REDLAND Bay mainstay Mitre 10 will shut its doors at the end of February after 25 years.
Manager Peter Thygesen said closing the store after a quarter of a century would be difficult but it had been a necessary decision.
“For us to stay here we’d have to embrace the digital age far more than we have in the past,” Mr Thygesen said.
“You’ve got the internet now. The figures showed over Christmas that internet sales were up and foot traffic was down.
“It’s just the way retail is changing.
“To make (small businesses) work there’s a lot of hours. You sacrifice a lot ... in terms of family and friends to have a small business so if they’re not paying their way it’s not worth it.”
He added that while long-term customers still shopped regularly at Mitre 10, Bunnings had attracted most of the younger customers since it opened.
“I had hoped that when Victoria Point got busier and bigger, we would get more customers in, but that wasn’t the case,” he said.
“There’s not a lot of point in holding on and waiting for the next thing— that won’t get you anywhere.”
Mr Thygesen said staff, several of whom had worked at the store for upwards of two decades, had watched the community evolve and grow.
“We’ve been here since it was predominantly all farms around us,” he said.
“We’ve been here as long as a lot of (Redlands residents) who’ve moved into the bay.”
The hardware store has become involved with the community over the years, sponsoring events including bull rides and fishing competitions.
Its closure left some community members grieving, with some taking to social media to express their disappointment.
“When you’ve been serving the customer base for 25 years, generally (staff) have close bonds with members of the community and that’s what’s kept us going,” Mr Thygesen said.
“We’d like to thank our regular customer base because so many of them have come into work to wish us well.”
Mitre 10 will close its doors on February 28.
