Video: The Nottingham Reptile Centre closes on Friday (June 23).
A Nottingham reptile shop has been forced to close after 16 years, after struggling to compete with competition online.
Shop owner Matt Oldham got his first reptile as a gift when he was 14, a rescued bearded dragon, and became hooked on the idea of selling them.
He set up the Nottingham Reptile Centre, based on Mansfield Road, Sherwood, in 2001.
And the shop has hundreds of different animals including snakes, lizards, turtles, tarantulas, lizards, snakes and tortoises.
But he says in recent years more people have been buying reptiles from private sellers and breeders, and via online auction sites.
Matt said: “People’s trends for buying animals have changed. A lot of people go online on the internet [now].
“Even though reptiles are more popular, most people tend to buy them off-line from private sellers and people have been breeding [reptiles] in their own homes, rather than going to shops.
“Before the only places you could get them easily were from shops. Now a lot of things are cheaper, and you have eBay, Gumtree, Preloved and those sorts of things – and anyone can sell anything basically.”
The shop is now almost empty and all remaining animals will be sold or re-homed before the shop closes down on Friday (June 23).
When the animals have been sold, they will either be collected by their new owners or transported to their new homes.
Matt said: “We’ve always sold animals to people we feel they can look after the animals – we don’t just sell to anybody. Some people have bought more than one animal – and it’s quite nice they’re all going really.
“When we’ve sold for example a snake, it goes into a pillow case; [pillow cases are] nice for them to be transported in. They are breathable and quite dark and they [snakes] tend to be quite relaxed.”
Matt says he is looking forward to some relaxation after the shop closes, but is sad to see his business come to an end.
“It’s been the best part of my life really, I don’t really know much else. I’m going to miss a lot of people and it’s going to be strange not coming here everyday.”
