Bridport: Internet shopping habits force model car shop GNG Racing to close (From Bridport and Lyme Regis News)

Bridport: Internet shopping habits force model car shop GNG Racing to close

10:30am Thursday 19th April 2012 in News

COMPETITION from the internet and the change in shopping habits has seen the demise of another Bridport business.

Simon and Kerry Talbot’s GNG racing in Barrack Street lasted barely eight months before they closed – although a cook shop is now opening in its place.

The couple moved to Charmouth from Northamptonshire and opened their business on the site of the former The Kitchen Shop.

Before trying their hand in retail Mr Talbot had spent ten years driving a lorry.

He wanted a change from the monotony and to spend more time with his family, he said, and with model cars being a passion GNG Racing seemed like an obvious answer.

He said it was disappointing to call it quits.

He said: “The same as a lot of businesses it is the sort of thing people like to buy on the internet. While we were getting quite a bit in the way of people wanting stuff fixed, there was not so much on the retail side so we decided to call it a day and just stick to the fixing.

“We wanted it to work but I think it is just a reflection of people’s shopping habits.

“A lot of things are done online.

“Any high street shop struggles with competing online. The problem is you are trying to compete with the internet while you are paying the overheads that other people perhaps aren’t.

“There have been a few shops in Bridport disappearing of late and unfortunately we are part of that.

“GNG Racing will continue and our website is still going but just not as a retail outlet.

“It is always disappointing when things don’t work quite as you wanted it to but it was worth giving it a shot.”

By the end of April the Barrack Street shop will have a new occupant when Sally Farrar opens Sally’s Cook Shop.

Ms Farrar, 51, moved to Bridport last December from West Sussex largely thanks to great friends Graham and Jacqueline Taylor from The Tiger Inn where she met her partner Martin Chamney of Bridport Coachworks.

She said: “I have always been a businesswoman, although not in retail. So a new life and a new start I thought I should do something I really like and the shop became available. I can’t wait.

“I am a great cook and it is just something I have always been interested in. I like good quality products and I know what I like.

“I know there was a kitchen shop on the same site which was very successful for 26 years and I think I am very fortunate to do something along similar lines.”