A 50% Off Card Shop at Sprague Avenue and Pines Road in Spokane Valley will close this summer due to low sales volume and because it's near the Spokane chain's outlet located near Sprague and Sullivan Road, says part-owner Ellsworth Moland.

The store, at 12111 E. Sprague in the Opportunity Shopping Center, will be closed either the first of June or the first of July, says Moland, who owns the 50% Off Card Shop store and four others here with his two daughters, Linda Powell and Debra Molony. The family's other 50% Off Card Shop outlets will remain open, he says.

"It's been a good store," Moland says of the Opportunity store, which he opened in early 1992. "But along with the economy and the closeness to our other store, it just didn't make sense."

The Sprague and Pines store employs four to eight people, depending on the season, he says, adding that most of the current four or five employees will be transferring to other stores. The store occupies about 13,000 square feet of leased space, he says.

In addition to the Valley store at 212 N. Sullivan, the family's other stores are located at 2927 E. 27th, on the South Hill; at 7503 N. Division, on the North Side; and 101 E. Best, in Coeur d'Alene. Moland opened his first 50% Off Card Shop in 1991. It's a local chain, with no other stores in the country.

Moland says he and his daughters would like to open another store somewhere else, and are looking for a location where an outlet wouldn't compete with any of the chain's existing stores.

"We've never closed a store before," he says. "But our volume there (at Sprague and Pines) wasn't what we needed."

Greeting card sales make up about 20 percent of the stores' business, and the remainder comes from selling party goods and some gifts, Moland says. Most of the merchandise in the Opportunity store will be sold off in the coming weeks, while the rest will be transferred to other outlets, he says.

"We've had some downturn from the economy," Moland says. "Some of our products are not something that you need to buy."