A pet shop, which launched a £20,000 fundraising campaign to pay off rent arrears, has cancelled its appeal after striking a deal with its landlord.
Jade Brady set up Bristol Pet Stop in 2017 and said it was her customers’ suggestions to set the page up.
She told the Bristol Live: “I said ‘I’m not doing it – it’s cheating, it’s begging’, but they continued to press us, so I thought, ‘Why not’?”
On the GoFundMe page she wrote: “Without finding close to 10k from a mystery donor or investor over the next few days, I will be losing our premises due to rent arrears accrued while waiting for customers to come in.
“I cannot put into words how devastated me and my staff will be to say goodbye to everybody and their pets. After battling for three years I’m just not ready to say goodbye but with eviction coming I no longer have a choice.”
However, a few days later she cancelled the appeal and refunded all donations, saying she’d entered a deal with landlord.
She wrote: “We are developing our online sales platforms AND we are hoping to convert as much of the shop as possible to the first zero-waste refillable pet shop. We hope to improve plastic waste by offering an alternative!”
Jade had recently moved to the new location, and the first few weeks were ‘really hard’. She said: “When we first started I said to people, ‘We can’t survive here – this is dire.’ We then did a 10,000 leaflet drop to say we’re here, we’re open, and since then it’s been growing week by week.
“So we’re in a much better place now. People are starting to know we’re here and are using us on a daily basis.”
