LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Long lines and pizza-by-the-slice— the last days of Damgoode Pies in Little Rock featured some different than normal conditions.
Longtime customers flocked to the store on Cantrell to get one last slice or two ahead of their closing on Wednesday, November 22, 2023.
"I mean, they've been around for 20-something years," Cody Eichorn, a customer of nearly six years there with his daughter, Michelle, said. "There's a reason they've been here for that long."
"I live in Hot Springs, actually, so I drove up just for lunch," Sara Hight, a customer of nearly the whole two decades of the store's lifespan, said.
It was a bittersweet day— customers shared memories of the store while in line waiting.
However, Eichorn explained that he doesn't fully understand the turnout now.
"It was just weird that when they announced they were closing, everybody was like, 'Hey man, we gotta go to Damgoode Pies,'" he added.
For longtime employees like Ted Williams, it's all hands on deck.
With lines out the door for most of Tuesday, he didn't even have time to stop to speak to us— he answered questions while still cooking pizza.
"When you wake up and you clock in and then you get told the news, I mean, it's rough on me," Williams, General Manager of eight years, said.
He said that while the news is hard, seeing customers has been rewarding.
"Just come in and when you serve them and then they leave and tell you how good it is," he said. "I mean, it's sad, but, you know, it makes me feel good knowing that in my eight years here, I made a couple of friends, you know? Made a lot of customers happy."
As for why they're shutting down, Williams explained that they just couldn't stay afloat.
"Just wasn't making no money," he said. "You know, small businesses like this, you know, it hurts. We got to lay people off, and it's just money."
It's never easy to see a staple shut down, especially one with a customer base as wide as this. Around this time of year, the message we hear from customers is simple— support local.
"You start coming someplace at 19 with your buddies, and it's closing down, and a lot of those places are going away," Hight said "They've supported us, and we wanted to give back."