FOLEY, Ala. — After 19 years of business in Foley, local bakery Sweetie Pies is taking their treats elsewhere. Moving to Gulf Shores this summer, Sweetie Pies’ owner Tammy Mason is looking forward to changing the business with a new design, menu and customer base.

Sweetie Pies will move to Pelican Place in the old Starbucks building. Mason hopes the new location will bring in the snowbirds and other permanent residents.

“Foley doesn’t get a lot of tourists anymore,” Mason said. “Over the last 19 years I’ve watched the flow continue to decrease. It took us over a year to come to this conclusion, but we are moving and it’s the right decision.”

Mason believes the reason for the decline in traffic is that the area never fully recovered from Hurricane Ivan and the strong storms that followed.

“I don’t think we ever got back to where we were after that series of hurricanes,” she said. “I’ve noticed things going south, and we weren’t immune to that.”

The new space is smaller than the current location at about 1000 sq. ft. and will feature a decidedly different décor. Sweetie Pies will bring back the ‘50s with the retro theme.

Despite the new location and theme, Sweetie Pies will remain the same.

“I’ll miss being in Foley,” she said. “After 19 years, you can’t help but miss it. We are just at a point in our business that it was either to close or to try and put it in a different situation and make it grow; so, that’s what we’ve done. We are known for our pies and it’s going to stay that way. As far as I’m concerned, no matter where we are, we are still home to the best pies.”

Reactions to the move have been mostly positive, Mason said. She believes most of her customers will follow the business to its new location.

In addition to the move, Sweetie Pies is going green by utilizing electricity instead of gas, and using more environmentally safe paper products.

The opening for the new Sweetie Pies is tentatively set for July 1.

Sweetie Pies in Foley will be open until the new space is opened.