PORT ANGELES — Six racks of women’s clothes, some Christmas decorations and a few handbags and belts were all that was left in Gottschalks as the downtown department store closed its doors for good at 4 p.m. Saturday.
The cash registers were ringing fast on Friday and Saturday as last-minute shoppers helped clear out most of the sparse, remaining merchandise at the store at 200 W. First St., in Port Angeles.
“It’s very sad about the store and the people who worked there,” said Barbara Meyer, who was one of the last customers to leave the store.
The store was advertising 80 to 90 percent discounts the last few days it was open. Slacks were selling for as low as $2.61, with tax.
Some merchandise was donated, while the last few items were destined for the trash bin, store employees said.
“This is deja vu all over again,” said store manager Ken Porter, who held the same title at Lamonts Apparel Inc., when it left the same location in July 2000.
The store reopened as Gottschalks in August 2000 after the company acquired Lamonts that May. The building had opened as People’s department store.
Contractor William Gorsinger built the property for E.R. “Biz” Gehrke, who in 1947 leased it to Peoples, according to Peninsula Daily News archives.
After 37 years as Peoples, Seattle-based Lamonts moved into the building in 1983.
“I told the crew they should be really proud of what they did here,” Porter said. “We were a successful store.”
Gottschalks announced earlier this year it would close all of its 69 stores after declaring bankruptcy.
The store employed 30 people, and 16 were working Saturday.
“Hopefully, they will find something,” Porter said.
Betsy Fulwider, store human resources manager and sales auditor, said a few of the employees had found other jobs.
Fulwider said WorkSource of Clallam County had been helping employees sign up for unemployment compensation and look for work.
Saleswoman Chanel Travers, 21, said she will continue to sell Mary Kay products for income, but feels for her co-workers who don’t have another job waiting for them.
“We are very close-knit,” she said. “All of us are very close.”
Fulwider said she wants to find similar work.
“I’m sure I will find another job,” she said. “I hope.”
Shelly Orr of Port Angeles, browsing the last of the merchandise on Saturday, said she also is sad to see the store go.
“We don’t have any other department store,” she said.
“It’s just sort of a sign of the times, and it’s sad.”
Norm Forney of Sequim said Gottschalks is what brings him to downtown Port Angeles.
“I hate to see a big store leave downtown,” he said.
Angelique Meguess, area manager for Gottschalks, said that whatever replaces the department store in Port Angeles will be successful so long as it also is a good fit for the town.
Meguess said she will open a new retail store in Port Angeles later this year, but it won’t be big enough to fill the former Gottschalks location.
Fulwider said the store donated some of its merchandise — such as two full-size mattresses and 16 rolls of gift wrap — to Healthy Families of Clallam County toward the end of the liquidation sale.
A consortium of liquidators purchased Gottschalks’ inventory on March 30.
Porter said the rest of the merchandise at the Port Angeles store will be “disposed of,” and not donated.
Fulwider clarified that the merchandise leftover after Saturday will be thrown away.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
