A pet shop owner is closing his business in Norfolk because online shoppers are taking custom away from the high street, he has told his local newspaper.

Teresa’s Pet Necessities in Gaywood, King’s Lynn, will close its doors for the final time on Saturday.

Nicholas Kulkani took over the running of the shop from his sister, Teresa, following her death from ovarian cancer in 2011.

He told the Lynn News: “I’ve watched the town have the heart and soul ripped out of it. The future of retail is very depressing and small, independent stores are under threat.”

Set to close on Saturday, Teresa’s Pet Necessities has customers who have stayed loyal for 30 years, buying from Teresa when she worked at Anne Kennedy’s Pet Store, and then when she set up her own business in 2004.

Nicholas said: “She loved her animals, and she loved her customers. She said to me before she died that I must never treat them as customers or she would come back and haunt me, because they were her friends.

“And they were, she would even run deliveries for the elderly in the evening if they couldn’t get to the store to pick up their bird seed.”

Teresa died in 2011, aged 46, and the family made the decision to keep the store going in her name until now. The family have decided to close the store after feeling the hit from online shoppers.

Read more by clicking here