Lucky Rabbit

Call it a junk joint, call it a flea market or a vintage store. “We don’t really have a name for what we do,” co-owner Brandon Thaxton told Our Southern Souls: “We sell nostalgia.”

Housed in a 15,000 square-foot brick building that was once a hardware store, downtown Hattiesburg’s Lucky Rabbit is a one-stop-shop for knick-knacks and wares of yesteryear—be they the 50s or the 90s. Every Saturday and Sunday, more than 80 vendors, creators, and local craftsmen and women gather to sell collectibles, vintage items, clothing, furniture, and more throughout a massive and vibrant space made even more visually cacophonous by a smattering of retro memorabilia—much of it interactive.

There’s a functioning payphone booth if you need to make an anonymous call. A restored 1978 Westfalia Volkswagen offers a welcome photo-op for former flower children. Early gamers among us can enjoy simpler times in either the classic arcade downstairs or a video game room upstairs featuring a spread of Nintendo, Sega, and Atari consoles, all free to play. Abutting the video game room is a 15-seat mini-theater running classic films, while a snack and drinks section sells old-fashioned soda in glass bottles as well as beer and cider. (Fun fact: Hattiesburg is an “open district,” so customers are free to roam downtown, drink in hand.)

Lucky Rabbit also features impressively recreated sets from TV and film both old and new. Meticulous research by Brandon and his wife, co-owner Abbey Thaxton, goes into Lucky Rabbit’s detailed reenactments of sets from Home Alone, National Lampoon’s A Christmas Vacation, Stranger Things, The Office, and Schitt’s Creek.

With sets, vendors, and their wares in constant rotation, you’ll never set foot in the same Lucky Rabbit twice. Here, even nostalgia is in flux.