Major high street retailer with 80 branches to close store in days in another blow for shoppers

It said there was a greater demand for restaurants and leisure activities, as well as public services, such as health centres and libraries, in town centres.A MAJOR retailer with 84 branches is set to close one of its stores in days in another blow for the high street.

Shoppers walking past a Superdry store in London. — Superdry is closing its branch in Basildon on the weekendCredit: Alamy

A second commented: “Won’t be long until it’s a ghost town.”Of those, 11,341 were independent shops while 2,138 were shut by larger retailers.A House of Lords report published last year even admitted the dominance of retail on high streets was “something of the past”.The Superdry Basildon closure comes after a number of other retailers shut branches in the area.

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Shoppers have been left devastated after finding out the branch will close its doors for good in days.The Broadway Shopping Centre store’s last day of trading will be March 15, according to one member of staff The Sun spoke to.

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A string of Superdry branches closed in 2024 following tough trading conditions.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.And a fourth chimed in: “Shops are a thing of the past unfortunately.”Meanwhile, a third added: “Another empty shop!”Superdry is pulling down the shutters on the location at the Eastgate Shopping Centre in Basildon, Essex, on Saturday.The site closed on February 15 after a 30% off closing down sale was launched.The Centre for Retail Research’s latest analysis suggests 13,479 stores, the equivalent of 37 each day, shut for good in 2024.Staff at the Basildon branch have put up signs directing shoppers to the Superdry website ahead of its closure, which was first reported by the Essex Echo.It comes as another branch in Bradford is set to close down in just weeks.

HIGH STREET STRUGGLES

Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open.It comes just one month after the British business closed a branch at the Union Square Shopping Centre in Aberdeen.The centre’s same research predicts more than 17,300 stores will close their doors for good in 2025 too.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.Posting on Facebook, one said: “There will be no shops over there soon only blooming load of flats.”The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.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.

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The fashion retailer said its adjusted loss had nearly doubled to £25.3million.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.

Why are retailers closing shops?

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.

EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline.Meanwhile, major DIY retailer Homebase closed its branch in Vange, on the outskirts of Basildon, just last month.The retailer, introduced to the masses by David Beckham, closed 12 stores over the first half of last year.The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.The high street has struggled in recent years as the trend towards online shopping continues.The Basildon branch closure comes as another in Bradford is set to shut permanently in just weeks.It linked the rise to the upcoming hike to employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) and national minimum wage, which will both come into effect next month.The fashion brand said last January it was looking at various “cost-saving options” after reports it was considering major restructuring.Kaspa’s Desserts in the town was forced to close earlier this year after the landlord failed to “pay a penny in rent.”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.Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.Shoppers have also been feeling the pinch in recent years following sky-high inflation which has dented their wallets and purses.The most recent data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows online retail sales increased from 5% of all retail sales in 2008 to 27% in 2022.

This followed the firm saying its revenue had fallen by nearly a quarter to £219.8million in the six months to the end of October 2023.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.