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Charlotte Russe, Sears on their way out of southern Colorado

Posted at 10:41 PM, Mar 10, 2019
and last updated 2019-03-11 06:39:34-04

COLORADO SPRINGS – On Sunday, Sears officially closed shop at its Colorado Springs and Pueblo locations. Charlotte Russe will be doing the same in the next couple of months.

At every Sears store in Colorado Springs, there’s almost a collage of bright, bold signs taped along the entrance doors. The stores welcomed shoppers inside while announcing their departure.

“We’re going to miss it because it was a very handy store for us,” said shopper Gonzalo Yupa.

Shopper Bradford Moreno said he felt “heartbroken.”

Other signs were demanding “everything must go.”

“Ladies wear for my wife and then a couple (sic) things for myself,” Moreno said as he described what he bought.
“Clothes, we got some tools,” Yupa added.

And everything meant everything. Shoppers even hauled out store racks; quite literally the last items left behind.

At Charlotte Russe,  it was a similar scenario as 25 and 40-percent discounts helped clear inventory quickly.

“It makes me really sad, actually ’cause I come here a lot and they were like one of the cheapest mall stores that I’ve ever come to. It sucks that they’re closing,” said shopper Aaliyah Brambila.

Moreno said he used to work at the Southgate location.

“It was a great store to work at,” he reminisced.

“People going on the internet, that’s what’s making all these stores close,” he asserted.

“I believe it’s because of the competition,” Yupa said of why he thought Sears was closing. “There’s (sic) many stores around, many new stores coming.”

The mall’s spokesperson says a combination of these factors helped mark the end of a chapter for these stores.

The Sears location in the Chapel Hills mall had been open for 37 years. The Sears off Southgate road had been there for 62 years. In Pueblo, Sears has been at the mall since 2001 but has a presence in the city dating back to the 1930s. They’re among 80 Sears locations nationwide set to close this month.