Save a Nut Stall at Marylebone Station

MY NUT STALL IS UNDER THREAT. PLEASE HELP.

My story: Almost 10 years ago I walked into Marylebone Station looking for a place to set up my little venture. It was June 2005 and this old Victorian Station looked gorgeous. I was fortunate to meet right people at the right time and in December I placed my little stall in the middle of concourse.

I was very happy to start selling my products: nuts, dried fruit and confectionery, more or less 100 different kinds of them. The business was very good and everything was running well. I chose to sell these products because I needed to believe in what I was doing. For me it wasn't about the money. First and foremost it was about the product. I was thinking that if I sold the best quality products at fair price, the customers would come and they would stay. To my delight that was what had happened.

My customers are mostly Chiltern Railways commuters, people living and working close to Marylebone Station and visitors who are always happy to be back. I am at my busiest in the evenings, when after a long working day my customers would like a little healthy snack on the way home.

There is no minimum and you can mix and match within the price range. I try to be quick and always polite. I just try my best to make the last part of my customers journey a little bit more pleasant.

My customers are such nice people and I'm very happy to be a tiny part of their lives. Over the years we have built good relationship. And it makes me so happy if they share their life stories with me. I hear about births, promotions, sicknesses, engagements, deaths and many more. At the end of day we are humans not numbers behind the till.

Soon after the current owners took over the Chiltern Railways, I was served with my 1st Notice to Quit. That was 4 years ago. A year later a 2nd one was issued. I managed to overturn both. Despite having a new lease which does not expire until September 2016, I have now been issued with a 3rd instructing me to leave by the end of July.

Over the intervening years, my location has been gradually moved westwards further away from the main footfall of passengers and this saw my income drop by about one third. I found this very upsetting ,stressful and unfair as it appeared to me that the management team were trying to get rid of me by stealth, thus depriving me of my livelihood.

Now I am having to tell my customers which has upset them too. Several suggested I should get a petition together which I am now doing, to lobby the Directors. If you sympathise with my predicament, if you like my products and want to continue to buy them, if you like my service or if you support small businesses and their fights against big bullying corporations, then I would kindly ask you to sign my petition.

Thank you for your support-it is appreciated
Karolina