Store owner Murray Carter said he had concerns over the state of Dunedin retailing and decided not to renew a six-year lease and to close the store on October26.
When he bought the business in 2001, there were 34 Canterbury of New Zealand franchisees in the country.
By the time his store shut, there would be four.
The store opened in Dunedin in the 1980s.
It made ''very good money'' in the earlier years of his ownership, but sales had ''dropped significantly'' in the past five years, he said.
The past two years had been the ''toughest'' but the business had made money, he said.
It was tougher because Canterbury of New Zealand was distributing to more retailers than before.
The store struggled to compete against heavy discounting by chain stores.
''Some of these national and Australian companies have got into the habit of discounting and we've lost a bit of the cream we used to get at Christmas time.''
He investigated selling the business as a going concern, but that would have meant renewing the lease, something he did not want to do.
The rent in Dunedin was ''too high'' for a ''one-brand store'' to survive, Mr Carter said.
The rent for the multi-brand sports clothing store he owned in Invercargill - Rugby Sports and Leisure - was a third of that for the Dunedin store, he said.
Invercargill retail ''punched well above its weight'' and had been a better business prospect than Dunedin for ''quite some time''.
''Invercargill is far more go-ahead than Dunedin has been.''
But he had no regrets retailing in Dunedin.
''I've enjoyed Dunedin and done well in Dunedin, but if I continue to stay there too much longer, then I could see I would be losing money,'' he said.
After the closure, one fulltime and three part-time staff would be made redundant, Mr Carter said.
Store manager Katelyn Osten said she had managed the store for five years and had worked in Dunedin retail for nine years. Competition from online stores had made trade more difficult.
People often came to the store to try on clothing, with no intention to buy, Miss Osten said.
''They say, 'I'm buying it online' and they just want to try it on for size.''
She was philosophical about her redundancy.
''I've just got to deal with it and move on to try and find a new job.''
