Gottschalks closes down at Fresno's Manchester Center

Empty racks, vacant shelves and plenty of emotion were all that was left by mid-afternoon Sunday on the last day of business for the Gottschalks store at Manchester Center.

Shoppers scooped up the few remaining bargains before the Fresno store locked its doors about 2 p.m. At the end, a few longtime customers shed tears along with store employees.

"This was my store," customer Mary Lou Hernandez, 67, said. "I'm sorry to see it close."

A Gottschalks customers for 50 years, Hernandez called Sunday "a sad day."

The central Fresno store and the bankrupt 105-year-old retailer's stores in Hanford and Oakhurst closed their doors for the final time Sunday.The stores are the first in the central San Joaquin Valley to close.

Other Gottschalks stores already have closed, including Port Angeles, Wash., and two stores in Anchorage, Alaska. Stores in Indio and Redding also closed Sunday.

The remaining stores in Fresno, Clovis and Visalia will close sometime in mid-July.

Fresno-based Gottschalks filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in mid-January in hopes of either reorganizing its debt or finding a buyer.

Company officials were unable to do either.

In March, a group of liquidators won the bidding for the company's assets.

At Fresno's Manchester Center store, customers cleared out what few items were left -- $3 for pants that once went for $65 and $5 for racks and shelves that were once stacked with merchandise.

By 2 p.m., all that filled the store were memories and a few tears as longtime employees and customers embraced and said their goodbyes.

"It's emotional," Gina Vance, the Manchester store manager, said of the end of the retailer's long and storied presence in the Valley.

"It's not just about us, it's about the whole community," said Vance, a Gottschalks employee for 31 years.

Gracie Hageman, 84, a longtime customer, said she had to be there on the store's final day.

Hageman, who lives near the Manchester store and shopped there four to five times a week, said the retailer became her "home away from home."

"You latched on to different people," said Hageman, who also modeled Liz Claiborne clothing for Gottschalks.

"Some of the relationships go back 30, 40 years," she said.

Connie Graham, who works at the Gottschalks River Park store, stopped by the Manchester store Sunday to say goodbye to her former colleagues.

She started working for Gottschalks five years ago at the Manchester location.

Graham and Vance shed a few tears as they hugged.

They said Gottschalks has been entrenched in the community and has been more than just a retailer.

"This is not your everyday store," Graham said. "It's part of our history."

This story was originally published June 29, 2009 at 3:43 PM with the headline "Gottschalks closes down at Fresno's Manchester Center."