Sandra Ashley is closing New Zealand's first $2 n $5 Shop (formerly the $2 Shop) after 24 years with the company.

New Zealand's first ever $2 Shop is closing after 24 years.

Owner Sandra Ashley helped open the $2 Shop (later the $2 n $5) in New Plymouth 24 years ago, and she's been with the business that launched fixed-price, bargain variety shopping in New Zealand, ever since.

She's watched customers who first came in as excited youngsters clutching loose change, returning with their own children.

But with ever-increasing competition from a flood of similar shops and the lease on the building up for renewal, she has decided it's time to call it a day.

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Everything in the New Plymouth store has been marked down to $1 in a closing down sale.

"I've enjoyed it but it's time for a new chapter in my life. It has been awesome, being on board from the word go, being involved with the growth, and now sadly, the demise of the original $2 Shop," she said.

At its height the $2 Shop franchise had 47 stores.

The chain was founded by the late Brian Salmon, who opened the first shop in New Plymouth on July 12, 1994.

Goods were set out on trestle tables and in wire baskets and boxes.

The simple concept of everything in the shop being $2 was highly successful and appealed to young and old, Ashley said.

CATHERINE GROENESTEIN/STUFF Dyllan Nairne, 6, and her brother Parker, 7, shopped with their parents at New Plymouth's $2 n $5 Shop on Saturday. New Zealand's first $2 n $5 Shop (formerly the $2 Shop) which opened 24 years ago, is closing.

As the company grew and more franchised stores opened, the company base remained firmly in Taranaki.

"Brian was always being told to go to Auckland because Auckland is the hub of everything, but he had a good team down here and they didn't want to move, and he didn't want to move them," she said.

"He said it was a good concept and it would work from here, and it did."

Ashley started working for Salmon when he was a franchisee for Payless Plastics, about a year and a half before he started the $2 Shop.

She soon joined him in the new shop, working in various parts of the operation, managing stock and quality control, running the New Plymouth shop itself, and travelling to China to source stock for the burgeoning chain.

"Brian and I used to go to China – we made 15 trips – and brought in all our own goods for our own shops," she said.

Once the orders were placed, they had a short window before the competition copied their ideas, she said.

"We only had a month, then other stores would follow us. We used to keep on the ball, keep ahead of trends, try to get in first."

CATHERINE GROENESTEIN/STUFF Laura Gilmour serves a customer. She has been helping her mother Sandra Ashley in the shop at times since she was 12 years old.

About 10 to 12 years ago they changed the $2 Shop to $2 n $5 to include better quality products for customers and improve the gross profit for franchisees, she said.

Salmon, who died in 2011, was a gentleman to the end and greatly missed, Ashley said.

She remained with the company after his death, and six years ago bought the New Plymouth business with her husband, Greg.

"I'd like to thank all my customers from over the years for their support," she said.

​The shop will close on November 4 or sooner if the stock sells faster.