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The economic downturn is hitting local stores especially hard. Saddest among those affected are the decades-old establishments suddenly facing bankruptcy or liquidation. Recent news affects regional chains with long histories:

• Colegate Food Center in Marietta, Ohio, is closing up shop after 52 years in business. "We're not closing because we want to be closing," said owner Glen Antill, who has been working at Colegate since 1955, two years before it turned into a supermarket.
• Next Friday is the last day for Crocodile Pie, the 20-year-old children's bookstore in the Chicago suburbs. The store was bought in a rescue maneuver last year but sometimes fails to generate as much as $100 in sales in a day. Chicago's 35-year-old Prairie Avenue Architecture Bookstore is also closing if it fails to find a buyer by September 1.
• In Grand Junction, Colorado, Appleseed Health Foods is closing after a 31-year run. The official reason is the owner's retirement, although the store tried to sell itself for two years without success.
  

The economic downturn is hitting local stores especially hard. Saddest among those affected are the decades-old establishments suddenly facing bankruptcy or liquidation. Recent news affects a pair of stores in the midwest with particularly long histories:

• In Wisconsin, Conkey's Bookstore is closing for good. The store is 113 years old and on its fifth owner. While the store is beloved in town, the loss of a college textbook contract to Barnes & Noble was a fatal blow to its profits.
  
• Out in Minnesota, Schneiderman's flagship is closing after 40 years in business. The Duluth location has outperformed the one in Meadowland, which is liquidating its inventory.

The economic downturn is hitting local stores especially hard. Saddest among those affected are the decades-old establishments suddenly facing bankruptcy or liquidation. Recent news affects several notable stores with long histories:

• In Westchester County, New York, Chappaqua's Second Story bookstore is closing after 37 years in business. Its owner, a former president of a national booksellers' association, is retiring and not selling the business. Second Story counts Bill and Hillary Clinton among its patrons.
• In the Denver suburbs, Andrisen Morton is closing its women's store after 30 years in business. Its men's outlet remains open, but the women's business has been declining since the recession picked up steam.
• And if you're trying to practice your way to Carnegie Hall, Joseph Patelson won't be able to help you anymore. The longtime sheet-music retailer is closing its doors after six decades in business.
  

Amid a "bleak book environment," Borders is planning on closing most of its Waldenbooks locations to cut its corporate costs. The company, which had been stratetgically closing Waldenbooks stores since 2007, is now moving toward a drastic reduction--as much as 80 percent of the current total.

Waldenbooks will have 50 to 60 doors when the closings are complete, down from 300 today, and 564 as recently as 2007. Borders stores are concentrating on high-volume areas, like children's and health and wellness books, while aggressively cutting costs.