The owner of a Torry convenience store that has shut down after 92 years has said he would have continued to serve the community, if it were not for his cancer battle.
Taylor’s of Torry was run by Malcolm Taylor, 55, who started to help out at the family-run store as a nine-year-old child.
The third generation to run the shop, it was done so previously by his father – Second World War veteran Robert Taylor – who worked until the age of 92 before dying five years ago.
The family business started 93 years ago in 1930, when Mr Taylor’s great-grandfather Goeorge set up the first Taylor’s on Pirie’s Lane in the Woodside area of Aberdeen.
Based on Torry‘s Victoria Road since 1969, the 55-year-old described his tenure working at the shop as a “lifetime’s experience” and “very enjoyable”, adding: “I’ve seen the good days and the bad days, mainly good days of course, but I’m not physically able anymore.”
Having had surgery for bowel cancer in November, he said it was the recovery from his operation that made him realise it was “too much to continue” and the “final thing” that made him decide.
Old school shop
Mr Taylor says he is physically not able to continue, although he is still mentally able to do so, adding he is “saddened” by the loss of another traditional store.
The businessman is proud of the shop’s record serving the community over the years, saying: “The fact that we’ve survived in the same style, meaning old school style, to this year is pretty good. It’s an old school shop and I’ve always wanted to keep it that way.”
Mr Taylor told the Press & Journal the 1970s, 80 and some of the 90s were “just amazing”, however, he says that “things started to change” when a supermarket opened nearby.
He said its arrival led to many shops in Torry closing within a year, adding that the demise of the fishing industry also had negative consequences on the local area.
A shop that sold pretty much everything, including cards for all occasions, one thing that was not for sale were the “hundreds and hundreds and hundreds” of postcards – from Orkney to Lanzarote to the Bahamas – that were all piled up.
Mr Taylor explains: “The deal was, because when you’re a shopkeeper you don’t generally take holidays, so I would say to the customers ‘Send me a postcard and I’ll live your holiday for five to 10 minutes.’
“It was amazing how the customers would send it to Taylor’s shop from all over the world and it would get here.”
‘It really has been a pleasure’
The remaining stock from the shop will be donated to charity, with some already donated to the PDSA charity shop, which is just up the road from Taylor’s on Victoria Road.
On a parting note, Mr Taylor said: “If it wasn’t for the illness that I got, I’d probably be here until my dying day, because it’s in the blood.
“I’ve met so many nice people over the years. It really has been a pleasure.”
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