After serving Eastside families and newborns for close to seven decades, the vintage 1920s carousel horses that have guarded over Merry Go Round since it opened in 1947 will be taken off the of the walls as the children’s furniture and goods store will shuts its doors.

The longstanding business moved to Bellevue from its original Seattle location in 1961. Molly Pressey, whose father, Bob Brown, purchased the store from the original owner in 1972, said she has seen the city’s growth and changes her entire life.

Born Molly Brown, she started working in the store at age 14. She and her husband, Bob Pressey, purchased the business from her father in 1999. Given the development of downtown Bellevue and increasing real estate prices, they moved from their location — which is now part of the Bravern — to their current storefront on 116th Avenue Northeast in 2005.

To this day, Merry Go Round has served second and third generations of shoppers, and has a wonderful, loyal customer base, she said. The store focused on high quality, largely American-made merchandise.

“I’m kinda bummed about it closing.  It was the only store in the area that has high end strollers you can see in person before you buy,” said shopper Alanna Westfall.

Other shoppers have noted the high quality of the children’s furniture online, with one person saying she and her carpenter husband were put off by the instability and poorer manufacturing of cribs at Babies R Us.

But the advent of the internet, falling birth rate, and focus on lower prices and “deals” has led mom-and-pop-shops like Merry Go Round to suffer financially. The move toward faster, cheaper merchandise over the years has been deeply felt by Merry Go Round, Pressey said.

Westfall said she has found furniture online for half the price she would have paid at a boutique.

“That’s a lot of money to save when you have a family,” she said.

Despite her love for the juvenile goods market and her family’s business, the industry’s changes made Pressey cynical, she said.

“It literally is just a completely different place now. Consumers these days are completely different than they’ve ever been, and the industry is tougher than it’s ever been” said Molly Pressey. “It was a whole lot easier to be a small business owner up to 2006.”

The Presseys have not yet set a final day of operations, but said it would likely be the end of July or beginning of August.

“I still can’t quite hang the closing sign,” she said. “I’m still going through the emotions right now.”