CHICAGO �� Mike Lord remembers treating the Sears at Six Corners as a neighborhood hangout when he was a kid.
When his parents pushed to turn off the TV and get outside, he would sneak over to the store's TV department to watch Cubs games.
"It was my babysitter when I couldn't get friends together to play ball," said Lord, 59, who was shopping at the store Friday and still lives a few blocks away.
The Six Corners store, on the edge of Chicago's Portage Park neighborhood, will close Sunday, two months shy of its 80th anniversary. The closing is part of Sears' effort to turn around its business after years of losses and declining sales, but when the store rings up its final sale, the city will lose one more link to a hometown company that used to be the world's largest retailer.
At Sears Friday, ground-floor apparel racks were liberally sprinkled with neon-bright signs promoting discounts as much as 80 percent. The walls were bare, and the store's upper and lower levels appeared to have about as much space devoted to selling store fixtures and furniture as merchandise.
Despite the warm memories for shoppers like Lord, the April announcement that the store would close wasn't a shock for many in the neighborhood. On Friday, more than one visitor looking for going-out-of-business deals or simply paying a final visit to the store said they were surprised it remained open as long as it had.
"It's too bad, but what are you going to do?" said Ken Little, 63, who grew up in the neighborhood and fondly recalls the store's candy department.
The Six Corners store, which opened in 1938 in a $1 million building designed by Chicago architecture firm Nimmons, Carr & Wright, is one of the 529 Sears stores that were in operation nationwide as of May 5. Hoffman Estates-based parent company Sears Holdings Corp. still has one Kmart in Chicago and a few Sears stores in the suburbs.
Since May, Sears Holdings has announced plans to close 78 more stores after another quarter of losses and slowing sales. The company laid off 200 corporate employees last month after 220 job cuts earlier this year.
News that the days were numbered for Chicago's last Sears spurred a sense of nostalgia in the neighborhood.
In June, a local business group hosted a farewell event, with tours led by a longtime employee. The store clearly still had fans in the community, said Anna Zolkowski Sobor, an Old Irving Park Association board member.
Zolkowski Sobor met a woman who, as a kid, sang with her school choir in the store's display window and couples who said they met while working there.
"It really underscored to me how interwoven that store was in the lives of many people," she said.
But ask community members when they last shopped there, and most acknowledge that it's been a while, Zolkowski Sobor said.
On one visit before the store's closing was announced, Little said, he was the only shopper on the store's lower level. The lone employee on that floor shook his hand when he purchased a bicycle tube and seemed happy to have something to do, he said.
"I knew right there that was not a good sign," Little said.
