RAKE Stores has closed its doors for the last time.

The store ceased trading last Friday as business owner Denise Coffin decided it could not continue.

Denise took over the business in April 2013, but has now had to make the difficult decision to close the doors for good.

She said: “We have given it a couple of years but it is not making enough money.

“We opened in April 2013 and tried to get the Post Office back in here, but they said they are at the garden centre now and that it’s all going well.

“It has all come to a head now and we can’t make it work any longer.”

A lack of customers has led to Denise making this decision.

She said: “We have our local customers, but there aren’t enough customers to keep us running.

“The local customers are sorry to see us go and have said that we are marvellous, but we couldn’t do any more here and they understand that.

“The people who come in our shop our lovely people, and it was sad to say cheerio to them as over time I have got to know people and I will miss that.”

Denise rented the premises for Rake Stores, so she is not sure what will happen to the building next.

Denise said: “We don’t own the building, we rent it, so I don’t know what will happen to the building.

“Personally, I can’t see the building being a shop again.

“Neil Sodha owns the building, so it is up to him what he wants to do with it next.”

Denise believes that the shop closing will be a negative for the village.

She said: “People will have further to go now to get their essentials.

“We also had parcel collections here, so that has now gone and people have lost that.

“It’s a shame as the Post Office has shut in Liss Forest, but it’s not urban here, it’s a rural village.

“I thought that doing the parcels would help as I thought people would buy something when they collected their parcels, but they didn’t.

“It’s a shame but I had to make a decision as I couldn’t keep going on like that forever.”

Denise now plans to take a break before deciding what to do next.

She said: “I’m having a rest for a couple of weeks, but I then need to find myself a new job.

“I might try to get my old job back, so hopefully I will be able to go back to what I had before.”