It has been known for 15 years that the center core will be affected by the deformations from the mine to the point that it will one day have to be decommissioned, emptied and eventually demolished.
Now the day is here.
Two weeks to pack up
The new center will be inaugurated with pomp and circumstance on September 1 to 3.
The center trade in old Kiruna has the roughly two weeks until then to pack and move.
Johanna Lindgren Ringholt is the fourth generation owner of Centrum JW Lindgren AB, a shop that has existed in the same building since 1925. It was emotional, to say the least, to lock the doors for the last time and pull out the cord for the bell that rings when customers arrive.
The sadness may have its time, but there are also long days ahead of packing the goods in a store where clothes and gadgets have been collected for almost a whole century.
Here, they have chosen to close earlier than most other stores.
- We have so much space, little nooks and crannies both in the store and in the basement, says Johanna Lindgren Ringholt.
Found old work clothes
Ahead of the final sales, old work clothes from an unknown decade have been scraped out, among other things.
For some time, the shop was a supplier to many workshops in Kiruna.
Old hats, caps, underwear and flared trousers also bear witness to purges in the very innermost parts of the warehouse.
A new era awaits in the new centre
But now a new era awaits in new centres.
For the Lindgren family, there has never been talk of anything other than moving along.
- It has been obvious from the very beginning.
It would have felt so stupid to end a story we've built together.