autumn performs dyno moves on the climbing wall arch in the background. Squawk gets the expected Autumn bump on ratings. The Active wear craze begins.

Valentine’s 2011

Half-Moon bucks conventional wisdom and signs a contract to buy a derelict old Laundromat nine years vacant and with serious contamination issues in downtown Athens Georgia. It has nice bones and a prominent corner.

November 2012

Jewish Reggae star Matisyahu decides he needs a free afternoon show for his younger fans. Katherine takes the call and with that The Acoustic Rock Series is born. Matisyahu gives an awesome 4 song set to young families and makes it to light the 5:00 candles at the nearby Synagogue. Michael Franti follows soon thereafter to test the building occupancy loads. Eyes open to what retail could and should be...

March 2015

Half-Moon Augusta opens 6 months late, but is immediately well received.

AUGUST 2015

After remediation and going through the Brownfield process, the Athens GA store moves to 394 Prince Avenue. Employees thrilled that they no longer have to drive across town to Taqueria del Sol, and The Grit.