General News
30 November, 2022
Newsagent without newspapers
MORTLAKE newsagency is set to close over the coming months, with the business beginning to reduce services including no longer selling newspapers from next Monday.
MORTLAKE newsagency is set to close over the coming months, with the business beginning to reduce services including no longer selling newspapers from next Monday.
Mortlake Newsagency owner Simone Neil, who has owned the newsagency for the past five years, said uncertainty of the timeline surrounded the potential closure.
Lottery tickets will continue to be sold over the coming months, but the process of searching for a new TattsLotto retailer elsewhere in town had begun.
“Until Christmas time, our trading hours will be six days each week but we won’t be open at 5am – but we’ll be opening from 8am,” Ms Neil said,
“It’s going to be a little bit of playing it by ear and seeing how it goes, but once the TattsLotto is re-homed, likely around February (2023), I’ll look at it again.
“After Christmas we will go to three days per week, and after that it’s just a matter of if the town supports us or not but if I can’t cover the wages there is no point in keeping it open.”
Ms Neil said she plans to announce further changes as they are made on social media at facebook.com/MortlakeNewsagency.
“I’ve met a lot of really nice people over my time,” she said.
“I had never run a retail business before so I learned a lot and it’s been a wonderful five years.
“I love my customers, people love to come in and chat,
“Polly has a huge extended family, which has made the decision bittersweet as we will both miss seeing everyone on a daily basis.”
Ms Neil said she was excited for the future as she directs her focus to studying a Bachelor of Paramedicine.
She has served as an Ambulance community officer in the Mortlake community and hopes to become a paramedic in rural Victoria.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do and I’ve been lucky with a scholarship and a place at uni,” Ms Neil said.
“I’ve always done first aid since I was about 12, which never waned.
“Things have changed a lot; when I left school you had to know where you were going and what you were going to do, and that’s what you did, but now the opportunity exists to do something different
“It’s going to be a very hard couple of years, but I’m really looking forward to it.”
From this week copies of the Mortlake Dispatch will begin selling at Bates IGA, Mac’s Hotel, the Mortlake Roadhouse and Clarke’s Pies every Thursday.