Wayne Sporting Goods closing after 65 years; discounts to increase weekly

WAYNE, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- A popular sporting goods store in Wayne, Pennsylvania is closing after 65 years.

On a busy Lancaster Avenue in Wayne, one small store has withstood decades of a changing landscape. Loyal customers of Wayne Sporting Goods never thought they'd see a "Store Closing" sign.

"In a world where everyone is shopping online, there's just not small businesses like this around anymore that have families and it's just going to be a huge hole," said Sarah Lockard, who's been shopping there since she was a kid.

"The Internet is tough, ok? It's happened before where someone would come in, look at an item and get their phone out and barcode it and find out they can get it five other places for five dollars less," explained store owner Roger Galczenski.

He took over the store from his father, Alvin, when he was 18 years old.

"It's like groundhog day for me. I get up every morning, I go to Wawa and then I come here. I've been doing it seven days a week for 55 years," he said.

Galczenski says his son works for a national sporting goods brand that offered to buy the part of the store that works with teams, so he decided the liquidate the retail side and retire, but he promises he's leaving on his own terms.

"The reason we've been able to survive all this time with the internet and that kind of stuff is just families," he said.

Those families, however, aren't quite ready to see him go. With the closing, the Galczenski's decided to make shirts commemorating 65 years in business. They ordered 400 and say the shirts sold out in three days, so they ordered 400 more.

Galczenski says each week, they'll increase the discount at the store until everything is sold. He expects that to happen in the next few months.