After 15 years at Pacific Furniture and Bedding store in Cooma, 12 of these as the owner, Tracey Alcock is looking forward to a new venture but above all else, she is excited about the prospect of being at home and the opportunity to spend time in the garden.

Tracey locked the doors to the Sharp Street store, as owner and manager, for the last time on 30 April having sold the business back to Pacific Furniture.

“I want to thank all of the community for your support, it is very much appreciated and I have totally enjoyed my time here bringing beautiful things into your houses,” Tracey said.

Pacific Furniture’s head office will be taking over, however the knowledgeable and helpful staff of Luke Holloway and James Smith will remain.

“Keeping the boys at the shop and making sure the shop stayed opened for the town was super important to me. The town doesn’t need to be losing any other businesses, and that was like a heavy weight on my shoulders. So when I contacted Pacific Furniture to say I am finished and would they take the business on, and they agreed to it, I was really happy.”

Tracey’s smile, manner, style and personally chosen home furnishings for her store will be missed.

Facebook responses to a post prior to Tracey finishing last month acknowledged her efforts to run a successful furniture store in the region.

One commenter thanked Tracey for “supplying beautiful furnishings and supporting the community with a much-needed business” and another recognised the team’s “fantastic service, where everyone is always friendly and knowledgeable”.

Customers were visiting the store on Tracey’s last day, to give her a hug, and say thank you.

“You don’t always see this appreciation from others when you do your day-to-day stuff. But it was really nice to have that response,” she said.

Tracey is now embarking on a new path during what she jokingly described as a “mid-life crisis”.

“About six months ago, I was really struggling, it wasn’t the shop that was struggling, it was me and I decided I couldn’t go to work. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I knew I was just done.”

With her children having all reached an age where they are independent, Tracey was ready to slow down and do something different.

“I decided I am going to try and have a better work/life balance. I also started a little flower farm about a year ago and have been selling to Hayley, the local florist.

“I am really happy to support Hayley. I would prefer mainly to sell the flowers as wholesale and I have sold buckets of flowers for DIY weddings.

“I am not a florist and don’t pretend to be. I produce cut flower varieties like dahlias, peonies, snap dragons, chrysanthemums and have lots of plans to get ready for spring planting.”

The idea of being at home and working from home appeals to Tracey.

“Before the furniture store I was an area manager for KFC and worked for KFC for about nine years, so I have worked flat out for years and at this stage of my life I want to be able to chill out.”

The five acres at Four Mile is ideally set up for Tracey’s next business venture with a number of green houses in place to extend the growing season and protect the plants from frost.

“I have grown veggies and flowers for quite a while, and then thought as I had the land, I would use it to grow the flowers.”

Being an owner/manager of both the Cooma and until a year ago, the Bega Pacific Furniture stores, has taught Tracey a lot about business and the retail sector in particular.

“I have enjoyed it all, and don’t regret anything I have done. I still love furniture and homewares but I just wanted a change. With the flower business I am still bringing pretty things into people houses. The world is changing and I just want to quieten down.” Tracey said she will miss the interaction with her customers and will probably miss the shop when things are more settled, but she is also well aware of the jobs that need to be done around the house that have had to wait for many years due to lack of time.

“Initially, I am happy to go home, not leave the house for a couple of days and just poke along and do my own thing while everyone else goes to work around me,” she said.

“If I can grow the flower business big enough I am happy to do that and will continue to do that, otherwise I will get a part-time job or potentially look at setting up a cut flower stall from the property as we are along the main highway. I would also like to establish a you-pick accessible garden.

“Ideally that will be in the future, so other people can come and enjoy it too.

“I time myself in the garden, otherwise I will be in the garden for two, three or four hours and nothing gets done inside,” Tracey said.

“The best outcome in all of this though is the shop is staying open and everyone keeps their job.”