At the end of February, Troy residents will have to say goodbye to another local business.

Payless Shoe Source will close its doors for good in Troy at the end of the month, though sources who wished to remain anonymous, were uncertain of the date.

Troy Mayor Jimmy Lunsford, who heard rumors of Payless closing, said this will be an unfortunate loss for the city.

“We are caught up with Payless in a national closing. This may not be the end of it. We still may be subject to more,” Lunsford said. “I don’t have any suspects, but still, we have to be cognizant of what is going on nationally.”

Now, Lunsford said the city is working with Pike County Economic Development to try to recruit more retail to replace Payless, as well as Goodys Family Clothing Store.

“Pike County Economic Development is going back and identifying all the stores who were potential matches (from the retail study) and calling and sharing that Goodys and Payless have closed and are trying to determine if any retail with similar products would be interested in coming,” Lunsford said.

Director of Pike County Economic Development Marsha Gaylard said it will be a challenge to fill these vacant spots, but they are working diligently to do so.

“These are very unusual times, and it’s going to be hard to recruit companies right now,” Gaylard said. “It’s going to be hard to fill these stores, but we’re certainly working on it as hard as we can.”

Troy City Clerk Alton Starling said losing both of these companies combined will be a $3.2 million loss in sales for them annually.

Together, the two produced about $64,000 in sales tax revenues for the city of Troy, and that number doesn’t include the water, electric and sewer charges they incurred.

Starling said, even on top of that, Goody’s was one of the top 25 remitters for the city.

Through these losses, Gaylard said it should show local residents more than ever the importance of shopping at home.

“This shows how important it is right now for the citizens to shop locally if we are going to have retail in our community,” Gaylard said. “We’re not the whole problem, but we are part of the problem of stores closing.”