DOUBTS over the future of newsagencies have been cast often in recent times, but those who have frequented Palmerin St in Warwick's CBD would not have noticed a difference in Hynes Newsagency.

The current owners, Peter and Paul Hynes, took over the running of the store in the 1980s from their father, Maurie, who bought the business in 1976.

The reason the store has continued to survive is the way the owners have accepted the need for change.

Peter said the store simply had to adapt to survive.

"The industry has changed a lot over the years," he said.

"But you just have to diversify. You get gifts and so on to replace them and keep people coming into the store.

"You have to keep following the trends and get new things in or you'll get left behind."

Paul agrees.

"We've had to go more down the stationery path, plus chairs, tables, filing cabinets; more office items," he said.

"We now do toners and cartridges for printers, which we never did before."

It was not just the stock that had changed, Peter said.

"Lotto machines have changed immensely," he said.

"We also used to have sales reps for everything; they're a dying breed these days because basically everything we need we can order online."

Plenty of other aspects of the shop have already died.

"Back when we first started we had an honesty box," he said.

"The box was something we used to leave outside the shop on a Sunday morning for people to pick up their papers and they would leave the money in there.

"There's no way you would do that these days."

Group Newsagency Supplies stationery representative Mark Priest said computerisation was the main change he had noticed.

"The biggest change I've seen in the shop over the 20 years I've been coming here is that they used to do everything manually," Mr Priest said.

"Now everything is done by computers.

"I can do an order, email it and it arrives the next day.

"In the past, it would take multiple days for an order to arrive."

Mr Priest said he had noticed the evolution of the shop.

"Just the size of the shop has changed - and the content within it," he said.

"The shop has gone from a large newsagent to semi-stationers where they've got virtually any piece of stationery anyone could need.

"That's also down to the industry too."

Although the brothers have been the lynchpin of the business since they took over, they both agree they could not have been successful without the help of their staff members.

"We've got about 10 people - four girls, three juniors and three delivery drivers plus us two (Peter and Paul) and then the other staff at Rose City," Peter said.

The duo also owns the newsagency in Rose City Shopping World along with a third brother, David.

"I love my staff, we certainly could not operate without them," Peter said.

"I can't give them a big enough rap.

"There's literally someone here all day."

The number of staff has been one of the few things not to undergo change.

"That number of staff has been pretty constant the whole

time we've had the shop," he said.

"We might have had a couple more staff members at some stage but the number hasn't really fluctuated."

Paul Hynes said the Rose City meant a lot to him.

"It's just the people and the climate I like," Mr Hynes said.

"It's a really handy place to live.

"If you want to go to Brisbane or the Gold Coast it's not too far away.

"If you want to go west, you're already on your way."

The brothers said the social aspect was something both they and the customers enjoyed.

"We've made a lot of friends through the shop," Peter Hynes said.

"You always see people bump into someone they know out the front of the shop and have a yarn," Paul Hynes said.

"When we open the shop early in the morning, there are always about six or seven people out the front waiting for the doors to open.

"They'll often be having a chat to each other as well."

With the second store in Rose City, which the brothers bought "a few years ago" - 12 years ago actually, according to Mr Priest - they have no further plans for expansion.

"We're certainly content for now, we haven't got any further plans at this stage to do anything else," Peter said.

"The shop requires a lot of hours each day and it's a seven-day-a-week commitment.

"The only annual leave we get is Christmas Day and Good Friday."

It's something the duo is used to by now, having been a part of the business since they were young.

"We both grew up around the shop," he said.

"We've been at the shop helping out or working since we were little.

"It's been a part of us for virtually all of our lives."

No doubts can be cast over that.