Henrietta Hen's Country Store, located in downtown Saratoga, is closing. Everything in the store is up for sale—candles, wooden boards, rugs, stickers, even the cash register and the credit card swiping machine.

"I am trying to sell as much as I can before the store closes. That is why everything is 40 percent off," said Donna Collins, the proprietor of the store. She said she would also try to sell some of her stuff on eBay.

Collins indicated that she could not afford to pay the high rent any longer. A misunderstanding with Mahnaz Khazen, the new owner of the building, hastened the process of closing. Collins said that she was under the impression that rents were going up after speaking with the Khazens' agent. By the time Collins spoke with the new owner and realized that the rents were not being raised, she decided it was too late to keep the store open.

The store originally started in Los Gatos in 1983 and moved to Saratoga in 1991. It had built up a loyal clientele over the years. Collins said that she moved to Saratoga because the Village had a country-looking atmosphere. "The building is old, too. So it went well with the stuff I was selling," said Collins.

She said that she would travel to the East Coast two or three times a year to pick up items for her store. "These were my secret buying trips," she said. "I have to like things before I sell them."

Judy Murray, an Almaden resident, has been a longtime customer at the store. "It's a shame that the store is closing down. It's going to be hard to replace," said Murray.

Murray said that Collins really cared about her customers and that drew her back to the store again and again. "Every time I wanted something special, I would go to the store," she said. Most of all she liked the lamps she had purchased from the store and a Noah's Ark she bought for her husband.

Linda Mullen likened the closing of Henrietta Hen's to that of Avery's, the chinaware store that closed in Campbell recently. "I had the freedom to look, the freedom to browse. I just felt really comfortable," she said.

Eight years ago, Collins started putting up lights on trees in the Village. "I remember coming here more than 25 years ago, and there were these little lights on the trees," she said. Collins decided it would be a good idea to have them back again and went about decorating the trees. The city is now in charge of the lights.

Stephen Howard, who owns a jewelry store next door, said the best thing about Collins is her upbeat attitude. "She is always talking about good and nice things," said Howard.

For as long as anyone can remember, Collins has had a sign on the storefront proclaiming that everything that was sold in her store was American made. A few years ago when she started selling some imported merchandise, she changed the sign to say that 95 percent of what she sold was made in this country.

"The way it is going, small unique businesses are going to be extinct one day. Chain stores should not be in teeny towns. They should be in the malls, keep them in the populated areas," said Collins. "I don't know the future of Big Basin Way, but I pray that it is good."

She is now looking for possible places to start over again in a nearby city like Palo Alto. "But I will not be able to start before next year," said Collins.

Collins still likes to call it a "temporary closure." But chances are that the store won't reopen in Saratoga.

"It was like home," said Mullen.