Exhibit 31.1

# CERTIFICATION OF CHIEF
EXECUTIVE OFFICERPursuant to
Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

I, J. David Pierson, Chairman of the
Board of Directors, President and Chief Executive Officer of CPI Corp., certify that:

|1. | I have reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-Q of CPI Corp.;
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|2. | Based on my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of a
          material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements
          made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements were made, not
          misleading with respect to the period covered by this report;
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|3. | Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information
          included in this report, fairly present in all material respects the financial
          condition, results of operations and cash flows of the registrant as of, and
          for, the periods presented in this report;
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|4. | The registrants other certifying officer and I are responsible for
          establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in
          Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) for the registrant and have:
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|a. |  | Designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure controls and procedures to
be designed under our supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the registrant, including its consolidated
subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities, particularly during the period in which this report is being
prepared;         
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|b. |  | Evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant's disclosure controls and procedures and presented in this
report our conclusions about the effectiveness of the controls and procedures, as of the end of the period covered by this report
based on such evaluation; and                                                                                                               
|c. |  | Disclosed in this report any change in the registrant's internal control over financial reporting that occurred during
the registrant's most recent fiscal quarter (the registrant's fourth fiscal quarter in the case of an annual
report) that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the registrant's internal control over
financial reporting; and

|5. | The registrants other certifying officer and I have disclosed, based on
          our most recent evaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to the
          registrants auditors and the audit committee of the registrants
          board of directors (or persons performing the equivalent functions):
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|a. |  | All significant deficiencies in the design or operation of internal controls over financial reporting
which are reasonably likely to adversely affect the registrant's ability to record, process,
summarize and report financial information; and
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|b. |  | Any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other employees who have a significant
role in the registrant's internal controls over financial reporting;                                                                       

|By: | /s/ J. David Pierson                                                                                      
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|    | J. David Pierson
        Chairman of the Board of Directors, President
        and Chief Executive Officer