AMSTERDAM — Lulu Morreale walked into the Pepe’s Italian Bakery Wednesday afternoon as if she owned the place. She walked up to owner Paul Pepe’s 22-year-old son, Nicolas, and pinched his cheeks like an Italian grandmother.

Morreale, who spent 25 years working at Pepe’s, stopped in to say goodbye to the South Side institution, which closed its doors Wednesday after 104 consecutive years.

“My heart aches,” she said. “This is like family to me.”

People were continuously coming into the shop and walking out with boxes of the famous “Shorties,” which are sliced bread loaves, and packages of rolls to stock in their freezers so they could enjoy the speciality bread a little longer.

Maria Cebula of Hagaman said Pepe’s bread was the only kind her 4-year-old granddaughter would eat.

“I’m really sad. I don’t know where we are going to go for bread now,” she said.

Paul Pepe, who owns the shop with his brother, Ralph Pepe, said he didn’t expect the volume of business on closing day or the amount of support the shop received from the community.

“People have been crying,” Pepe said. “They are very emotional about us leaving.”

As he said that, a middle-aged man entered the store to say goodbye. He shook everyone’s hand, and as he hugged Ralph he became emotional and immediately left the store with tears in his eyes.

Pepe’s began with the current owners’ great-grandfather, Salvatore Pepe, who first opened a bakery on River Street. His son, Ralph, purchased the current location on Broad Street in 1924. In 1960, Ralph’s sons, including Sam Pepe, who is currently 84, took over until Sam’s sons, Paul and Ralph, took the reigns in 1986.

Paul Pepe said his father is even more upset about closing the bakery than his sons.

“This was his life,” Pepe said. “He grew up here, as did we all.”

Nicolas Pepe, Paul’s son, said he was sad to see his family legacy close.

“It’s sad to see it go,” he said. “I’ve been working here for as long as I can remember.”

Nicolas graduated this year from Syracuse University with a degree in architecture. He is moving to Washington, D.C., for work.

“It’s sad of course,” Ralph Pepe said of the decision to close. “We do this every day. It’s like second nature, and to leave after all these years, it’s like dying.”

He said small-business owners in the city are going to have to start sharpening their pencils and making everything count in order to survive.

Paul Pepe said the shop is closing for several reasons, including his declining health, increasing flour, wheat and utility costs and the fact that no one in the family’s next generation has an interest in continuing the business.

“It’s just time,” he said. “After 104 years, it’s just time.”

The family will still be selling Pepe’s dough in local supermarkets from Maine to West Virginia, but the store will no longer be operational.

Ralph Pepe has already taken a job working at the University at Albany buildings and facilities department. Paul Pepe, who has an engineering degree from Northeastern University, said he is going to look for an engineering job at General Electric.

Richard Casler, the only employee in the bakery, said he isn’t sure what he’ll do for work. After seven years with Pepe’s, he said, he is going to take a vacation before deciding what to do next.

Customers have been begging him to keep the bakery open, but he said at 45, he doesn’t have the strength or desire to run such a time-consuming business. Besides, he said, he couldn’t replace the Pepe brothers.

“I couldn’t lose two of the best employees and find someone to replace them,” he said. “They’re irreplaceable.”

Casler said the shop ran so well that none of them had to talk, and tasks just got done.

“You just listen to the sounds of the bakery and you know what you have to do,” he said.

“It’s been nice being part of something so great,” Casler said. “Now I can only hope to be a part of something greater.”