Patrick Lord was sitting at the computer in a corner of his stationery shop, printing what would be among the last wedding invitations created by the mom-and-son shop at Guadalupe and Montezuma streets.

"It's been a good ride, but it's over," said Lord, 54, co-owner with his mother, Grace Davis, 85, of Paper Unlimited — in business for 27 years since first opening its doors on Marcy Street in what is now a Wells Fargo Bank branch. Patrick's brother, David Lord, 62, also has worked at the shop.

Business had been slowly slipping for a few years, but it was the holiday season of 2010 that finally pushed the family into the decision to put up the shutters. The store's final day was Monday.

"We knew it was bad after Christmas," Patrick Lord said.

Davis suggested that the nature of the business influenced the family's decision.

"We don't sell things that people just have to have," she said as she sat among the dwindling supplies of shiny, colored ribbons, greeting cards and other paper products as well as assorted kitschy knick-knacks such as fire-breathing Catholic school nuns.

Merchandise sale signs were everywhere, and even the furniture, shelves and fax machine had to go.

With fewer dollars for nonessentials, customers weren't buying the paper products like they had been, and the printing of invitations and such "just couldn't carry the load," Davis said. "We had no choice. It's sad."

The family made an effort to sell the store two years ago, but gave that up when they were low-balled by a potential buyer out to take advantage of the situation.

"It was a nightmare," Lord said.

At that point, the family thought maybe they could still make a go of it, and decided to try to stick out the tough times, but the good times never returned.

"Up until three or four years ago, we had done a pretty good business," Lord said. But the slow times only got slower.

And the city didn't help things, the family said, by parking its Rail Runner shuttle buses so close to the Santa Fe Depot that most commuters and sightseers never even notice the nearby shops, much less wander in and buy something.

"They never let people stroll around," Davis said. Visitors to Santa Fe "get off the train, get on the shuttle and they're gone."

Paper Unlimited is only a quick walk from the train stop, just down Montezuma street from Sanbusco Market Center.

Davis said she always enjoyed working in the store, even as the years slowed her down. "At my age, it was far better than staying at home and looking out the window."

Davis and Lord noted that in the shop's nearly three decades, they have printed wedding invitations, then birth announcements, and then bar and bat mitzvah cards for generations of the same families.

"In 27 years, we have seen many families grow," Lord said.

Not surprisingly, Davis and Lord said they will miss their regulars and the excitement of meeting new people who strolled in from places near and far.

"That's going to be the hard part," Davis lamented, "not seeing customers who over the years became old friends."