A city shop has made a U-turn on its decision to close after an "outpour" of support from their "loyal customers".
The Little Shop of Vegans in St Benedicts Street will now remain open following the announcement of its closure back in September.
The award-winning independent retailer is owned by Rachel Cox, who originally made the "difficult decision" to close after seeing fewer and fewer people visiting the shop.
But after announcing the news, customers old and new have been "flocking back" and Ms Cox said she is going to give it another go - but there will be some changes.
The 47-year-old said: "Veganism is booming, with more people switching to plant-based options but now supermarkets have increased their vegan ranges, it’s made it a lot more challenging for us smaller, specialist stores.
"However, since announcing we were planning to close, old customers have returned, new customers have appeared and our core of regular weekly and monthly shoppers have stuck with us, which is just fantastic.”
Even though the store will now continue into the new year, financial pressures mean cuts have had to be made to space and staffing in an effort to reduce costs as bills continue to rise.
"Any shop that has to run fridges and freezers has seen their electricity bill increase this year," said Ms Cox.
"But even though we’ve condensed the shop space to keep costs and bills down, we’ve still managed to squeeze in more than 600 different vegan products including a range of Christmas gifts and specialist items that the supermarkets don’t sell, such as frozen vegan Yorkshire puddings and artisan vegan cheeses.
"Trading conditions are incredibly tough for independent retailers and food outlets right now, but perhaps if more of us can stretch to spending £4 or £5 a week in our favourite local shops and cafes, more of them will also make it into 2023 and beyond."
Opened in 2016, Little Shop Of Vegans started out in Magdalen Street before moving to St Benedicts in 2019.
Ms Cox added: "It has been a tough few years for all small businesses but we made it through the pandemic thanks to our lovely customers and now hopefully we can still be serving them well into 2023."
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