Michael Cooper Barefoot
Tastemaker Michael Barefoot grew an 800-square-foot coffee roastery into a nationally recognized retail giant and, in the process, set a new standard for the specialty foods industry. The former one-man-show now employs more than 300 people at its flagship store in Chapel
Hill. When A Southern Season opened at Eastgate in 1975, few – except Barefoot himself – envisioned a time when tour buses would regularly disgorge throngs of food tourists at the doors of a retail establishment. This is, of course, why Barefoot is a visionary.
Growing up in Eastern North Carolina, he was a foodie before such a term existed. After graduating from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he launched A Southern Season, only the 10th local coffee roaster in the nation. Customers loved the product and the service and began asking for additional products. To meet demand, Barefoot expanded his inventory to include imported items. As the ‘70s came to a close, he leased 10,000 square feet in Eastgate’s former bowling alley, adding a limited take-out kitchen and growing wine department. During this time, Barefoot also launched a mail-order catalog business that eventually grew so robust it was moved to a stand-alone warehouse in Mebane. He also created private-label products and – realizing there wasn’t a go-to source for Southern-made goodies – stocked made-in-North Carolina and made-in the-South products. A Southern Season also became one of the first locally owned
businesses to occupy space at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
In 2003, Barefoot saw an opportunity to build on his motto – education, excitement and entertainment – by relocating to a 60,000-square-foot location at University Mall. He saw customers shifting away from simply purchasing specialty and imported food items and morphed A Southern Season’s operations accordingly. Today’s customers can take classes at the in-store cooking school, watch demonstrations, do taste-tests, and enjoy home-cooked fare in the 260-seat Weathervane restaurant or to-go. Of course, they can still shop for everything gracious living requires, from housewares and hominy grits to puff pastry and pâté, from down-home or designer goods to in-state or
international goodies.
All this made A Southern Season into one of the largest specialty-only retailers in the U.S. Seeing an opportunity to expand and replicate Barefoot’s incredibly successful business model, TC Capital Fund, a locally controlled investment group, purchased A Southern Season in 2011. Barefoot remains with the company he founded, continuing to innovate and inspire. A luminary in the specialty retail industry,
Barefoot has received numerous accolades for his vision and leadership. In 2002, A Southern Season was named the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce’s Business of the Year, and in 2004 it was named Outstanding Retailer by the National Association of the Specialty Food Trade. Barefoot and his store were included in America’s 25 Best Independent Stores, a book by George Whalin. And in 2009, Barefoot received the Global Innovator Award (GIA) from the International Housewares Association, which recognizes retail excellence
around the world.
For his vision and innovation, and his commitment to growing the local economy, we proudly induct Michael Barefoot to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Business Hall of Fame.
Hill. When A Southern Season opened at Eastgate in 1975, few – except Barefoot himself – envisioned a time when tour buses would regularly disgorge throngs of food tourists at the doors of a retail establishment. This is, of course, why Barefoot is a visionary.
Growing up in Eastern North Carolina, he was a foodie before such a term existed. After graduating from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he launched A Southern Season, only the 10th local coffee roaster in the nation. Customers loved the product and the service and began asking for additional products. To meet demand, Barefoot expanded his inventory to include imported items. As the ‘70s came to a close, he leased 10,000 square feet in Eastgate’s former bowling alley, adding a limited take-out kitchen and growing wine department. During this time, Barefoot also launched a mail-order catalog business that eventually grew so robust it was moved to a stand-alone warehouse in Mebane. He also created private-label products and – realizing there wasn’t a go-to source for Southern-made goodies – stocked made-in-North Carolina and made-in the-South products. A Southern Season also became one of the first locally owned
businesses to occupy space at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
In 2003, Barefoot saw an opportunity to build on his motto – education, excitement and entertainment – by relocating to a 60,000-square-foot location at University Mall. He saw customers shifting away from simply purchasing specialty and imported food items and morphed A Southern Season’s operations accordingly. Today’s customers can take classes at the in-store cooking school, watch demonstrations, do taste-tests, and enjoy home-cooked fare in the 260-seat Weathervane restaurant or to-go. Of course, they can still shop for everything gracious living requires, from housewares and hominy grits to puff pastry and pâté, from down-home or designer goods to in-state or
international goodies.
All this made A Southern Season into one of the largest specialty-only retailers in the U.S. Seeing an opportunity to expand and replicate Barefoot’s incredibly successful business model, TC Capital Fund, a locally controlled investment group, purchased A Southern Season in 2011. Barefoot remains with the company he founded, continuing to innovate and inspire. A luminary in the specialty retail industry,
Barefoot has received numerous accolades for his vision and leadership. In 2002, A Southern Season was named the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce’s Business of the Year, and in 2004 it was named Outstanding Retailer by the National Association of the Specialty Food Trade. Barefoot and his store were included in America’s 25 Best Independent Stores, a book by George Whalin. And in 2009, Barefoot received the Global Innovator Award (GIA) from the International Housewares Association, which recognizes retail excellence
around the world.
For his vision and innovation, and his commitment to growing the local economy, we proudly induct Michael Barefoot to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Business Hall of Fame.