Bargain supermarket with 300 locations to shut popular shop in weeks
A POPULAR supermarket will close its doors for the last time today in a fresh blow to shoppers.
Farmfoods at The Calthorpe Centre on Calthorpe Street in Banbury will close for good today.
The Scottish grocery and frozen food chain has more than 300 shops in the UK.
Rumours about the closure began to circulate online at the start of the year with speculation that staff could be made redundant.
A spokesperson confirmed the closure last month, adding: “I confirm our shop at the Calthorpe Centre, Banbury will permanently close on February 2 following a 50 per cent sale.
“We’re grateful to all customers who have shopped with us during our time trading from the property and hope to open a new shop elsewhere in the town in future.”
The company did not provide any further details about when this branch may open.
It is unclear how many staff have been let go or why the store is closing.
The news comes just a few months after another Farmfoods store closed its doors for good, leaving loyal shoppers devastated.
The Sutton branch of the chain closed its doors on October 4 after more than a decade in the town.
A spokesperson said the closure is due to the landlord intending to redevelop the land the building sits on.
They added that the chain will look for suitable opportunities to reopen in Sutton in future.
Meanwhile, reports suggest a Farmfoods in the Brunel Centre, Bletchley, will close for good on February 23.
What other shops are closing?
Stationery chain WHSmith will close its stores in Bournemouth and Basingstoke this month.
The Basingstoke shop closed for good on February 1, while the Winton branch in Bournemouth will shut its doors on February 15.
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.
The news comes after the retailer closed its Boscombe branch in the same town in June 2024.
WHSmith has shuttered 11 stores since March 2023, including sites in Somerset, Sale, Manchester and Bicester.
The chain is planning to expand its travel arm with new shops in railway stations, airports and hospitals.
Homesense is also set to close a store this month.
The Salisbury branch will shut for good during the week of February 24.
The homeware company is part of TJX International, which owns TK Maxx.
A spokesperson for the store told customers: “We look forward to welcoming you to TK Maxx Salisbury in Cross Keys Arcade, where you can continue to find high-quality, top-brand homeware, fashion, gifts, and children’s wear at amazing value.”
Lidl has reportedly submitted plans to take over the vacant Homesense store.
Meanwhile, H&M-owned fashion chain Monki will shutter seven UK stores this year.
It has already shut its Newcastle store on January 2 and its Arndale branch on January 12, 2025.
H&M has said some of the stores could be merged with trendy fashion brand Weekday.
The Scandinavian retailer wants to merge the two stores to make a one-stop shop that appeals to young shoppers.
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