Popular Brisbane Cafe and florist ‘The Pantry on Grey’ shuts down
Owner of a popular Brisbane florist and cafe said she will never open a cafe again after making the heartbreaking decision to close up shop after more than six years in the business.
Southeast
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Owners of a popular Brisbane cafe and florist have made the difficult decision to close after more than six years.
Owners of The Pantry On Grey, located on Grey St in Southbank, have announced they will close after lack of customers in the area made it unsustainable.
“Basically we just haven't had the traffic coming through that we thought we’d have, it’s just not sustainable,” the owners said.
“COVID-19 happened and we had to shut down part of our store and we’ve just decided it’s not sustainable to keep it open anymore.
“We used to have a gourmet supermarket and we had a butcher, but we shut those two down during COVID-19 and we had left just the cafe and florist.”
They said being in a small supermarket with too many competitors and not enough customers made it unviable.
“We were in a small centre, but then Woolworths started serving coffee, then the bakery, then the coffee shop on the corner,” they said.
“When flight centre cut their staff., they cut 3000 out of their 6000 staff.
“Then everyone started working from home and no one was coming in to get their coffee or lunch.
“Our catering was fantastic, we catered for the universities, the hospitals and a lot of company’s around us, so we did a lot of catering.”
Owners of The Pantry on Grey have said saying goodbye to their staff after six years has been devastating.
“We have nine staff and three of those have been with me since day dot,” the owner said.
“It’s so sad, there have been lots of tears.
“Our staff just keep turning on the tears, it’s quite difficult.
“Goodbyes are always hard, it doesn’t matter what you do, we’ve been here a long time.”
The owners – who also own a clothing store, called Piper and Blue in Graceville – said although they were thankful for the community’s support, they would likely never own a cafe again.
“We won’t be doing a coffee store again that’s for sure,” they said.
“It was very difficult to operate it.”
The Pantry on Grey will close on Friday, May 26.
“We have loved being in the area, we want to thank all of our customers, we will be very sad to go,” they said.
“The timing, unfortunately, was right for us.
“It was a tough decision, but it was the right one.”
All of The Pantry on Grey staff have since been offered new jobs through a local business.
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