As others have mentioned, all these Pier Rd shops are touristy. I didn't spend long in any of them…read morebecause I have no need for extra stuff around my house. But I am always on the lookout for food staples I can take home for myself, and friends. The origin of the preserves here wasn't explained by the staff, nor any signs I saw (maybe on the website?), but it appears to be the kind of thing that local farm markets do near where I live, which is some local plant makes the preserves with local produce, and then the private stores get to slap their name on it. But I'm guessing/hoping it's still local to GA, and that was all I was after. I went for the peach-Vidalia jam, and some key lime hot sauce, figuring they'd be locally grown enough. I learned from the associate there that all Vidalia onions MUST be grown in Vidalia, GA in order to be called Vidalia onions. Despite working at a produce store in high school, I never knew that. I honestly thought the Vidalia branding was just the strain/type of onion, which could theoretically be grown anywhere. But no, like Rob Lowe informed us in Wayne's World (champagne must come from the Champagne region in France, otherwise it's just a sparkling wine), Vidalias must come from a specific region in Vidalia, GA in order to be REAL Vidalia onions. Learn something new every day!
I also liked the gurgle pot fish pitchers they sold. Very colorful and festive. I was not told the origin of these pitchers, but when I got home, I saw a lot on ebay that were made in Bermuda, and apparently other Google searches claim that distinctive pitcher hails from Bermuda.
Anyway, they have some neat stuff here, I hear samples are always available when we're not in the middle of a pandemic, so yum! And another useful tip: if you have a hankering for ice cream, my best advice is not to stop at the obvious Sweets Shoppe (with two Ps and an E) there on Pier Rd, but to head into the Commissary and grab novelty ice creams out of the freezer chest. They're $2 each, but compared to $4/scoop for grocery store quality at the Sweets Shoppe, I definitely got a better value on the Commissary's offerings for my ice-cream-aholic toddler.
Like all of the shops on Pier Rd, the Commissary is also a historic building. Historically, it was the general store for workers on Jekyll, and I take that to mean servants who staffed the hotel and villas, back in the Gilded Age. Hopefully, they didn't get bilked as many a company store was known to do in that era. While all this info was available on the internet, and there are a few didactic panels throughout the Historic District, it would be more helpful if they had some kind of panel at every building, because really, every building has a story. If you take a tour from the Mosaic Museum, much more is probably explained, and I get it if they want to make money on that, to support the organization. But that said, I recommend scanning the website before heading to this area, so you have an idea what you're visiting.
