Update: Pearson's Owner Says He's Ready for Retirement

Walter Eisenberg, owner of Pearson's Wine in Atlanta, said he decided that it's the right time to retire and close the landmark Buckhead store.

"I'm too old to run the business, I'm tired,"" Eisenberg told Buckhead Patch in a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon.

"I'm 76; I just can't do it anymore. It's a high-pwered business that requires a lot of time. ...I don't have the energy I had 20 or 30 years ago." He said the business, which closes Saturday night just before Sunday alcohol sales become legal in Buckhead and Atlanta, required a lot of travel.

He said he needed to buy new licenses for the business and didn't want to make that expense.

Plus, he said, "business has not been great in Buckhead since they closed the Streets of Buckhead." The Streets of Buckhead project, where's Buckhead's bar district once stood, stalled during the recession. Now, the San Diego-based OliverMcMillan is to resume work next year on the project, renamed Buckehad Atlanta.

Eisenberg, said he's seeking to close the store's inventory, with reductions as high as 50 percent off. "We've been packed all day," Eisenberg said Wedensday, the first day of the sale. The store will close at 10:30 p.m. Saturday, he said.

The business sent an email to regular customers informing them of the decision to close. Pearson's opened in 1969 at its location near the intersection of West Paces Ferry and Peachtree roads, the store's web site said.

In an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article on the store's closing, Buckhead Coalition President Sam Massell notes that the site has been selling liquor since the mid-1800s, when Buckhead pioneer Henry Irby owned a store there.

Meanwhile, other Buckhead liquor stores said they'll be open Sunday beginning at 12:30 p.m. and said they will be selling alcohol Sunday, when Sunday sales become legal in the city of Atlanta, after voters approved a referendum allowing the sales.' 2614 Buford Highway, will also begin opening on Sundays on Jan. 1.

Do you plan on buying alcohol on Sunday? Let us know in comments.