Popular toy shop with over 160 branches shutting two sites with just hours left before one closes for good
A POPULAR toy shop chain with around 160 branches across the UK is closing two stores, with one waving goodbye to customers in hours.
The Entertainer, which sells toys, puzzles and board games, is shutting the sites after three shops already closed in recent months.
Its Luton branch in the Luton Point shopping centre is shutting today, January 25.
Meanwhile, its Croydon branch in the Whitgift shopping centre will close on February 1.
Three other branches have closed in recent months as well, in Edinburgh, Brent Cross and Haslemere.
Shoppers have taken to social media to express their dismay at the two upcoming closures.
One Croydon resident said: “What a derelict place Croydon High Street has become.”
A closing-down sale has already been launched at the branch, with the retailer offering 25% off its products.
Meanwhile, a Luton local said: “Luton is on its knees”, while another added that they were “gutted” the Entertainer is closing.
Andrew Murphy OBE, group chief executive officer at The Entertainer, said all five stores were closing after lease agreements came to an end.
He said the Edinburgh branch had been relocated to a “stronger” location where it could pull in more trade.
It is common practice for retailers to close branches in underperforming areas and open them where they think they will see better sales.
Mr Murphy added: “Like most large national retailers, we continuously assess potential new locations while deciding whether to renew those shops which have reached the end of their lease arrangements.
“Late last year we opened what have proved to be exceptionally successful stores in Exeter and Milton Keynes, and we expect to be bringing The Entertainer to at least three and perhaps as many as six new locations this year.”
The closures come after Andrew Murphy revealed the retailer had been forced to abandon plans to open new stores.
He explained the main reason for this was the government’s decision to hike employer’s National Insurance contributions.
The hike, which will taken effect from April, means businesses will have to pay more tax on their workers’ wages.
Mr Murphy previously told BBC Today: “We were just about to initiate the work, and unfortunately, the changes to National Insurance in particular just tipped that balance, so those stores will now not be opening.“
The Entertainer is just one of a number of retailers warning of the knock-on effects of the tax raid, with the national minimum wage also set to rise at the start of the new financial year.
High street fashion chain Next said earlier this month that prices at shops will rise as it is forced to pass on the extra tax costs.
It said that sales growth will pull back sharply over the year ahead “as employer tax increases, and their potential impact on prices and employment, begin to filter through into the economy”.
M&S has also said it will have to raise prices, adding they will be “small and behind the market”.
In a recent British Retail Consortium survey, of 52 chief financial officers (CFOs) at major retailers, 35 said they will be forced to push up prices to cope with the increase in NICs.
Meanwhile, 24 said they would have reduce headcount in stores to cover any additional costs.
The results of the survey came after 81 retail chief executives wrote to the Chancellor to voice their concerns about the economic consequences of the Budget.
They claimed the announcements could raise the industry’s costs by more than £7billion in 2025.
At the start of the year, the Centre for Retail Research warned around 17,350 stores could close in 2025, up from 13,479 in 2024.
It said it expected the increase to come due to the hike in employer NICs and national minimum wage.
Smaller retailers are also bracing for the current discount to business rates to be lowered from 75% to 40%.
Commercial real estate firm Altus Group said it will see the average shop’s rates bill spiral from £3,589 to £8,613 from April.
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.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs from April 2025, 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.
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.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Carpetright, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Paperchase, Ted Baker, The Body Shop, Topshop and Wilko 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 Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
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