Janelle Steybe took a cart of Piggly Wiggly groceries to her car parked in Elmbrook Plaza one last time Thursday afternoon. The Brookfield grocery store, 2315 N. 124th St., closed Thursday at 3 p.m., nine days sooner than the June 15 closure its owner had originally planned for.

“There’s not enough there to keep open, it’s down to three aisles,” said Steybe, who said she’s shopped at the Brookfield Piggly Wiggly “as long as it’s been open.”

“You felt like you were a part of the family there,” Steybe said. “Best meat department ever.”

Aisles were sparse on Thursday around 2:30 p.m. as the last shoppers walked into the store.

A sign on the entrance door that said the store would close Friday, June 7 at 3 p.m. was scratched out and corrected in marker to read “STORE CLOSES Thurs. JUNE 6th.” All merchandise was 50% off.

In May, the store’s general manager Earl Brunelle confirmed to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the store would close June 15. It’s not clear when the closing date shifted. Employees declined to comment on the closure on the phone and in person to a Journal Sentinel reporter.

The store told the city of Brookfield in a memo that it would close permanently on Saturday, June 8, said Justin Drew, zoning and building administrator for the city.

Mylette Boyd, a Wauwatosa resident, looked around at the items that remained on a shelf in one of about three aisles still with merchandise about a half hour before the store planned to close at 3 p.m.

Boyd was surprised to hear about the Brookfield store’s plans to close earlier this week from a family member.

“I didn’t realize today was going to be the last day,” she said.

Tony Sendik, the owner of the Brookfield location, could not be reached for comment.

Employees at the grocery store learned of the decision to close in a letter posted in the store by Sendik and were previously told the store might close in May, an employee who declined interviews previously told the Journal Sentinel.

Rumors spread on social media and the neighborhood website Nextdoor App in early March that the store was going to close May 11, but store management and the owner did not answer a Journal Sentinel reporter’s requests for comment at the time.

The Brookfield grocery store became Piggly Wiggly in 2012. It was previously a Sendik’s store.

A representative with Piggly Wiggly Midwest said he had no comment on the store closure and that the company would not talk to the press.

Bridget Fogarty reports on Wauwatosa, Brookfield and Elm Grove. She can be reached at bfogarty@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brookfield Piggly Wiggly closes, days earlier than expected