A SHOP in Poole that has been described as an “Aladdin’s cave” will be closing after 20 years as the owners are retiring.

The Market Gallery, which is just outside the Dolphin Centre, has a loyal customer base and an equally loyal team of staff who work for owners Mike and Shirley Bainger.

However, the couple, who are 71 and 81 respectively, want to shut up shop so they can move to Norfolk and be closer to their family.

But Mike is reassuring any disappointed customers that it will still be “many months yet” before the store finally closes its doors.

“There’s an awful lot of stock to sell, but it’s time for us to retire. We want to spend time with our grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” he said.

He told the Daily Echo how he and Shirley began their retail journey over 30 years ago with “an Allegro car, £1000 of stock and a 44ft walk-in market stall”, which took them two-and-a-half hours to build and take down every day.

“We sold pictures and photo frames, hence the name Market Gallery,” Shirley said.

The couple were then based at the former indoor market at the Dalkeith Arcade in Bournemouth before it closed down in 1998.

Six months later, in September, they moved into their current unit in Poole, a former bingo hall which had been derelict for around two years.

“That’s why we have no shop windows,” Mike said.

“When we opened in Poole, we started dealing with more importers and sold everything from crafts to greetings cards.”

The store now stocks a wide variety of products, including toys, household goods, stationery and gifts.

“People said ‘If you can’t get it anywhere else, then you know you can get it from the Market Gallery’. They described the shop as an Aladdin’s Cave,” Shirley said.

She and Mike thanked the shop’s loyal customers and staff.

“We have the best staff in town. We call them our extended family, we exchange presents at Christmas. We owe a lot to them. It’s been hard work building the shop to what it is today,” Mike said.

Shirley added: “I will miss everything – the girls who work here, especially. They have been great.”

Mike said one of the things that surprised him most about the store was “how big our customer base is”.

“People say they’re going to miss us. We’ve got an awful lot of loyal customers who know us who say it’s going to be sad when we’re not here anymore. We have a friendly atmosphere here.”