Every morning I, like many others, go to my local shop to buy my daily newspaper and talk to the shopkeeper. Unfortunately this can longer happen at The Wheatsheaf in Mitcham (located at 98 Church Road).It's a small business that is closing down due to the increasing number of name brand shops opening up in the centre of Mitcham.          

With 15 years owning and working at the convenience store  coming to an unfortunate end I spoke to shop owner Y.R.Patel. He explained that although he is sad about the shop closing he is also relieved as working against the big businesses was a “competition” that he couldn’t win and led to him working “60- 70” hours a week in order to try and make enough money. He explained the increasing cost of electricity, taxes, stock and more to keep the shop open and that this wasn’t being met with the sales.

    When asked when the business started to be affected and sales decreased the answer was “immediately.” This shows that as new businesses are being built the effect on small shop until a “line must be drawn” and they are forced to close. When I enter into the shop I see that the majority of their customers buying items such as newspapers are older and so I wondered how this would affect them. However as Mr. Patel told me due to the concept of online shopping the number of older people buying food from their local convenience stores has decreased dramatically over the last couple of years.

    The shop closed on the 27th September as the owner and staff try to find somewhere else to work. However Mr Patel is optimistic saying he can now hopefully “make the same money without the stress of trying to compete.”

 

By Kacie Shoulders, Ursuline High School Correspondent