Two days left to shop at Gottschalks

The Gottschalks store in Carson Mall will close to the public for the final time at 4 p.m. Sunday.

After declaring bankruptcy in April, the Fresno-based retail chain was taken over by liquidators, who have been selling off all of the stores' inventory.

What's left at the Carson City store has been moved to the entrance for the final days.

"I think it's very sad," said Debra Buttner, who has worked at Gottschalks for nine years and became store manager in April. "It's hard to lose another store in Carson City and have 45 more people out of work."

Buttner said there isn't a lot of merchandise left, and there are limited sizes available. Everything had been marked down 80-95 percent, with a final 30 percent being taken off purchases.

The store has about 100 remaining fixtures for sale, Buttner said, and will remain open Monday and Tuesday to sell those.

Patricia Munns has lived in Carson City and "has seen stores come and go." She's particularly disappointed to see Gottschalks go.

"That's where I've done most of my shopping for the last number of years," she said. "I'm sorry to see them go out of business. I like this mall and I like this store because it's central to Carson City."

However, the liquidation provided an opportunity for Robert and Lisa Butterfield.

"I wouldn't normally shop here unless they had a nice sale," Lisa said.

For $6.80 she bought a denim dress and T-shirt for her 10-year-old daughter Sammie on Friday.

Munns hopes to see a similar department store move into the vacant space.

"Carson City needs another department store in town, preferably in this mall," she said.

According to Kevin Ray, local property manager for mall owner The Carrington Group, they are working on finding another retailer for the space, but there is nothing they can announce at this time.

- Appeal reporter Teri Vance contributed to this report.