By Iona M.J. MacDonald

Copyright inverness-courier

An Inverness shop is set to be £5000 out-of-pocket after being flooded, with the owner making a plea for the public to help prevent some of her stock going to waste.

Saffron Oriental Food Shop, in Church Street, is owned by Kasia Pogodzinska, who opened the doors this morning to find that the premises had been flooded.

The shop premises are rented from Mercure Hotels, which is based directly above the store.

As a safety precaution, Kasia has been told to shut off the store’s electricity — meaning she is set to lose around £5000-worth of stock in her five freezers, alongside loss of earnings and now-waterlogged stock.

She has also closed the shop today and there are doubts over when it will reopen.

Now she is encouraging people to buy some of her freezer stock today, before it goes to waste.

Kasia said: “It’s quite brutal for us as a small business, especially when this happened twice last November too.

“After the flood today, parts of the ceilings are down in our three backrooms.

“The whole place is flooded, so as a precaution we have been told to turn the electricity off. If we can’t sell it today, then it has to go in the bin. I’m never going to get that money back.”

There are complications over who is responsible for the damage.

The oriental food shop has been based at their Church Street premises for over four years.

Kasia continued: “For me as the owner, I have to think about the wages for staff, the rent – it all. They take this quite lightly, but I cannot take it lightly.”

Accor Group, owner of Mercure Hotels, has been contacted for comment.

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