Simpsons Toy Shop in Stowmarket to close after 100 years
Simpsons will shut up shop on Christmas Eve after more than a century
A family-run toy shop in business for more than 100 years is to close for the last time on Christmas Eve.
Simpsons Toy Shop in Stowmarket, Suffolk, has been struggling for years, said the owners, who said they "kept it going because of the emotional ties".
The shop is owned by Philip Baker, 39, and his father. Five staff will be made redundant as a result of the closure.
Mr Baker said they had received a stock offer but they wanted to sell it to local "people that have supported us".
The Bakers came into the toy shop business when Ernest Baker, Philip's father, married into the Simpson family.
Philip's mother, Coral Simpson, was the last of the Simpson line and ran the shop until she died. Her great grandfather opened the shop in the 1890s.
"It was my father that really made the place work in the early 1960s and it soon became well-known as a toy shop in the area," said Philip Baker.
"Now the shop just can't compete but we kept it going because of the emotional ties to the business.
"We've been pumping money in over the last four or five years to keep it afloat but the accountant finally slapped my father's wrists and said put on your business head and cut your emotional ties which is why we've made the decision - enough is enough."
Mr Baker said competition from large supermarkets and the growth in internet shopping had played a major role in the toy shop's demise.
Michael Durrant, a local historian and author who remembers the shop from the mid-1960s, said the loss of the store was "a great shame".
"A lot of the shops in that area of the town are off the beaten track unfortunately and they just can't compete with the big retailers.
"It's a great shame it's shutting down, but that's the economic times."
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