Sunglasses Store Closing Downtown Annapolis Shop Next Month

ANNAPOLIS, MD — A sunglasses retailer is calling it a career after 28 years of selling shades in downtown Annapolis.

Shades of the Bay on Nov. 1 announced its forthcoming closure, saying it will close at the end of the year. Located at 136 Main St., the shop neighbors Tarin Thai Cuisine and Helly Hansen.

The Capital reported that 64-year-old Linda Mann has lived in the Annapolis area since the 1980s. She will now take care of ailing loved ones and travel, The Capital said.

The Capital said Mann started selling sunglasses in the mid-1990s and eventually bought Main Street's Shades Unlimited in 1999, where she had worked for some time. Mann opened Shades of the Bay across the street in 2008 and operated both stores until Shades Unlimited closed in 2012, The Capital reported. Mann told The Capital it is now “time to take care of Linda.”

“I’m going to miss the people [and] I’m going to miss downtown, but I’ve had so much fun over the years. … I am humbled to my core with the outreach of the people in Annapolis and customers. I’m just absolutely humbled. I cannot believe that the people who are coming in and saying how much they’re going to miss us. I mean, I knew I had a little bit of an impact on the city but had no idea that I was going to get this type of response,” Mann told The Capital.

To learn why Shades of the Bay was “the fun store on Main Street,” read The Capital's full story. Only subscribers of The Capital are able to access the article, however.

Anybody with an Anne Arundel County Public Library card number can read The Capital's story at this link by searching "Shades of the Bay."