The owner of a Perth toy shop has announced its “heartbreaking” closure after more than 20 years in the city centre.
Fun Junction The Toy Stop, on Old High Street, will close its doors in May.
Owner Karen Christie says declining footfall has led to the decision.
Speaking to The Courier, Karen said: “It has been an extremely difficult decision to make, however, the sad fact is that we cannot continue.
‘Footfall has dropped off the planet’
“Footfall has dropped off the planet – and it’s much worse than it was 12 months ago.
“Not enough people are shopping in person, it’s far too easy to sit on a phone or a computer these days.”
Karen previously called for the public to back independent city centre shops after suffering a “massive decline” in trade.
She was forced to reduce her opening hours at the time.
Despite announcing the closure of the Perth store, Fun Junction has no plans to close its Crieff store and online shop.
Karen said: “We’re going to be shifting some focus to our website and the Crieff store – which has the benefit of holidaymakers.
“Holidaymakers tend to browse and spend much more time in the store and see the value of shopping in person.”
Fun Junction The Toy Stop in Perth will close on May 10.
Karen added: “I’d just like to thank our loyal customers who have supported the shop for the last 20 years.
“We’re all devastated it has come to this but unfortunately that’s just the way things are – it feels like we’ve let them down.
“We’ve always tried our absolute best to serve our customers and it breaks our hearts that we’ve had to close.”
Conversation