The weekend’s floods throughout south-east Queensland have wreaked havoc on popular vintage collectibles store Relove Oxley.
The store has suffered loss ofits cafe equipment and thousands of dollars in stock. Owners James Lee and Jason Fahy opened the store in 2014.
Relove is known for its range of all things retro, vintage and collectible, as well as its vinyl record collection.
“As your own small business, you live and breathe its very existence. From the moment you wake up every day to the time you go to bed,” the pair says on a GoFundMe page set up to aid in replacing lost and damaged belongings in the store. “We have nurtured and grown our business with very the loving and supportive local community and support from people right across Southeast Queensland for nearly eight years.”
“We opened in 2014 and have been lucky up until this point, but unfortunately our luck has run out.
“We are a proud couple and would otherwise do what we normally do and that is grind it out when the tough times come. But this is different. We want to stay and rebuild. We need any assistance, financial, physical, and emotional.”
scenestr spoke briefly to the pair amid the plans for recovery.
“‘We have been pretty lucky over the last few years with close calls, and we knew the risk, just never thought it would happen so soon after 2011,” they told us.
“We have lost thousands of dollars worth of our own personal collectibles – a massive anime DVD collection of James’s and a huge diecast car collection of Jason’s, along with our book collection that was all being stored at our offsite shed adjacent to our store.”
While the damage from the floods is significant the couple is cautiously optimistic, and appreciative of the love and support received from family, friends and even strangers at this time.
“We are both devastated but resilient and will rebuild and get back on our feet.”
You can donate to Relove’s GoFundMe here.
