Most Carson's stores expected to close by Wednesday, marking the end of another iconic Chicago retail brand

CHICAGO - For Sharon Bryant, shopping at Carson's during the final days of its going-out-of-business sale was an all-too-familiar experience.

In years past, she came to the department store so often people occasionally assumed she worked there, and she felt like she could always find exactly what she wanted, said Bryant, 65, of Chicago's Beverly neighborhood. But she only became a Carson's loyalist after her first favorite retailer, Montgomery Ward, shut down its stores in 2001.

The discounts she found last week on shoes and a scarf at the Carson's Evergreen Park location did little to ease the goodbye.

"It hurts