Supermarkets and changing consumer habits have made the bottom line unattainable for Spence Butchery.
Owner Aumananda "Tony" Doyle said it's become impossible to compete with the big supermarkets.
"I bought legs of lamb for Australia Day at $9.60 a kilo, and two days later they were on sale at Coles and Woolies for $9 a kilo.
"I'm already losing money, trying to even meet their sale price.
"With all the economic changes, the increases in taxes, land, insurance, it all keeps ticking up and moving into one big ball, and I'm at the end of it unfortunately."
He's been working at the butchery since he started his apprenticeship there in 2004, and has owned the business since 2017.
A business legacy
Spence Butchery has been a butcher shop since the shopping centre it sits on opened more than three decades ago.
Retiree Bill Cuthbert still buys his meat at Spence's Butchery, even though he now lives in Charnwood.
He said he's disappointed the local butchery is no longer on people's shopping lists.
"It's convenience. People don't want to buy something here, and something there, when they can go to Woolies and get the whole lot."
Local Chris Harris, who was in the shop buying sausages, said he remembers when the butchery opened over fifty years ago.
"It's pathetic, really. The small shops give way to the big shops, that's what it's all about.
"But down the road at Evatt, the butcher has been gone for two years and they still can't rent the shop out."
Changing consumer patterns
Mr Doyle said that despite an increase in business during the Covid years, most people returned to the bigger supermarkets when things went back to normal.
With online ordering increasingly popular, his one-man business couldn't keep up.
Mr Doyle also blamed the constant changes in food regulations for making his job a lot more difficult.
"I had the health safety officer come out and say I had to cook meat at 75 degrees, where I'd been cooking it at 70 degrees. Before that the regulated temperature was 63 degrees.
"He told me I was in the wrong because I hadn't been keeping up with regulations, but I wasn't informed about the changes whatsoever."
Despite the difficulties, Mr Doyle said it's the locals that have meant the most to him during his years in business.
He said the connection to the community is what is really needed.
"Go and see small shops, take the time, go and see the people that actually matter," he said.
"I know some of my customers who brought their kids in, and now their kids bring their kids in. You won't get that at any major supermarket.
"It will cost, but it'll be better for you in the long run."
