CLOSING TIME
Huge charity shop chain to shut 39 stores in DAYS in big blow to high street
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A HUGE charity shop will shut 39 shops in days in a big blow to the high street.
Scope, a disability charity in England and Wales, warned back in January that it could close a number of its 138 stores
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At the time, the charity’s bosses said the decision was being considered in the face of declining footfall on high streets and spiralling costs.
Chief executive Mark Hodgkinson said external factors had “made trading harder”.
The chain has faced rising rents, soaring energy costs, increased staff costs and the cost of living squeezing customers.
He said: "As a result, and to ensure our funds are best focused upon our charitable purpose, we have let our teams know that we will be putting forward proposals to close some of our shops, in stages, over the next 18 months.”
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The proposal suggested a total of 41 shops would close by March 31, 2025.
But one of the stores marked for closure in Pwllheli was later saved.
In a statement on Facebook, it said: "We would like to say a big THANK YOU to all who have supported us, and continue to do so.
"We would not be able to continue to raise much needed funds to create equal futures with disabled people, without you."
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A further 31 shops would then shut between April 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026.
The final phase of five more shops would shut when their leases come up for renewal or when there is a break.
Why are shops closing stores?
Scope has already closed at least 22 underperforming shops in locations including Haywards Heath and Southampton.
A number of stores have already confirmed plans to shut up shop.
That includes its branch in Binford Place, Bridgwater, which will shut its doors for good on March 29.
Branches in Castleford and Haywards Heath closed on March 17 in a blow to locals.
Its Newport location was also shut as well as the branch in Bishop Auckland, which closed at the start of the month.
It has been confirmed that a total of 39 stores will close by March 31.
These include:
- Amersham
- Bangor
- Barking
- Beckenham
- Bexhill
- Bishop Auckland
- Bridgwater
- Castleford
- Christchurch
- Cambourne
- Devizes
- Dewsbury
- Eastbourne
- Ely
- Gillingham HS
- Halstead
- Haywards Heath
- Hertford
- Hinckley
- Kendal
- Lewisham
- Llandudno
- March
- Mitcham
- Morley
- New Milton
- Nuneaton
- Oadby
- Orpington
- Parkstone
- Petersfield
- Rochdale
- Scarborough
- Scunthorpe
- Shirley (Southampton)
- Skipton
- Stourbridge
- Wednesbury
- Welling
TROUBLE ON THE HIGH STREET
Plenty of other retailers are closing stores across the high street as households lean more towards online shopping and amid high business rates.
Soaring inflation in recent years has also dented shoppers' pockets.
The Centre for Retail Research's latest analysis suggests 13,479 stores, the equivalent of 37 each day, shut for good in 2024.
Of those, 11,341 were independent shops while 2,138 were shut by larger retailers.
The data also showed over half the stores that closed last year were shut due to the store or retailer going through insolvency proceedings.
This is when formal measures are taken to deal with tackling a business's debt.
Retailers are also shutting stores in 2025.
New Look is ramping up a store closure programme ahead of April's National Insurance hike.
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Approximately a quarter of the retailer's 364 stores are at risk when their leases expire.
This equates to about 91 stores, with a significant impact on its 8,000-strong workforce.
RETAIL PAIN IN 2025
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: "The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025."
Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
"By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer's household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020."
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