NATCHEZ — On Sept. 10, 1963, Bernie Pyron opened a furniture store on St. Catherine Street, following in his father’s footsteps and joining the family business.

A little more than 53 years later, Bernie Pyron’s Furniture will close after decades of serving as a fine furniture business to the area and region.

The business grew through the years, with seven different display buildings added, and Pyron’s family operating four stores in Natchez.

“We had so much business, we had police our here directing traffic,” Pyron said.

Pyron’s business partner, Monroe Scott, who is vice president and general manager of the business, came to work at the store when he was 16.

Scott worked cleaning, helping customers and repairing and delivering furniture while attending Copiah-Lincoln Community College and later the then University of Southern Mississippi’s Natchez campus at Duncan Park and graduated with a business degree and a minor in economics.

Scott, now 64, stayed at Pyron’s and has worked there for the past 48 years.

Pyron, 80, and Scott made the decision to close the store following the decline of business in recent years.

“We have been blessed,” Pyron said. “We had a lot of good, good years. When Natchez was growing, we had plants and the oil business, and we had real, real good business, up until the last eight or nine years.”

Because the local economy has shrunk with the closing of plants, a lack of jobs and a shrinking population, Pyron’s and other businesses have suffered, Pyron said.

“At one time, there were 14 furniture stores here,” he said. “When my father (Wallace Pyron) and his brother (Kelly Pyron) opened Pyron’s Furniture downtown (in 1945), the people on Franklin Street were so thick you couldn’t stir the people on Franklin Street with a stick.”

Now, Pyron said he counts 36 vacant buildings in the downtown area, with his soon to be added to the market.

While tourism may be thriving in Natchez, that type of business does not have a significant impact on furniture stores and other business, except for the occasional bed-and-breakfast owner who comes in for furniture, Pyron said.

The average customer is now 50 to 55 years old, with many people in the area buying furniture online, out of town or from a big-box store such as Walmart, Pyron said.

“Many of the furniture we buy now comes from China and other places, because that’s where the jobs have gone,” he said. “The factories we used to buy from in the Northeast, they’re not there anymore.”

Nearly 200 customers buzzed in and out of Bernie Pyron’s Thursday, the store plastered in neon pink and green signs advertising the “retirement sale” and close-out prices.

“It’s bittersweet,” Scott said. “We’re going to miss our customers, and we want to thank all of the customers for their business over the years. We will miss them, but it’s time. It’s just right for us to close out.”

Pyron’s does not have a definite closing date, but it will likely be in the next four to five weeks, with everything in the store — including office equipment — up for sale.

Any customers with balances still left on their accounts can make payments following Pyron’s closure at National Furniture on Commerce Street. All transactions for sales going forward are cash, check or credit card, and the store will offer financing.

Pyron’s said if it was possible to keep the store open, he and Scott would most certainly do so.

“We’ve furnished homes from here to Alexandria and from here to Brookhaven,” he said. “We don’t want to do this. We just felt like it was best for all involved. But it’s like planning a funeral. We love Natchez, and this little corner has been good to us.”