In it's 50^th year, the family-owned Australian business made the tough decision to shift its focus to city stores and online sales.

Retail manager Toby Darvall was saddened about the closure of the Bendigo store alongside other regional centres including Ballarat and Shepparton.

"It's closing down for good," Mr Darvall said. "It's very sad for us and our Bendigo manager Tracey Garner.

"We've been in Bendigo over five years and we have over 16,000 members of the store's Karma Club which is amazing.

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"But the lockdowns have been the final straw for us. Overall, shoppers went online over the pandemic and we're booming there but unfortunately that means the shops have had their traffic slow right down."

Mr Darvall said of the 34 ISHKA stores nation-wide, the bohemian homewares and clothing store would pull back to only 14 stores with a focus on capital cities.

The Australian family-owned retail chain announced it went into voluntary administration in February 2020 citing a "catastrophic Christmas and summer" as the cause after more than $3 million worth of holiday stock was delayed due to international coronavirus quarantines.

The brand has come under fire in recent years for displaying constant 'closing down' signs and sales despite not shutting its doors until now.

Mr Darvall commended the Bendigo store for their work during the coronavirus pandemic, but said the lockdowns made the retail industry very difficult to navigate.

"Tracey and her team have done incredibly well to keep it going," Mr Darvall said.

"It's been very hard to keep retail going through all the lockdowns as we can't plan from one week to the next.

"We've made the decision to pull back and focus on key stores and our online market.

"The people of Bendigo have been amazing and we've had an overwhelming response of goodwill with many people coming in to try and convince us to stay. But unfortunately it's just a little too late."

Bendigo ISHKA's last day of trading will be July 11.

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