Closing date looms for decades-old city joke store
The family-run Jokers Corner will shut for the final time on 31 December unless a buyer is found.
**Closing date nears for long-running city joke shop**
Jokers Corner has been based in Coventry city centre for more than three decades
A joke and costume shop that has operated in a city centre since 1992 will shut for good at the end of the year unless a new buyer is found.
Sara Hennessy, who owns Jokers Corner in Far Gosford Street, Coventry, listed the shop for sale last year in the hope it would stay a joke shop after changing hands, but said she had still not found anyone willing to take it on.
The business owner said she had made the difficult decision to close so she could spend more time caring for her four children, and added that the shop was struggling financially.
"If I had two Halloweens a year I probably would be alright, [but] it's just not enough to see us through," she told BBC CWR.
Hennessy took sole control of the shop in 2024 after her mother returned to her native Australia.
She said it had been difficult running the business alone and that low-cost websites such as Temu and Shein, which sold similar products, had not helped.
Her mother Lisa said it was a "shame" the shop was closing, and added that the "world today being so different" had contributed to its decline.
"People press their phone and get what they need, and we are sort of the leftovers apart from when it is Halloween – but you can't keep hanging on one time," she said.
Her daughter said this was her 19th Halloween as owner, and that she had "got a bit tired of it now" and the business needed someone with "fresh legs".
Queues were often seen outside the shop before Halloween in October, and it has also been popular for fancy dress throughout the year.
The owner added that "so many people are sad" to see it close, and noted that a pantomime horse ridden by singer Tom Grennan onto the BBC Radio 1 Big Weekend stage in Coventry in 2022 had come from Jokers Corner.
She said the original joke shop owners Bill and Gale still worked at the store one day a week, and customers who visited still remembered them.
"My mother and I were a really good team, as were Bill and Gale," she said. "The ventures have been crazy and we had the most amazing time, but now it's time for family time."
The shop is due to close its doors for good on 31 December.