A beloved bookshop has announced its imminent closure after 75 years, to the shock and sadness of the community.
Ibis Bookshop, a landmark in Banstead High Street, announced via Twitter that it would have to close in a few months due to competition from Amazon and supermarkets.
The independent bookshop, where customers can also buy tickets for community events, also blamed having to close its doors on rising rents.
Owner Linda Jones at Ibis Bookshop
The Ibis posted: “If you have a local bookshop support it, support your community or there will not be one. Believe me you will miss it when it’s gone.”
Linzi Rayment, from Freckle Bay, a children’s clothes and toy shop on the high street, said: “It is really a shame. Lots of mums come here to use it. Everyone says it is a lovely shop.”
Ms Rayment said supermarkets have more buying power.
She said: “When you have got little independent bookshops going, it is going to be such a loss and you are not going to get them back.”
Colin Sutherland, from Banstead, said: “That is awful. The bookshop has been there more or less forever.
"It’s going to be a big loss for the area, a very big loss. It is the sort of shop you need to make the high street work.
"People come for that and visit other shops while they are there.
“You just don’t have enough shops like that on the high street.”
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