Coffee giant with over 1,300 stores across Britain to shut popular branch for good TOMORROW
STARBUCKS is closing one of its 1,300 branches in the UK tomorrow in a bitter blow to customers.
County locals will have to venture miles to reach the next nearest site in Northampton.
Starbucks, along with its host Cineworld at Sixfields Leisure in Upton will pull the shutters down for good on January 19.
Despite two petitions with hundreds of signatures from desperate film fans trying to save the cinema, its closure will still go ahead – while Starbucks follows suit.
A Starbucks spokesperson said: “Following Cineworld‘s announcement that they are closing, our store inside Cineworld Sixfields will also close alongside it on January 19, and we are in the process of working with our partners (employees) to offer them positions at nearby stores.
“We thank our customers for their loyalty over the years and invite them to find their nearest stores in Northampton Market Square and St James RP Drive, as well as to see others on the Starbucks Store Locator.”
The first petition to save Cineworld received over 800 signatures with locals calling its closure “another important staple of our town being taken away”.
The second petition, started on December 11 2024, claimed the cinema and its staff “provide a lot of love for a lot of people”.
Cineworld is one of six nationwide where the landlords decided to reclaim their properties after the “completion of our restructuring plan”.
It has also been revealed that an Odeon will soon replace Cineworld but a potential Starbucks replacement is yet to be announced.
Locals have taken to social media to air their thoughts and fond memories of Starbucks and Cineworld.
One person wrote: “That is my fave Starbucks. It’s cosy and welcoming. I’ll be sorry to see it go.”
Followed by a second: “Can’t believe Cineworld is closing down, I remember the first time I went to Cineworld my dad took me to watch Star Wars the Phantom Menace – we did had a great time.”
And then a third person wrote: “Good luck to the staff, including the Cineworld staff. You have all done an amazing job.”
Meanwhile a fourth said: “We’re living in changing times just like our parents went through. Amazing if you think about it.
“Loads of great times here though. Shame it’s closing even if it’s being taken over.”
And then a fifth person shared their hunch: “They will be opening a Costa as Odeon do with all there cinemas.
“Surely Odeon and Costa could take on all the staff working there at present?”
Why are retailers closing stores?
RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
However, additional costs have added further pain to an already struggling sector.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs from April will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: “The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”
It comes after almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs in 2024.
End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research showed the number of job losses spiked amid the collapse of major chains such as Homebase and Ted Baker.
It said its latest analysis showed that a total of 169,395 retail jobs were lost in the 2024 calendar year to date.
This was up 49,990 – an increase of 41.9% – compared with 2023.
It is the highest annual reading since more than 200,000 jobs were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns.
The centre said 38 major retailers went into administration in 2024, including household names such as Lloyds Pharmacy, Homebase, The Body Shop, Carpetright and Ted Baker.
Around a third of all retail job losses in 2024, 33% or 55,914 in total, resulted from administrations.
Experts have said small high street shops could face a particularly challenging 2025 because of Budget tax and wage changes.
Professor Bamfield has warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer’s household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020.”