As Little Russia prepares to close its doors, Gross says she is feeling nostalgic about losing a part of her childhood.

“Half my memories are associated with being in the store,” she says.

The store has always been staffed entirely by Schiller’s relatives and friends. Gross says she helped out regularly on weekends and during the summer. Friends of the family who needed work often found jobs at Little Russia.

But now that Schiller and his wife are ready to retire, Gross, a biologist doing post-doctoral work at Boston University, and her older brother Alexander Schiller, a lawyer, both decided not to continue the business.

“Eventually it gets to the point where you have to take it over and make it a second generation family business or go your own way,” Gross says. “My brother and I made other choices.”

Little Russia’s current spot could have a new tenant within a few months, according to Alan Shapiro, the owner of Gnomon Copy who manages the building.

Shapiro says he expects a similar type of business will replace Little Russia.

But Otto Coontz, a resident tutor in Adams House and long-time patron of the store, doubts that the store’s successor could fill the off-beat niche.

“I’m sure that whatever it is, it would probably be something that we’d find at a mall,” said Coontz. “This is just a unique place.”

Schiller seems moved by the customers who are sorry to see the store leave.

“They tell me that Harvard Square lost something,” he says, and then adds with a smile, “only after closing I understand how much they love me.”

—Staff writer Jessica R. Rubin-Wills can be reached at rubinwil@fas.harvard.edu.