Those who live and work in the downtown core will have to walk even farther, or even take a drive, in order to buy their lottery tickets or a soft drink, snack or magazine.
Muio’s Confectionary, at 701 Queen Street East, closed Jan. 1.
The store was owned and operated by Rob DiRenzo, who also owns and operates Muio’s Restaurant at 685 Queen Street East.
DiRenzo told SooToday he simply doesn’t have the time to run the small store with the attention it needs.
“With running the restaurant across the street, and with the business there increasing so much over the last few years, I just didn’t think I could put the time in to do with the store what needed to be done, the way I would have liked it to be run.”
“Business was always pretty good (at the store)…I just would’ve wanted to spend more time to get out there and make more sales,” DiRenzo said.
“A little store like that, basically you need an owner and operator that’s there all the time, and I couldn’t do that, so I just felt this (closing the store) was the right thing to do.”
The store had one full time employee and two part time employees.
DiRenzo said it might be possible to take those individuals on at Muio’s Restaurant after the winter.
DiRenzo said he retains ownership of the property on which the now-closed store sits, the building for lease.
“I was hoping to find somebody to run the store for me in the last couple of months, I’ve been looking, but I couldn’t really find anybody that fit the bill.”
DiRenzo said he hopes someone will approach him “sometime soon” about the possibility of leasing the building, preferably to operate a store, though he said he’s open to ideas about other uses for the space.
“A store would be nice because there aren’t many of them around (in the downtown core)…I feel bad because there’s a lot of seniors buildings around there and there’s not a lot of places to go for people to get their lottery tickets and their convenience items, it was a tough decision to make.”
“I really hope I can find somebody to meet the needs of neighbours in the area,” DiRenzo said.
Meanwhile, business is good at Muio’s Restaurant.
“Better than ever…it’s working out well,” DiRenzo said.