MARSHALL — Parts of the Sears Hometown Store in Marshall looked emptier than normal on Thursday afternoon.

Yellow “Closeout” signs around the store indicated the reason why.

Owner Eric Novosad said after he announced the store would be closing this summer, the word spread quickly. Lots of customers have been coming in this week to for a liquidation sale.

“A lot of it was over the weekend,” he said.

But in addition to shopping, there were also lots of people who wanted to say thanks for years of service.

“We’re still getting that every day,” Novosad said.

The Sears Hometown Store is a national franchise, but locally owned. Novosad bought the business in 2016, but he’s worked there since 2000. At that time, Sears was located in the Market Street Mall.

“I’ve been doing this a long time,” Novosad said.He loves working with customers.

He moved the Hometown Store to its current location on East Main Street.

However, Novosad said the business had been facing some difficult times over the past year or so.

“A lot of it is just product availability,” Novosad said. “We were having the darnedest time trying to get stuff here in a fast manner.”

Customers couldn’t always afford to wait six to 12 weeks for an appliance like a refrigerator to arrive, he said.

Novosad announced the store would be closing with a video he posted on his business’ Facebook page the night of May 19. By the next morning, the video already had around 2,000 views, he said. Replies from area residents said it was sad to see the store go.

The store closure will affect four employees, Novosad said. Some already have other jobs they can turn to, he said.

“We all kind of knew this was coming,” Novosad said of the store closing.

If possible, Novosad said he’d like to keep working in the customer service and sales field.

The Marshall Hometown Store is still receiving merchandise for now, Novosad said. The store will continue to liquidate its stock through the end of June. There will also be store fixtures and a delivery truck that will go up for sale, he said.