WHITING | Much to the dismay of customers and employees, Interstate Bakeries Corp. is closing its Hostess/Wonder Bread outlet today as part of a bankruptcy reorganization plan.

"It's a shame they shut down all the small stores where people can shop in their own community," customer Bonnie Loehrke, of Chicago's East Side, said Tuesday morning. "I bring a friend here every few months. There's no where she can get the prices they had here."

Interstate Bakeries Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2004 and currently is operating under Debtor in Possession status. The company, which lost $39 million in the most recent quarter, has announced it will consolidate depots, routes and outlets as part of its reorganization plan.

The local outlet's four employees are being laid off, although three of them who are nonmanagement workers are members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 134 and could be sent to another location if there are openings and they have the required seniority.

Employee Karen Edge has bumping rights to another Hostess/Wonder Bread outlet, but isn't sure she will take it. The store's closing is devastating to her, as well as coworkers and to the community, Edge said.

"As long as we aren't losing (money), this store needs to stay here," she said. "The community needs us more than ever right now. To you, $20 may not seem like much, but if that's all you have it's a lot. My concern has been for Whiting's many customers who don't drive. They can walk here and we're less expensive for those having a hard time financially."

No one from the company returned calls for comment Tuesday.

Employees said the company notified them Jan. 8 that the store would be closing, claiming it was due to a rent increase. Since then, Whiting Director of Community Development Brian Lowry has been working to keep the store open. He said a meeting he had arranged with the company's regional officialsTuesday was canceled without explanation.

"They never showed up," said Lowry, who plans to continue working to keep the store in Whiting. "It's an important store in the community. The city wants to do everything it can to make it a success."

Also in an effort to keep the store in operation, employees have urged customers to call the Interstate Bakeries' Customer Comment line to ask the store be kept open. An employee answering calls to the comment line Tuesday said the company has closed a number of outlets in the past six months so it could emerge from bankruptcy.

The company is getting "numerous" calls about the Whiting store, he said. But he placed the chances of Interstate Bakeries reversing its decision as "slim."