NOT SO SWEET
Major dessert chain with 100 locations announces exact date it will close doors to high street branch forever
We explain why retailers are closing shops
A MAJOR dessert chain with 100 locations has announced the exact date it will close the doors on one of its high street branches forever.
After eight years in business, Kaspa's has announced the shock closure of its Canterbury High Street restaurant on September 25.
2
2
Kaspa's Desserts is an Italian inspired dessert parlour, serving gelatos, waffles, crepes, shakes, smoothies and much more.
It was founded back in 2012 and as of 2022 it had opened 100 parlours nationally.
However, customers recently found a heart-breaking closure notice in the Canterbury High Street site's window.
The sign told customers that the exact date the branch will close next Wednesday, reported Kent Online.
Read more in Money
It wrote: “This store will be permanently closing.
“The last day of trade will be Wednesday, September 25.
"Thank you to all of our customers."
It seems that plans to convert the café into a fish and chip shop were withdrawn, but the applicant intends to create a new application with "improvements".
Most read in Business
A change of use application was originally made along with listed building consent to install a kitchen, extraction equipment, plus shopfront alterations.
After a local posted the news on a Facebook group, hundreds of dessert fans told of their disappointment in the comment section.
'Dry' and 'artificial,' say Trader Joe's fans as viral dessert item divides shoppers and crew member says 'you're wrong'
One wrote: "Oh no all the memories."
A second person wrote: "We should go before it closes."
While a third suggested: "I hope it becomes a bubble tea shop!"
And a fourth joked: "Always thought they would dessert the high street."
Now, the chain has five branches left in Kent - Sittingbourne, Dover, Broadstairs and Chatham.
Kaspa's has been approached for a comment.
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.
Topics