After 32 years of business in Cascade, a niche specialty store known for its vast array of unique popcorn flavors is closing up shop.

“There’s a lot of mixed emotions — a lot of happy and a little bit sad. We’re really going to miss the community; that’s the biggest part,” Pikes Peak Gourmet Popcorn owner Karen Bodine said from her shop two days before Christmas.

Tuesday, the last day of the year, is also the last day of operation for the colorful store that since 1999 has operated out of its current location at 7935 W. U.S. 24, west of Colorado Springs. The gourmet popcorn shop carries specialty sweets (jalapeño-flavored peanut brittle, anyone?) and popcorn in an assortment of flavors, from peanut butter and jelly to cherry cordial to classic staples like cheddar cheese and caramel.

It was a group decision to close Pikes Peak Gourmet Popcorn, Bodine said.

In 2003, she and her parents, Duane and Becky Schormann, bought the family-owned business, whose roots trace back to 1925 as the Myers Dairy Co., established by F.A. “Frank” Myers in Garden City, Kan.

The Schormanns were the third family to own the business that, over nearly the last century, has sold pasteurized bottled milk, ice cream, packaged ice, sandwiches and, in its latter four decades, gourmet popcorn in dozens of colors and made with secret Myers family recipes.

In 1987 the Myerses sold the dairy business to an entrepreneur from Wichita, Kan. In 1992 they brought the popcorn shop to Cascade, at 8025 W. U.S. 24. In 1998, the Myerses sold the popcorn store to the Burt family, who moved the shop to its current location a year later. Over the years, the building had previously housed a fur and leather shop, a window and flooring business and a laundromat.

Bodine worked at the popcorn store for the Burts as a teenager before she and her parents bought the business.

Bodine, whose husband and teenage son now help run the store, said it was time for the family to focus on other priorities. Her family had been discussing selling Pikes Peak Gourmet Popcorn even before her father died in 2021.

“We’ve been keeping it going, but now it’s time to do other things,” she said.

Bodine, after all, wears many hats. As well as small-business owners, she and her husband are first responders — he, a full-time firefighter in nearby Woodland Park, and she a part-time firefighter and also Cascade’s fire chief. She’s also excited to spend more time at home with her son, who is growing up, Bodine said.

She’s looking to sell the business, something she’s been trying to do for the last two years. The building is also up for sale or lease.

“It was a good time for us to stop on top and finish strong instead of trying to get through another year,” Bodine said of the decision to close the popcorn store. “It’s hard being a small-business owner.”

Pikes Peak Gourmet Popcorn is among several businesses across El Paso County that have announced closures in recent weeks. Other closures include Mountain Shadows Restaurant and The Holly Leaf in Old Colorado City, as well as Munchies and China Town restaurant in downtown Colorado Springs.