So the owners of French Connections, an eclectic shop offering French antiques and African artifacts, rented a vacant storefront two blocks down Hillsboro Street, filled it with overflow merchandise, and named it The Annex.

"Each time a shop closed, an office space came in," Jacques Dufour said. "And the merchants as a whole knew we needed to keep retail here to keep people coming downtown."

Now The Annex's display windows are dominated by red sale signs. Everything inside the shotgun store has been discounted, including baskets from Uganda, glass bead necklaces from Ghana, and a reproduction Mission-style book case with glass doors.

The Dufours, who moved from Senegal in west Africa to Pittsboro about five years ago, plan to close The Annex at the end of the month. They'll continue to run French Connections in the old yellow house on the edge of downtown.

The couple said they want to focus on wholesaling and starting Internet sales. Right now their Web site just shows pictures of items for sale.

They have been assured by The Annex building's owner, Gene Oldham, that the space they're leaving will go to another store and not an office.

"We'll be in better shape with another specialty shop, and that's what Pittsboro needs," Jacques Dufour said.

Oldham, who owns three downtown buildings, including S&T's Soda Shoppe, said he is talking with a possible renter, but no lease has been signed.

"I just want to keep it [retail]," Oldham said from the behind the counter at the soda shop. "That's the way I would rather for it to be."

On Wednesday, Joyce Baird was taking advantage of The Annex's sale, eyeing the reproduction bookcase with glass doors for her living room.

"I like Mission style," she said fingering a piece of paper with the discounted price of $552 that saleswoman Doris Mathes gave her.

Mathes, who will continue to work for the Dufours after The Annex closes, said she hopes everything sells before they vacate the store Jan. 28.

Jacques Dufour particularly wants to sell a heavy, 6-foot wooden sculpture of eagles from Indonesia that sits near the entrance.

"Four men couldn't lift it up," he said. "Make us an offer."

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