Miami Beach’s Miami Convenience Store closed on March 19 after 16 years in business

The owner of one of the last remaining classic corner stores says she has shut up shop and plans to ‘leave the city before it loses its identity’. Read her story

Owner Judi Diamond closed the doors for good. Picture Glenn Hampson

The owner of one of the last remaining classic corner stores on the Gold Coast says she has shut up shop and plans to “leave the city before it loses its identity”.

Miami Beach’s Miami Convenience Store owner Judi Diamond, 70, closed her doors for good on Sunday after 16 years on the Gold Coast Highway.

Ms Diamond she was “disappointed” to see the amount of infrastructure on the Gold Coast and was sad to say there was “not a lot of soul left” in the city.

Owner Judi Diamond closed the doors for good. Picture Glenn Hampson

“The little people have been getting squashed, but it’s the little people who make the Gold Coast,” she said.

“Our tourist market are not interested in staying in high-rises because they live in high-rises.

“We have some of the best beaches in the world, which will soon have a shadow over them by noon.”

She said she was glad to be leaving before the Light Rail Stage three – under construction from Broadbeach south to Burleigh – went past the store and believed “it wasn’t necessary”.

“Being a Melbourne girl and living in Tokyo for 20 years, I know about trams and transport,” Ms Diamond said.

“The buses here are fabulous.”

The Miami Convenience Store, on the corner of the highway and Dawn Parade, has closed. Picture Glenn Hampson

Ms Diamond, who kept the business up and running through the Great Financial Crisis and Covid-19 said she was had been working on her own for the past 10 years.

“It was pretty full on doing 12 hours a day for seven days a week,” she said.

“I always took care of myself.”

Ms Diamond took over the corner store from her brother and said she experienced it all from “ice addicts smashing windows” to “seeing prostitutes along the highway in the 2000s”.

She said within her first 12 months of living on the Coast she was the victim of a home invasion and the culprits stole her identity.

In those same months, Ms Diamond said she would see women along the Gold Coast Highway close to her store “thumbing a lift”.

Owner Judi Diamond reminisces on her 16 years at the Corner Store. Picture Glenn Hampson

“It wasn’t until later someone told me it was the symbol for prostitution.”

She said there was a period of years when a motel was placed across the road from the store and she had to “lock people inside the store” for their safety.

“I could see people trading drugs and police didn’t want to do anything about it,” Ms Diamond said.

She said while she had seen and heard it all, she did also get to experience the warmer side of Gold Coasters.

“I know pretty much all of my customers by name.

“Sometimes I would be down at the back of the store and I would hear ‘Hi Judi’, and I would say ‘Hi Billy’.

“I will miss that.

“There are some beautiful people on the Coast.”

Ms Diamond said she plans to move back home to Melbourne in a hope for a slower lifestyle, growing vegetables and watching the AFL.

“I want to be with my parents and maybe adopt a dog,” she said.

This week the Gold Coast City Council submitted its infrastructure wishlist for the 2032 south-east Queensland Olympics – and the $1.2 billion light rail Stage 4 is at the top of it.

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