A TOTAL of 10 stores are set to close in the coming weeks, in a fresh blow to the UK high street.
Shoppers have been hit with a swathe of closures in recent years, seeing some of their favourite chains shutter sites.
The cost of living crisis has seen households with less money in their pockets, leading some to cut back on their spending.
This has had a knock-on effect on high street shops, which have seen lower footfall and less money landing in the tills, and many have been forced to close outlets.
That, coupled with ongoing restructuring plans and high rents, has meant several chains have shuttered hundreds of sites.
Figures from the Centre for Retail Research, a research foundation, revealed almost 10,500 shops closed for the final time in 2023.
The 12-month period also saw over 119,000 jobs lost across the sector.
According to the Centre’s most recent data, 804 stores have closed and 16,565 retail jobs were lost during January, February, March, April and May 2024.
This month will be no different, with at least a 10 stores closing their doors for the last time.
Of course, it’s not all bad news though, in some cases the branches will be replaced with bigger and better shops.
Retailers regularly open and close shops for a number of reasons – not just because they are struggling.
It could be because they have a store nearby that is performing better or it may be because they want to pick a spot that has higher footfall, such as a retail park.
We reveal which sites are pulling down the shutters one final time in July – plus the chains opening too.
B&M
Beloved discount chain B&M is shuttering one of its shops in the coming weeks.
The B&M at 14-20 Lord Street, Gainsborough, will close on Wednesday, July 17.
But locals won’t need to wait for long to get their bargains because the new branch in the same area will open on Saturday, July 20.
It comes after the B&M in Oldham’s Spindles Shopping Centre store closed on June 22.
But a new branch in the same shopping centre opened at its new site on June 26.
Co-op
Dedicated customers were surprised to learn their Stoke-on-Trent Co-op store in Meir would be shutting.
Locals who frequent the shop expressed their sadness and claimed it was “always packed”.
The retail giant will be permanently closing the site on Weston Road by July 13.
Staff are understood to be having their jobs transferred to a Nisa store, but the opening date is unknown.
It comes after Co-op shut down another branch in Swindon earlier this year.
B&Q
B&Q will shut its Sudbury store in Suffolk this summer due to the expiry of the lease.
The landlord has secured planning permission to redevelop the site and occupy the B&Q unit.
The store’s proposed closure date is July 20.
Reacting to the news on Facebook, one local shopper said: “I suppose the lack of investment in maintaining the potholed car park was a telltale sign – pity as it was a useful store.”
It comes after B&Q also shut an “essential ” store in June.
Card Factory
Card Factory has branches across the country including in major cities like London, Nottingham and Sheffield.
But shoppers in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, Scotland, will soon need to find an alternative shop as the chain is set to close its store on July 20.
A Card Factory spokesperson said: “We continually review our estate of over 1,050 stores across the UK and Ireland.
“With our other Cumbernauld store just around the corner in the Antonine Shopping Centre on Forth Walk, (0.2 miles away), we have taken the decision to close our store on Teviot Street from July 20.
“We look forward to continuing to serve all our Cumbernauld customers and helping them celebrate their special life moments.”
Peacocks
Peacocks, on Holywell High Street in Flintshire, Wales, is closing down on July 25.
The store is famous for selling cheap and fashionable clothing.
A spokesperson for Peacocks confirmed the closure but The Sun has also reached out for a comment.
The closure follows Peacocks in Arc Shopping Centre in Bury St Edmunds closing on January 25th 2024.
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.
The Works
The Works is set to shut down its site in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland.
The discount retailer claims the decision was made after failing to agree on a new lease for the premises on Marygate.
Specialising in gifts, arts, crafts, toys, books and stationery, The Works has been a high-street favourite for a number of years.
But the Berwick store will bring its shutters down for the final time on Friday, July 26.
A spokesperson for the retailer told the Northumberland Gazette: “We can confirm that we will be closing our Berwick-upon-Tweed store on the 26th of July.
“This has been a great location for The Works, but sadly we have been unable to agree on suitable lease terms to stay.
“We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this closure and would like to thank customers for shopping at the store over the years.”
Robert Dyas
An “excellent” Robert Dyas branch will be shutting in July too.
The popular site, in Castlepoint, Bournemouth, is set to shut up shop on July 20.
The sad news comes after the store was served a notice by their landlord.
A Robert Dyas spokesperson confirmed: “The landlord has served notice on our Castle Point store, as they wanted to split the unit in two and sadly we were not able to mutually agree terms in bidding for one of those units.
“We will leave that store on July 20th, and continue to look for an additional and appropriate new site in the area, as it is a strong performing store for us.
“The next nearest stores in the meantime, for our loyal Robert Dyas customers, are Poole and Christchurch.”
Poundland
Poundland will be shutting two stores in July, much to the disappointment of shoppers.
Poundland on Freeman Street in Grimsby has been a prime spot for bargain hunters to find cheap deals but it will now close on July 2.
The store opened just seven months ago in November and replaced a longstanding Wilko store.
A spokesperson for the chain confirmed the closure and told The Sun: “We’ve been unable to secure a long-term lease that would enable us to keep trading which is disappointing.
“As you know, whenever we have to close a store, we do all we can to look for other opportunities for colleagues.”
One local wrote on Facebook: “Terrible decision,” and added: “Now the poor staff are jobless again, some which had been made redundant less than a year ago from Wilko.”
Poundland has also confirmed to The Sun that it is closing its site in Hitchin.
The shutters will come down for the last time on July 16.
A spokesperson said: “Yes we’ve sadly decided to close our Hitchin store on 16 July.
“I’m afraid we’ve been unable to secure a long-term lease that would enable us to keep trading – we know how disappointing this will be to customers and colleagues.
“Whenever we have to close a store, we do all we can to look for other opportunities for colleagues and that work is now underway.”
Which retailers are opening stores?
Several other retailers and hospitality venues have plans to expand.
Superdrug has plans to swing the shutters up on 25 new branches in the coming months.
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.
Asda has been opening hundreds of convenience stores in recent months as it looks to rival major players Tesco and Sainsbury’s.
B&M plans to open “not less than” 45 brand new stores across the UK in each of the next two consecutive years.
The parent company of Bonmarché, Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM) and Peacocks, Purepay Retail Limited, has said it wants to open 100 new high street stores over the next 18 months.
It has yet to give the exact locations where it will open the 100 stores or when they will open.
One of the UK’s favourite bakery chains, Greggs, has exclusively revealed to The Sun plans to open more outlet branches by the end of 2025.
Home Bargains, which was running just under 600 branches as of last June, has said it wants to “eventually have between 800 and 1,000 retail outlets open”.
The major discounter has stopped short of saying when it wants to reach the 1,000 store target, however.
Primark is also opening new branches and investing and renovating more than a dozen of its existing shops.
Screwfix is set to open 40 new stores nationwide as its owner, Kingfisher, seeks to expand the DIY brand’s national presence.
The brand opened two new stores in March, and a further three new shops will open this month.
Tesco has revealed plans to open 70 more stores across the UK over the next year as part of major expansion plans.
WHSmith has turned its focus to the travel side of its business, with plans to open new sites in airports, railway stations and hospitals.
Morrisons wants to open 400 Morrisons Daily convenience shops as part of its plans to take on retail giants Aldi and Lidl.
The supermarket has set its sights on opening up 2,000 stores across the UK in 2025.
However, the exact list of locations has not yet been revealed.
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