Bull Building Supply of Jasper, Ala. is closing after 54 years in business. Co-owner Bobby Bull told the Jasper Daily Mountain Eagle that a number conditions have forced the business that opened in 1963 to close. Bull said health issues among staff, as well as economic conditions played a role in the company’s closing.
The store was originally opened by Bobby Bull’s father, J.C. Bull in downtown Jasper. In the 1990s, the company moved to outside of town to a 12-acre site with 55,000 square feet and adopted a big box sales concept.
Bobby Bull told the Daily Mountain Eagle that one of his fondest memories was when the company hosted the Bull Crawfish Boil, which was a major event for 19 years.
“We cooked 3.5 tons of crawfish, 800 pounds of potatoes, 800 pounds of Polish sausage and thousands of ears of corn,” Bull said. “We did that for 19 straight years and that was so much fun. Our customers helped us put it on … We set vendors up and it became an event. We had some people come from as far as Florida, planning their vacations around it. It was a great selling period for us, too, as we would run sales. It was just a big hit. But, to tell the truth, it got to where it was overwhelming. The last year we had it, we had 17,000 people here throughout the day. It just got to be a lot.”