The doors are locked and the sign as has come down at the Andalusia Sears location, and when and if the store will reopen remains to be seen.

Owner Alan Jones said the store’s closure a week ago today was not what he wanted to happen, but was what he felt was necessary following an extended of problems he traces back to the location’s corporate office in Illinois.

“They don’t care about the little person,” Jones said Friday as he and his former employees, all family members, worked to clean out the store’s showroom.

Jones said the problems between his store and the corporate office have been mounting for quite some time, and finally became too much of a burden to shoulder.

“You know, we just couldn’t get anything done,” Jones said. “It would take too long to get service for people, and we would come up with a solution for a problem, and they wouldn’t let us do it.”

Jones, who has owned the store since 2006, said his contract with Sears expired on Jan. 3, 2014, prompting him to issue an ultimatum of sorts.

“I talked with them and they said, ‘We don’t negotiate with stores. We’re corporate.’ I told them to come get their stuff.”

While Jones is not quite certain what will happen in the future as a result of the closure, he said it is possible the store could reopen with another owner.

“They (Sears) said they are going to reopen,” Jones said. “I don’t know if it will be in this location or not. I know they are looking around.”

Messages left in attempts to reach a corporate spokesperson for Sears were not immediately returned.

Jones said he too is looking around town for a location to possibly open a store not affiliated with Sears, but offering similar services.

Jones said the bottom line is a situation where his store was unable to offer their customers the service he believes they deserve.

“People don’t just buy from Sears, they buy from me,” Jones said. “It reflects on me.”