Many retailers called it quits in 2008

(NBC) - After four decades helping people capture their memories in pictures, the end of this year is the end of the line for Charlotte, North Carolina's Camera World .

"It couldn't have happened at a worse time," said Jack King.

Across the country, in Vacaville, California, 40-year-old Bowman's Stationery Store is writing its final chapter this week. Yet, it is not just small businesses closing out 2008 by closing their doors. Even some of the country's biggest chains have had to shutter up shop.

"It's department stores, discount sotres, specialty stores, consumer electronics..." saod Burt Flickinger, retail analyst.

It seems the holiday brought no miracles for retailers. The International Council of Shopping Centers reports the worst holiday season since at least 1970. Compared with 2007, sales at U.S. chain stores fell 1.8 percent in the week ending Dec. 27, while consumer confidence plummeted to 38 in December, 7 points below what economists had predicted.

In the meantime, a closely watched index shows home prices dropped by a record 18 percent from last October, the sharpest annual decrease ever recorded by the Standard & Poor's case shiller index. The final days of 2008 bringing some of the worst economic news to date and for many, the end of the year, not likely to bring the end of the troubles.