Frugal Fannie's co-owner "heartbroken" over store closure: "The decision was not ours to make."

Frugal Fannie's co-owner and face of the bargain women's clothing warehouse Kathleen "Fannie" Doxer says she is "heartbroken" that the Westwood, Massachusetts, store is closing after 43 years.

Loyal customers mobbed the Route 1 location on Thursday, the first day of the going-out-of-business sale.

"It's so sad," Doxer said. "I'm just heartbroken to tell you the truth."

Doxer said there's no option to renew the lease of the store that opened in 1983.

"This decision was not ours to make," she said. "It was a landlord decision. We cannot continue on in this building."

Doxer said health issues and staff retirements also played a part in the closure.

"Some people have been here a long, long time and they're ready to retire," she said. "Not me, but I guess I will be, sadly."

"A girl's club"

Doxer represented Fannie's in TV commercials for decades. She says the store was a favorite for generations of women because it felt like "a girl's club."

 "If you go shopping anywhere else there are men ... so here we created a space for women to come by themselves or with their girlfriends or their moms or their sisters," Doxer said. "They can change in the aisle if they want, they can come in their sweats and we don't care."

Traffic was backed up on Route 1 and there wasn't a parking spot to be found at Fannie's.

"Look at all these people, they're coming out for our sale, for me, I feel like I'm really being honored," Doxer said. 

"You can't replace a place like this"

Shoppers came from near and far to score some deals before Fannie's closes. Barbara Sokal, visiting from San Francisco, said it's a huge loss.

"You can't replace a place like this," she said.

Sokal said she visits Massachusetts yearly and always stops at Fannie's.

"The bargains are amazing," she said. "I come here every year and I usually go home with two or three huge bags of clothes."

Angela Jernstedt of Tewksbury said it was "crazy" inside the store.

"We couldn't get a cart. It took us over an hour to get here and as soon as we got in there, we couldn't move," she said. "I'm sad. It was a good store. She's a nice lady and I feel badly it's going to close. It's been here a long time, I hate to see it go."