Joanne and Shane Waldock put Gympie West Store up for sale

Gympie councillor Shane Waldock and his wife Joanne are selling their busy business after 17 years.

A 17-year-run at the helm of one of Gympie’s most popular one stop shops is coming to an end.

Gympie West store owners Joanne and (Gympie councillor) Shane Waldock have put the Louisa St store and service station on the market, putting a timer on their run at the reins of the business, which includes the retail shop, service station and takeaway.

“It’s time for a change,” Mrs Waldock said.

“We’ve been here 17 years next month.

“It’s time for someone else to take it to the next level.”

The Waldocks took the reins of the store in 2005.

It was a surprise turn for the couple, who both come from engineering backgrounds.

Joanne Waldock said the decision to put the Gympie West Store on the market boiled down to “time for a change”.

There were zero regrets though, with Mrs Waldock describing the career change as “awesome”.

“It was something different, something we’d never done before,” she said.

In the ensuing years they expanded the business’s offerings, adding a commercial kitchen and catering service and transformed it into a commercial hot spot.

The shop had also been a key part of the region’s fabric during the many floods which cut the city in half.

Shane and Joanne Waldock (inset) have been running the store for almost 17 years.

Mrs Waldock said there had been numerous businesses which had set up shop in the shed behind the main store and, when asked if there was a favourite memory from there time there, offered a simple response: “Where do you start?”

She said staff at the shop were keen to stay after the sale, and she and Shane were more than happy to “stick around as long as needed”.

“We want to make sure it succeeds,” Mrs Waldock said.

The eventual sale of the shop would not bring an end to the Waldocks’ time at the store; they were still going to frequent it as customers.

There is no advertised price tag on the business, with it instead open to expressions of interest.