Manx charity Sight Matters has announced it will be closing its shop on Strand Street in Douglas.
The store has been on the high street for nine years and the doors will close for the final time on Saturday, 21 December.
Peter Marshall, the charity's marketing and fundraising lead, has been speaking to Lewis Foster about what's led to the decision.
- No, it hasn't been an easy decision to make at all. As you say, we've been there for nine years. It's been a great place for us to raise awareness of our charity, for volunteers, to undertake volunteering opportunities, great place for people to buy things as well. I know a lot of people really enjoyed going there and a way for us to raise funds too. So it's been a very difficult decision but ultimately economic conditions made that decision for us. - What has led to it becoming unsustainable? Is it rising costs, is it fall in revenue? - It's rising costs, like so many charities at the moment, we are not immune from the cost of living crisis. It's affecting everyone. And ultimately that means that the proposition of a retail outlet for a fairly small charity, such as ours, it's not viable anymore. It's very unfortunate because a lot of people, a lot of staff members and volunteers have put an awful lot of work over the years and it's been a great place for nine years, but unfortunately we've just reached a point where we can't continue. - And is that rising costs associated with the store itself, having that physical presence, or is it charity-wide and all the services? - Well, I wouldn't like to speak on behalf of any other charities, but for us, it's associated with this shop itself, maintaining a shop is quite expensive now. The cost of overheads have increased and unfortunately people are spending less money in the high street too. So that combination has really meant that there was no other option available to us. I think it's worth stressing though that this doesn't mean that any of our services are going to be impacted. We're continuing, from our member's point of view, there will be absolutely no change at all and what we deliver to them. It's just from our point of view, we can't sustain the shop at all. - Ensuring those services can continue. And you've mentioned that, sir. - Exactly. - You will be exploring other options. What does the charity have in mind? - Well, we've fundraising a lot of ways already, that we're not looking to do anything particularly new. So we'll be continuing doing community events and we're lucky enough that a lot of people raise money on behalf of organizations, undertake events for us or sponsor individuals, do sponsor activities for us. So all of that stuff will continue so long as people want to do it. We also organize our own events, fundraising events throughout the year to keep an eye out for those. And then we do what like most charities, we apply to those trusts and funds and things like that. So nothing will really change in terms of the way that we're fundraising. It's just, you won't see us at the shop anymore. - And it is a large operation site matters. You support more than 700 people on the island. Tell us a bit about that work and what that fundraising goes towards. - Yeah, so we support, as you say, over 700 people living with, it's called serious sight loss. And that's vision that can't be corrected by normal glasses or contact lenses, that kind of thing. Because of the demographics of the island, we're seeing more people experiencing sight loss. So our membership is actually increasing and it has increased fairly substantially over the last few years. We offer a wide range of services to our members, so everything from social and recreational activities. We offer an audio library, our center in Hong Kong, current court, an audio new service, which is posted out to our members. We offer lots of access to resources. Some of those can be life changing resources, some magnifiers, things like that, that allow people to maintain as much independence as they can and a whole host of other things too. And a word, Peter, if you may, on all the customers and all the volunteers who have entered that store over the past nine years. - Yeah, well, I'd just like to say thank you very much to everyone who's been involved with the VIP store. It's been a huge part of what we've been doing for the last nine years. It's been something that we've all enjoyed. I'd like to say extra special thanks to the people who have volunteered down there, the members of staff that have worked down there. And just thanks to everyone for supporting it over this time, and we will still see you just in different places. - Thank you for making it to the end of the Manx Radio Newscast. You are obviously someone with exquisite taste. May I politely suggest you might want to subscribe to this and a wide range of Manx Radio podcasts at your favorite podcast provider, so our best bits will magically appear on your smartphone. Thank you. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (gentle music) You
