Tom's Greengrocers

Tom's Greengrocers
Tom's Greengrocers was a greengrocers in North Shields, Northumberland, which was founded in 1962, by Thomas King, who successfully ran the company until 2001, when it lost many customers, leading to it being closed by it's owner.

History
In 1962, Thomas King purchased an unoccupied shop that had been empty for many years, he decided to turn the shop into a greengrocers, after leaving his previous greengrocers job. King got his fruit and vegetables from the local Fitzpatrick Farm, which he made a deal with the farmer to share the profits he made. Overtime it got a reputation and received a lot of customers, many of those, King surreptitiously sold fish to, at a decreased price, those of which, he kept their names in a notepad and received even more business, making his company widely known in the area. In 1969, the greengrocers owner gave away a sufficient amount of fruit and vegetables for the wake of a woman who was well liked in North Shields and in 1970, after King's wife died of cancer, King got to his shop one morning, the day after her funeral and saw many of his customers had left flowers outside his shop's doorway. Beginning in 1971, King began to run a service, selling gift bags, which was fruit and veg in a basket, that he would wrap up in a clear plastic sheet, though this only lasted until 1980, when King decided not to sell them anymore, for unknown reasons. In 1998, the greengrocers almost fell into liquidation, when King was caught selling raw shark meat, that made some of his customers ill, which led to them being hospitalised. King was taken to court and the greengrocers was facing closure, though many of his customers protested against it and King only had to pay a fine. However, in 1999, King began to lose many customers, after a rumour was spread that his shop was not clean and in 2001, King only had several customers left, leading him to close the greengrocers indefinitely.