Lucky Day Emporium Is Closed

Lucky Day had its Last Day.

That's right. Lucky Day Emporium, at 3322 Lithia-Pinecrest Rd., Valrico, closed shop after three years and three months in business.

Owner Brenda Martin said she loved every minute of running her store with her sister, Ginger Waring. The emporium sold vintage and antique items for the home.

Lucky Day closed because the building it occupies is being torn down to make way for a Wawa convenience store, at the corner of Lithia-Pinecrest and Bloomingdale Avenue.

Martin said the closing was unexpected, but the building Lucky Day occupied was sold. "We were given 60 days to get out." All the stores in the little shopping center have had to move out, including Angie's Hair Salon and Weir's Music, which have opened in new locations.

Three properties at the intersection, including the 1950s building housing Consign Dezigns and Lucky Day Emporium, the property occupied by the new Verizon Wireless store and the lot on Bloomingdale Avenue that included Outdoor Impressions, have been zoned for a Wawa.

Consign Dezigns owner Marie Gomes doesn't plan to relocate her shop.

Jim Smith, owner of Outdoor Impressions, which has been featured on the DIY Network show, Yardcrashers, five times, has already relocated to 10020 Carr Rd., Riverview, across from St. Stephen Catholic School off Boyette Road.

This past weekend marked two days of farewells for Martin and Waring at Lucky Day Emporium. They sold just about everything in the shop.

Martin said she does not think she will try to re-open in another location, but she may do events through other vendors.

"We had heard rumors the building was for sale; we just didn't know," Martin explained about the hurried sell-off of merchandise. If the women do re-open, she said they would want all-new merchandise, "something different."

Martin has one last thing to do: Sell the sales counter. There's nothing else left.

Interested? It's being offered on Craigslist.