Julie and Chris of Clandown Stores will be closing the shop doors on Saturday for the final time after eighteen years of being at the beating heart of the Clandown community.

The couple, who have been together for twenty years and running Clandown Stores for eighteen, told The Journal: “We both used to work for ASDA in the distribution centre in

Portbury, which is where we met. We left there and

decided we wanted to do something together, and that is how we started

running this place – we found working and living here [Clandown] to be a

really good fit.”

Julie and Chris spoke about nearly two decades of running the shop, reflecting on fond memories and friendships that have been made forever. Chris said: “I am feeling mixed emotions about closing the store – gutted, but also proud of what we have achieved over the past eighteen years. We are apprehensive of what we will do next – we will do something, but just don’t know what that is yet. It will be an adventure!

“It is clear to us that we will really miss the people, we have made so many friends through running the shop. We didn’t know our neighbours in the place we lived before, but we know everybody here – it is one big community.

“We don’t have any regrets living and working in this place, none whatsoever. We have loved every minute of it but now is our time to move on.”

The much loved couple had been trying to sell the shop for over a year, hoping it would continue. “We just couldn’t sell it. We had one couple come and view it but I think because it is connected to our house, it is hard to separate the two. It ended up being a decision we had to make, it was brutal and we didn’t want to leave the people of Clandown without a shop, but we also had to think about our lives and where we wanted to be in the next stage of it.”

It is obvious just from being in the shop how much of an integral part of the community the couple have been and how sorely missed they will be. They explained how, during lockdown, they delivered newspapers and food to elderly customers “It is clear to us that we will really miss the people, we have made so many friends through running the shop. We didn’t know our neighbours in the place we lived before, but we know everybody here – it is one big community.

“We don’t have any regrets living and working in this place, none whatsoever. We have loved every minute of it but now is our time to move on.”

The couple had been trying to sell the shop for over a year, hoping it would continue. “We just couldn’t sell it. We had one couple come and view it but I think because it is connected to our house, it is hard to separate the two. It ended up being a decision we had to make, it was brutal and we didn’t want to leave the people of Clandown without a shop, but we also had to think about our lives and where we wanted to be in the next stage of it.”

It is obvious from being in the shop how much of an integral part of the community the couple have been and how sorely missed they will be. They explained how, during lockdown, they delivered newspapers and food to elderly customers and how much they benefitted from that contact, too. When asked if the business suffered throughout lockdown, Julie said: “We were very fortunate, as when the supermarkets had supply problems, people came to us – so for the first six months, it was actually very good for the business.

“We were the last to run out of everything, so we saw a lot of new faces and the non-regular users showed their appreciation by coming to our store. They kept us going! We were working twelve hours a day and then would go out and deliver newspapers. We worked harder than ever, but it was lovely. Our customers meant that we were never lonely.”

Clandown Stores will be closing this Saturday, and the couple look forward to enjoying Chris’ first Christmas off since he was a teenager.

“We would just like to say a huge thank you to our customers for supporting us over the past eighteen years. Everyone welcomed us with open arms when we took the store on from the previous owners and we have felt that same warmth ever since. We have seen everything and met people from all walks of life. It has been a labour of love and more of a vocation than a money maker. Closing the store was a really tough decision to make, but there had to be an end date – we are looking forward to the future and what is in sight for us next.”