THINGS looked grim in Balmoral when, after 145 years, the township's one store looked set to shut.
But when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping - and the town put the store on its list, the Herald Sun reports.
When the doors opened on Tuesday, the Wimmera shop was saved - and complaining to the boss became a whole lot easier.
Out of a population of 250 - on a good day - 40 locals put their money where their mouths are filled, buying shares in the store.
On Tuesday it opened, debt free, with almost as many owners as some small town shops have customers, plus endless goodwill.
"Out of a population of about 250 people in Balmoral, I got 40 who were prepared to put their money in it," said John Vitkovsky.
"Half of them, they don't even shop there.
"A lot of others would have loved to buy a share in it but they haven't got the money."
All the shop needs now is to hook in with a wholesale chain to get some bulk buying power to go with the people power.
Three months ago, the previous owner, Prue Leeming, became ill and hadn't been able to find a buyer capable of keeping the shop alive.
"It's the lifeblood of the town," she said.
"There's quite a number of retirees, quite a number of farmers who retire and come into town.
"They don't want to move and none of them like to travel very far. To get their basic supplies, they tend to wander in here. I couldn't bear the thought of them not having that place to go every day."
The 40 owners bought $5000 shares. Some bought a couple, and Mr Vitkovsky expects they'll get a 10 per cent dividend each year - a lot better than bank interest.
"There's potential out there to make a quid out of it. I'm confident," he said.
And with the new Hamilton-Grampians pipeline filling Rocklands Reservoir, hopes are high tourists will flood back and get the register ringing.
Smack in the middle of Horsham, Hamilton, Edenhope and Casterton - but at least 60km from any of them - the store looks after locals, and vice versa.
"We have an electric door here and when we have a power failure, the doors open," Ms Leeming says.
"Other places would be cleaned out but people are so responsible they tend to ring someone up with a key and they come down and put the bit of wood in.
"It's happened several times and it's kind of sweet. The community looks after it.
"That just about sums up the town."
