Kadie the Cow has greeted Best Buy customers at our Columbus, Georgia, store for nearly 16 years.
She’s a 20-foot-tall spotted bovine that has been in her current pasture (the store’s parking lot) since 1967 when the location was home to a dairy plant.
Since then, Kadie has been a beloved landmark in the Columbus community, reminding locals of the dairy plant and giving visitors an udderly great reason to stop and grab a photo.
“The city is very passionate about her because she’s such a big part of our history,” said Beth Reed-Richardson, general manager of the Columbus Best Buy. “Kadie has been here for more than 50 years.”
So when Best Buy announced the store would be relocating to a new location a few miles away, Columbus residents were concerned over Kadie’s fate.
Knowing how much the cow means to the community, Best Buy worked with the city to sign an easement that would allow her to stay at her current location after the move. And Beth and her team are getting Kadie a makeover as a parting gift.
“We’ve seen so many people visit Kadie,” she said. “For 16 years, we’ve shared her story with customers, and they’ve shared their stories about Kadie with us. We knew we had to make sure she had a safe place to stay.”
Earlier this week, the city declared Sunday, June 9, 2019, as Kadie the Cow Day in Columbus.
Beth said her team will miss seeing Kadie’s face every time they drive up the hill to the store, but they’re happy that she gets to stay at her home.