A HUGE bargain chain with over 100 shops has announced it’s closing one of its shopping centre branches in the coming days.
YMCA is the oldest youth charity in the world and it has over 100 charity stores in England and Wales.
The shops sell everything from clothing, including high street and retro, accessories, books, electrical goods and furniture.
But shoppers in Ashford, Kent will soon have to find a new bargain chain to visit as the site in the County Square shopping centre is set to close.
It will open for the final time on Saturday, July 13, according to local news reports.
The Sun has contacted YMCA for comment.
A huge closing down sale has been launched, with all items reduced to £1, and the shop has stopped accepting donations.
Fans have taken to social media to share their upset over the decision to close the branch.
One Facebook user said: “On no, what a shame you’re closing!
“I love donating here and always find a bargain for the kids.”
Another shopper wrote: “I’m gutted, I love going in here.”
A third cried: “Oh no, why is this store closing?
“My favourite charity shop. Why is everything closing in this city?”
The YMCA isn’t the only store closing in the Ashford County Square shopping centre.
Fashion chain Select closed its site in the centre in February, while Peacocks closed its store in March.
Elsewhere in Kent, Clarks closed its store in the Westwood Cross Shopping Centre in Broadstairs last year and its site in Ashford in 2022.
Why are retailers closing shops?
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline.
The Sun’s business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open. In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said that when it relocated a tired store in Chesterfield to a new big store in a retail park half a mile away, its sales in the area rose by 103 per cent.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase to name a few.
What’s increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places.
Cath Kidston was bought by Next after falling into administration – but this did not include its shops.
What else is happening on the high street?
Several major shops and chains are closing dozens of branches in 2024.
Some stores will be replaced or relocated while others will disappear from the high street forever.
Clintons is also set to close a number of branches, including those in Bournemouth and Kettering.
In August 2023, restructuring experts FRP Advisory and law firm Jones Day presented plans to save the business in an insolvency court.
They came up with a deal to save thousands of jobs and over one hundred UK stores.
But it also involved waving goodbye to a selection of shops that were not earning enough money to keep.
Next, Jack Wills and Poundland have all all shut selected branches this year.
It comes as 6,000 retail outlets have brought down the shutters since 2018, according to the British Retail Consortium.
The trade association’s chief executive Helen Dickinson OBE blamed the closures on “crippling” business rates and the impact of coronavirus lockdowns.
Energy costs have risen and more shoppers than ever are choosing to order online rather than head into stores.
This has left some retailers grappling with budgets and having no choice but to close stores to cut costs.
Several big retailers have fallen into administration in the past year, including Wilko, Paperchase, and most recently, The Body Shop and Ted Baker.
For the most part, supermarkets have braved the storm as they provide essential items like food and drink but other retailers have been less fortunate.
Wilko collapsed into administration last year after being hit hard by inflationary pressures, competition from rivals and supply chain challenges.
However, it’s not all bad news for the high street, as several other retailers and hospitality venues have plans to expand.
Beer giant Heineken announced plans to invest £39million to help reopen 62 previously shuttered British pubs.
Aldi has announced that it will open 35 new UK stores.
The openings form part of Aldi‘s long-term target of 1,500 stores in the UK.
The supermarket is set to invest £550million in expanding its UK footprint this year alone.
Aldi said each new store opening will create around 40 new jobs on average.
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.
Plus, you can join our Sun Money Chats and Tips Facebook group to share your tips and stories