By Luke Voogt
After years of liquidations and “closing down sales” it appears that George’s Rug Clearance Centre may actually be closing.
“I’m hanging in by a thread,” said store manager George Emtsis.
Geelong residents took to social media in swathes this week to comment on the irony, posting pictures of store’s usually unadorned windows.
Mr Emtsis said he was up until midnight cleaning the windows with a friend.
“I’m in arrears with my rent,” Mr Emtsis said behind a desk littered with unpaid bills.
“If I’m going I don’t want to leave it in a mess.”
Mr Emtsis said he had missed two months of rent.
“The sales are slow because of online shopping and the parking in the city makes it very hard for people to pick up rugs.
He said his future was up to his landlord who so far “had been great”.
But Mr Emtsis said he would battle until the end and called on Geelong residents to support his business.
“It’s up to the public, if they help me out I’m happy to continue. I like people and I like putting a smile on their faces.”
Mr Emtsis said people ridiculing his latest “closing down” on Facebook were confusing his store with the antics of another CBD shop which closed down.
“That mob used to give me a bad reputation – year after year at winter time they put ads in all the papers of Geelong saying ‘last weekend’.”
But he admitted to throwing closing down sales before since he started trading there in 1999.
“I did it a couple times when they were beautifying Ryrie and Moorabool Street about five years ago.”
Mr Emtsis operated stores in Horsham, Warrnambool, Mt Gambier and Hamilton before shutting them down.
Some residents described his Geelong store as an eyesore and joked it “must hold a record” for the longest closing down sale.
Others questioned whether the store was actually closing or expressed sympathy for “a decent bloke just trying to earn a living and keep his business afloat”.
The Indy contacted Mr Emtsis’s landlord, who declined to comment.
