A HARDWARE shop based in Thame since 1994 is closing its doors for the final time at the end of the month.
Peter and Julie Mullen have run The Money Spinner in Cornmarket for 18 years, having lived in the town since 1981.
“There’s a couple of reasons why we’re leaving,” said Peter, 53, who has worked in Thame since 1976.
“The business has slowly become less and less viable, with the biggest problem being the rise in wholesale prices as a lot of our products are oil-based.
“The cost of some of our products has gone up by as much as 50-100%.
“The High Street in Thame has also changed a lot as well. Any industry which used to be in Thame has now gone, and it has now become more of a satellite town.
“There is no-one on the High Street during the week and at the weekends people leave town to go to shopping centres and such as well.
“We also became grandparents about a year ago, and our family live up by Birmingham and Bristol, so we’re hoping to move somewhere more central like Stratford so we can be closer to them.
“We wanted to leave last year, but we had obligations with the lease.
“We’ve now managed to find someone to take over the lease however, so we won’t be leaving behind an empty shop. We can’t give details of who is moving in, but it’s a service as well as a shop. We would like to thank all our customers who have become more like friends to us as well.”
