This Is The End, My Only Friend, The End

We've known the end was coming for a while now, but Carson Pirie Scott is finally giving up the ghost. Not only are the outsides and insides practically wallpapered with going-out-of-business signs, we hear that Motor Speedway-esque voice on TV each morning telling us how much more prices have been slashed (as of today, 30%-50% off with 10% on top of that). Even the furniture, fixtures and display cases have price tags on them. (Unfortunately this clock does not. We'd pay pretty good money for that thing, too.) Since the store is set to close by March, the liquidation makes sense, in an eerie way. We've never seen such a huge, well-known store go out of business.

Bon-Ton, the owner of Carson's along with numerous other retail chains, said there wasn't enough commerce going on at the flagship store for it to stay open. As closing time draws near, depend on more folks to come out of the woodwork and declare it a tragedy despite hardly ever going there, à la The Berghoff. For the record, we shopped at Carson's on occasion before it was cool. We will definitely miss the jewelry section, on which we have spent an unholy amount the past few weeks. We're not so teary-eyed that we can't suss out a great deal.

The main question floating about everyone's heads is, what will it become? No word has reached our ears as of yet. All we know so far is that as a landmark, it can't be torn down; the top floor has been claimed by the School of the Art Institute; and they just did massive renovation on it, so the property owners have to do something kickass. We hate to think of the lovely 1899 building darkened, empty, shivering in the cold for many months to come on one of the busiest corners in downtown Chicago. No matter what, count on Carson Pirie Scott to live on in our collective memory. After all, the place does inspire some wonderful photos, for which we thank our city's loyal shutterbugs.

Image via flimsy*whimsy.