CLOSING TIME
Major bargain chain with over 850 branches to close ‘amazing’ store as shoppers cry ‘what next?’
The giant has confirmed the 'sad' closure
A MAJOR bargain chain with over 850 branches is set to close a store.
Shoppers have been left devastated by the high street crisis as it's seen dozens of retailers shut up shop for good.
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Poundland has now confirmed to The Sun that it is closing its site in Hitchin.
The shutters will come down for the last time on July 16.
But in the latest blow to local town centres, the cheap and cheerful store is NOT closing because of recent struggles.
A spokesperson said: "Yes we’ve sadly decided to close our Hitchin store on 16 July.
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"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."
The closure has seen outcry amongst locals.
One said: "Wow what will Hitchin have to offer now?"
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A second added: "Well, another reason get in my car and shop [elshewhere]. Such a useless town centre.";
A third echoed: "Such a shame! Where will we shop now?"
Britain's retail apocalypse: why your favourite stores KEEP closing down
One woman was even dealt the tough news she would be losing her job again.
She wrote: "I was an employee of Wilko and got made redundant after 27 years.
"I was employed by Poundland Hitchin which I have enjoyed working for but now sadly we are closing and now losing my job again."
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.
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The 12-month period also saw over 119,000 jobs lost across the sector.
This month will be no different, with at least a dozen stores closing their doors for the last time.
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.
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